JOHN LAW - Recreations Vol. 2
33records:33Jazz 278
John Law: piano
Recorded 27th and 28th October 2018 by Stefano Amerio at Artesuono Cavalicco, Udine, Italy
JOHN LAW - Recreations Vol.3
33records: 33Jazz279
John Law: piano, Korg SV, glockenspiel; Sam Crockatt: saxophones; James Agg: double bass; Billy Weir: drums, percussion, glockenspiel
Recorded October 29th-31st 2018 by Stefano Amerio at Artesuono Cavalicco, Udine, Italy
33records:33Jazz 278
John Law: piano
Recorded 27th and 28th October 2018 by Stefano Amerio at Artesuono Cavalicco, Udine, Italy
JOHN LAW - Recreations Vol.3
33records: 33Jazz279
John Law: piano, Korg SV, glockenspiel; Sam Crockatt: saxophones; James Agg: double bass; Billy Weir: drums, percussion, glockenspiel
Recorded October 29th-31st 2018 by Stefano Amerio at Artesuono Cavalicco, Udine, Italy
One solo and one quartet recording provide two further installments of John Law’s ReCreations project. The music ranges from classical (Satie, Chopin, Bach) to jazz standards (‘Summertime’, ‘My favourite things’, ‘Well you needn’t) to classic pop and funk (‘Ob la di, ob la da’, ‘Imagine’, ‘Boogie on Reggae Woman’) to contemporary rock (‘Pyramid song’) and plenty of ground between these disparate points. Some musicians seem to play at the very limit of their ability; other musicians seem to have such limitless talent that they are almost always playing well within their talent. While part of the joy in listening to the former type playing is the peril this brings, it can be much more of challenge for players with limitless talent to convey the passion and the peril of playing to their listeners. John Law is one of those players who exude technical proficiency; one imagines him catching the slightest snippet of a tune from the radio of a passing car and then being able to distill this into a complete performance, at the drop of a hat. How, given this, can he manage to create music that brings the listener into the challenges the he faces in playing? What the recreations volumes have done is to gather a near random bunch of musical styles and see how he adapts. Other masters (and mistresses) of the piano might challenge themselves with extended improvised solos. Law’s approach is, I feel, even more challenging. The shift from, say, a Chopin Etude (which opens volume 2) into stride piano of a Hines / James P Johnson mash-up is not simply a matter of playing different metres but also an entirely different relationship with piano - which is one reason why so few classically trained pianists seem able or willing to play jazz that can properly swing. Needless to say, Law manages this switch with ease – so much so that you might be forgiven for thinking that you’re hearing two different players, rather than one player in two quite different mindsets. Mixing two well-known stride pieces (’57 Varieties’ with ‘Carolina shout’) gives opportunity to perform one type of recreation. But Law is at his most fascinating when he takes a tune like ‘My favourite things’ (track 11 on volume 2), or ‘Boogie on Reggae Woman’ (track 13 on volume 2), or ‘Pyramid Song’ (track 8 on volume 3) and reimagines their rhythm so that, while the tunes remain familiar, their changed context creates completely different experiences.
With Crockatt, Agg and Weir he forms a trio of like-minded players willing to explore and recontextualise tunes that ought to be highly familiar in order to recreate new insights into the melodies, rhythms and textures of the tunes. Where he was respectful on the Chopin and Bach on volume 2 (and don’t forget his wonderful version of Bach’s Goldberg Variations), with little overt deviation from the written score (although, to my ear, both interpretations carried a little more swing than you might hear on overtly classical recordings), the quartets take on Satie’s Gymnopedie no. 1 (a tune that has received a lot of attention from the jazz fraternity) is played over a simple vamping piano bass, with glockenspiel mirroring what sounds like soprano sax for the melody. As on volume 2, the gentle opener kicks into something jauntier (in the case, a whistle-stop ‘Let’s face the music and dance’) with layered saxes and a bubbling bassline to accompany Law’s soloing, before Crockatt ups the ante with some sterling solo work that wouldn’t have been out of place in front of a big band. This is one of the tunes where the quartet raise the pace of the piece to uncover different feelings in it; another is the way they open ‘Summertime’ (track 5), before the beat drops and Law drifts into a delicate piano solo that owes more to Bach than to Gershwin, and then a rambunctious bass compels the quartet to speed up to the close.
Reviewed by Chris Baber
With Crockatt, Agg and Weir he forms a trio of like-minded players willing to explore and recontextualise tunes that ought to be highly familiar in order to recreate new insights into the melodies, rhythms and textures of the tunes. Where he was respectful on the Chopin and Bach on volume 2 (and don’t forget his wonderful version of Bach’s Goldberg Variations), with little overt deviation from the written score (although, to my ear, both interpretations carried a little more swing than you might hear on overtly classical recordings), the quartets take on Satie’s Gymnopedie no. 1 (a tune that has received a lot of attention from the jazz fraternity) is played over a simple vamping piano bass, with glockenspiel mirroring what sounds like soprano sax for the melody. As on volume 2, the gentle opener kicks into something jauntier (in the case, a whistle-stop ‘Let’s face the music and dance’) with layered saxes and a bubbling bassline to accompany Law’s soloing, before Crockatt ups the ante with some sterling solo work that wouldn’t have been out of place in front of a big band. This is one of the tunes where the quartet raise the pace of the piece to uncover different feelings in it; another is the way they open ‘Summertime’ (track 5), before the beat drops and Law drifts into a delicate piano solo that owes more to Bach than to Gershwin, and then a rambunctious bass compels the quartet to speed up to the close.
Reviewed by Chris Baber
