Written in the Stars

Bill Charlap | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (November 7, 2000)
• Original Release Date: November 7, 2000
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Blue Note Records
• ASIN: B0000508UM
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #50,678 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars it's about time, November 27, 2000

By 

andre salz (Quakertown, Pennsylvania USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Written in the Stars (Audio CD)

It's about time in all the meanings of that phrase. I have been following this gifted pianist through recordings and live at the Deer Head Inn, where he often plays. Bill Charlap is the real aricle, and in his own way a continuation of Tommy Flannagan and many others. Although on this recording you do not hear his bebop chops, which I was priveleged to hear backing the master Phil Woods, it was a gutsy decision to stay with the standards as only he can play them. Here we have one of the only young Jazz players who thinks also of tempo, doesnt rush and thats why he can live in the notes he's playing and make them count. The rest of the trio is made up of players familiar to those listining to the best contemporary music, both virtuoso musicians who know when less is more. Please go and buy this recording it's one you can grow old with.

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Bill Evans without the melancholy, January 12, 2004

By 

Edward G. Slatcher "eslatch" (Pottstown, PA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Written in the Stars (Audio CD)

This from the owner of uncountable jazz piano recordings going back to Tatem, Teddy Wilson, Nat Cole and with an overflow library of Bill Evans. Charlap does the best, most creative, most lively interpretation of standards I've ever heard. You need do no more than listen to the back-to-back cuts of "Slow Boat to China" (whoever did that one like this before?) and "One for My Baby" to get an idea of his versatility and creative range. He is just as good on his Stardust album and on "All through the night".

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A fine trio performance, December 2, 2001

By 

"mwn52" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Written in the Stars (Audio CD)

I just finished listening to an interview of Bill Charlap on NPR's Weekend Edition Sunday. I've had this gorgeous CD for at least a year and play it often. I also had the pleasure of hearing Charlap play live with the Phil Woods Quintet last year. On this CD, Charlap and his trio mates, Kenny Washington (d) and Peter Washington (b), offer a wonderful selection of 11 standards (Blue Skies and Where or When in waltz time are two of my favorites) that reinterpret these tunes in a consistently lyrical and appealing way. You might be tempted to pop this CD in the player as background music, but I recommend that you listen to it carefully and attentively, because I guarantee that your appreciation of the sensitive and intelligent interaction of these outstanding players will be even greater as a result. Bill Charlap probably isn't a household name, even among many jazz fans, but if he continues to turn out fine performances like this one I hope he will be.