Customer Reviews

Evolution

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I'm not sure what's more amazing-John Lewis' unique talent or the relative disregard of him as a player. I recall coming to a recognition of his deceptive but exceptional pianism only after hearing him years ago at a Newport Jazz Festival featuring eight major piano soloists on the same bill. Lewis blew away the field.

A minimalist, John could make a Count Basie or Erik Satie sound florid by comparison. No musician has been more secure in his musical values, refusing to alter as much as the sound of a single note for the sake of impressing his audience, yet his music is utterly accessible, transparent, disarming.

Play the album once; be charmed or unimpressed by it. But don't start counting until the second listen. Try to find an unnecessary note (in either hand), a cliché, a passage played for effect or mere mood. Each Lewis construction is a model of efficiency, economy and ingenuity. Most pianists see the piano as a voice, for Lewis it's a tool. The improvisations express less a mood or inspiration than an achievement-a design that's as playful as it is satisfying-and as appealing to the child in us as the sophisticate.

As if to remind us that virtuosity isn't of itself a virtue, Lewis includes several familiar bebop anthems, display pieces traditionally taken at a fast and furious tempo-"Cherokee," "I'll Remember April," "Sweet Georgia Brown"-and extracts the vital essences of each. I expected to be unmoved by "Django", as often as I've heard it played by the MJQ, but Lewis reveals yet new facets of this sparkling diamond and of his other originals.

Understanding the accomplishment of this music probably requires little effort, but for a start lisen to the control of the pedals. Nothing is blurred or lost, even with the quickly exchanged chords in the bass and treble registers. Each note counts, and every note is visible to the naked ear. In fact individual notes assume such autonomous importance that the distinctions between melody, harmony, rhythm are all but forgotten. If there's an equivalent in jazz to the classic balance to be discovered in Jane Austen's novels, Shakespeare's sonnets, or Japanese haikus and gardens, it's John Lewis' music.,

I had to listen to this album a few times before I caught a lot of the subtly of this incredible jazz pianist, with whom I was not previously familiar. His style is so laid back that if you aren't paying attention, you'll miss the nuances with which he infuses the melodies. But when you do pay attention, wow! is the word that comes to mind. For example, his lingering humor in Sweet Georgia Brown is emblematic of his approach, that of someone who effortlessly reinvents the music as he goes along. Bravo!

mr. lewis is well known for his work as co-leader of the modern jazz quartet, a group that has always emphasized the quiet side of jazz, revealing one of jazz's many facets to be chamber music. Some have labelled the endeavor one that has diluted jazz, but as this album reveals, power can be quiet. this is a collection of standards and originals (including one original that now is a standard). mr. lewis treats them as classical preludes, applying a formalism to the rendering of the songs. But note, this is no sleep-inducing session! instead, mr. lewis uses silence to create tension that keeps you on the edge of your seat as the songs unfold (a key example is "django"), much in line with ahmad jamal's work in the '60s. further, gentleness does not mean a lack of swing. listen to "cherokee," "sweet georgia brown," or "for ellington" to feel a swing as sure as the one on the front porch on a spring evening. all in all, the album carries a quiet elegance revealing mr. lewisto be a master pianist not afraid to show jazz's classicism. listen and enjoy!

To my mind, John Lewis, from his work with the Modern Jazz Quartet through this solo music, has taken music to the most lucid, modern highs of the 20th Century. The ability to break music apart, and draw on different musical sources is a crucial component of all Jazz solo invention, but I don't know of any composer or player who can so thoroughly fuse disparate elements and join them, not appropriating, but glorying in the history of human invention. Any of Lewis' music and playing strikes me always with it's modernity and audacity, but simultaneouly with the sense of deep submersion in the entire human culture and experience of the world. I love his ability to experiment with vastly different tempos and focus on the gentle details of single notes and phrases. I grew up listening to the MJQ. I adore all of their recordings. We used to listen to the MJQ outside in Maine, late at night in the summer. The invention of the music is so elemental, soft and alive as to simply merge with the breeze off the ocean and the movement of pine trees. I congratulate him on this new record which, from my perspective, is truly triumphant.

Lyrical, creative and brilliantly understated - this is one of the finest collections of solo jazz piano interpretations to appear in recent years. The beautifully melodic "Afternoon in Paris" and the subtle and sensitive "Django" should convince any listener that John Lewis has created one of the year's finest jazz albums.

A friend showed me this album's version of Django without telling me who it was. My immediate reaction was to guess that it was Keith Jarrett, but with extra restraint and focus. I was shocked to hear that it was John Lewis; I had underestimated him.
I rushed out to buy this album and found that the rest was just as good. The tunes are well chosen and extremely well played. The improvisation is melodic and profound. If you like Jarrett or solo piano or just beautiful jazz, BUY THIS ALBUM.

I love MJQ. This is not MJQ. I don't know what I was expecting. Lewis is a grade A, for sure. His strength, to my mind is analysis. He shows me aspects of a song I thought I knew (like Cherokee) which I never have seen before. But it is a solo album and taking the performance as a whole,my thought is, he's not Keith Jarrett, he's not Marcus Roberts. The performance seems sometimes almost too analytical and because of that, a bit self-conscious. Worth owning and enjoying and learning from.

It all makes sense. John Lewis helped make the Modern Jazz Quartet a classy group and jazz a high art of the chamber. An elegance of manner and in jazz arrangement were hallmarks. In this surprising and delightfully intelligent album, Lewis goes solo with a very contemporary performance of somewhat staccato style and spare rendition of mainly standards, including Cherokee, September Song, Django, and April in Paris. His sound seemes similar to none I have heard before, though I did associate some patterns with Fred Hersh and the overall inventiveness with Jessica Williams. The pieces also had the rhythmic quirkiness of Thelonoius Monk and the soulful wit of Mary Lou Williams, as in her Zodiac Suite. Moreover, it has the developmental flavor of jazzy classical compositions by Friedrich Gulda or Nikolai Kapustin. All of this and beyond. I listen with fascination and awe. This is sophisticated, clever, eyebrow-raising, ear-grabbing piano work by a master. The only minus is that Lewis hums very softly as he plays, less noticeable than Glenn Gould or Keith Jarrett (to drop yet more names in comparison).

This is a perfect album, perhaps one of John Lewis finest, and possibly one of the great piano jazz albums with Lennie Tristano's debut masterpiece, Ellington's "Piano Reflection" and Art Tatum's "Solo masterpiece".
You can hear Lewis hum the tunes on certain tracks. It's as if Glenn Gould did Tatum. Or the other way around. Superb.