TOMMY FLANAGAN - In His Own Sweet Time
Enja ENJ 96872
Tommy Flanagan (piano)
The occasion was a concert in the German city of Neuberg. Tommy Flanagan was gradually persuaded to play. At first it was all tentative. His wife Diana seemed to have the ultimate say on whether Tommy would appear. Apparently, he was reluctant to play on his own, after years of leaning on bass and drums. The sleeve notes describe in detail the setting up of the concert. Diana chose all the pieces so that Tommy would not exert himself unduly, since he had been ill with heart problems. The quiet pianist with the buttoned-down ego agreed.
He wasn’t really happy: ‘The audience watches your fingers, everything is so quiet that you can hear yourself and the folks in the front row breathing, you are bucknaked, each mistake is registered without mercy.’ This from a man who played with Rollins Coltrane, Gillespie, Davis as well as Ella.
Flanagan is an acquired taste. A pianists’ pianist he is cited by many as a major influence. He resolutely searches out a kind of perfection, the supreme accompanist. Flanagan’s elusive pianism is on display in the Tad Dameron piece that he opens with. Diana must have worried about the effort that her husband put into interpreting the piece as he shifts the tempo subtly. The elegant left hand measures out refined rhythms on the club’s Bosendorfer.. The second piece by Dameron was ‘If You Could See Me Now’: a tune that is very beautiful, a challenge to add more to enhance its beauty. Flanagan produces the delicate alterations and the delayed rhythmic effects: avoidance of cliché all part of Flanagan’s art.
‘Untired Blues’ is an original Flanagan. He spins out the long melody line anchored with a rich rhythm. The long blues melody is very inventive without being spectacular: a performance that yields more on subsequent hearings.
‘Some Other Spring’ a piece that you expect from an elegant pianist to play in a New York supper club to a sophisticated seen-it-all-audience . It has a wistful quality as the melody winds through with a kind of melancholy. This is a composition made for Flanagan to luxuriate in as he carefully embroiders the melody with rich voicings.
George Gershwin’s ‘How Long Has This Been Going On?’. You can imagine Flanagan playing the intro for Ella Fitzgerald. He treats the melody with clarity and withholds the strong rhythm. There is reverence for Gershwin’s original as if Flanagan realises that the is little to be done with a piece of perfection.
The standout piece is the Ellington Strayhorn piece ‘Just Squeeze Me’. brings out Flanagan’s forceful side. The left hand changes the rhythm; the aggressive right hand delivers new thoughts without departing too much from the original. More Strayhorn! ‘DayDream’ has that languorous feel of relaxed Strayhorn, although Flanagan gives it slightly more edge than Hodges would have done.
The perky rhythm of ‘Valse Hot’ by Rollins is given a spirited reading with Flanagan acknowledging the rhythm which stimulates him to hit the keys harder that he has done with the other selections.
‘Good Bye’ a reluctant farewell, evoking the feeling of a recital well played. Solo Flanagan is rare enough to be both noteworthy and treasured.
Reviewed by Jack Kenny
Enja ENJ 96872
Tommy Flanagan (piano)
The occasion was a concert in the German city of Neuberg. Tommy Flanagan was gradually persuaded to play. At first it was all tentative. His wife Diana seemed to have the ultimate say on whether Tommy would appear. Apparently, he was reluctant to play on his own, after years of leaning on bass and drums. The sleeve notes describe in detail the setting up of the concert. Diana chose all the pieces so that Tommy would not exert himself unduly, since he had been ill with heart problems. The quiet pianist with the buttoned-down ego agreed.
He wasn’t really happy: ‘The audience watches your fingers, everything is so quiet that you can hear yourself and the folks in the front row breathing, you are bucknaked, each mistake is registered without mercy.’ This from a man who played with Rollins Coltrane, Gillespie, Davis as well as Ella.
Flanagan is an acquired taste. A pianists’ pianist he is cited by many as a major influence. He resolutely searches out a kind of perfection, the supreme accompanist. Flanagan’s elusive pianism is on display in the Tad Dameron piece that he opens with. Diana must have worried about the effort that her husband put into interpreting the piece as he shifts the tempo subtly. The elegant left hand measures out refined rhythms on the club’s Bosendorfer.. The second piece by Dameron was ‘If You Could See Me Now’: a tune that is very beautiful, a challenge to add more to enhance its beauty. Flanagan produces the delicate alterations and the delayed rhythmic effects: avoidance of cliché all part of Flanagan’s art.
‘Untired Blues’ is an original Flanagan. He spins out the long melody line anchored with a rich rhythm. The long blues melody is very inventive without being spectacular: a performance that yields more on subsequent hearings.
‘Some Other Spring’ a piece that you expect from an elegant pianist to play in a New York supper club to a sophisticated seen-it-all-audience . It has a wistful quality as the melody winds through with a kind of melancholy. This is a composition made for Flanagan to luxuriate in as he carefully embroiders the melody with rich voicings.
George Gershwin’s ‘How Long Has This Been Going On?’. You can imagine Flanagan playing the intro for Ella Fitzgerald. He treats the melody with clarity and withholds the strong rhythm. There is reverence for Gershwin’s original as if Flanagan realises that the is little to be done with a piece of perfection.
The standout piece is the Ellington Strayhorn piece ‘Just Squeeze Me’. brings out Flanagan’s forceful side. The left hand changes the rhythm; the aggressive right hand delivers new thoughts without departing too much from the original. More Strayhorn! ‘DayDream’ has that languorous feel of relaxed Strayhorn, although Flanagan gives it slightly more edge than Hodges would have done.
The perky rhythm of ‘Valse Hot’ by Rollins is given a spirited reading with Flanagan acknowledging the rhythm which stimulates him to hit the keys harder that he has done with the other selections.
‘Good Bye’ a reluctant farewell, evoking the feeling of a recital well played. Solo Flanagan is rare enough to be both noteworthy and treasured.
Reviewed by Jack Kenny
