Glasper can play long lines, but like those other superb piano-trio leaders currently on the scene — Brad Mehldau and Danilo Pérez, to name two — he’s as interested in an ensemble sound as in solo virtuosity. Not that there wasn’t plenty of that. He’s happy to plug away at rhythmic chords, but he also likes running parallel lines up and down the keyboard with both hands, playing with staccato dissonances, and erupting in chord clusters in the lower register. One knuckle-busting two-handed run seemed to step right out of Bartók’s Second Piano Concerto before settling down to an easy medium-tempo swing for Dave Brubeck’s “In Your Own Sweet Way,” the beginning of a free-association medley that ran into “Body and Soul” and “In a Sentimental Mood.” Through them all, Glasper and his band pushed and stretched the tunes’ familiar melodies and rhythms, not content merely to offer improvisations on the chords. Glasper is given to surprising spontaneous utterances — not as common in jazz as you might think — so when he unfurled a silky mid-to-top glissando in the middle of a “Body and Soul” cadenza, it was more a sweet gift than a gimmick. A few bars later he did it again. Because, obviously, he liked it.
___
On the Web:
Ornette Coleman: http://harmolodic.com/ornette/index.htm
Robert Glasper: http://www.robertglasper.com/
Related:
Skimming the cream, Side by side by the waterside, Steering off course, More 
- Skimming the cream
Some of my favorite things from among the people, CDs, and performances I wrote about this year.
- Side by side by the waterside
Gold Sounds were in the middle of a hellacious set of Pavement covers at the JVC-Newport Jazz Festival last Saturday afternoon when a woman who appeared to be in her 70s turned to me and said, “This is the sleeper of the day! I was going to get a lemonade and go back to Al Jarreau, but this is happening!” Slideshow: scenes from the JVC-Newport Jazz Festival
- Steering off course
We recommend the course taught by the indie filmmaker, the course inspired by a Daily Show regular, and the course considered “experimental.”
- Robert Glasper
In a lot of ways, 28-year-old pianist Glasper’s band is right in the pocket of the modern piano-trio tradition.
- Boston music news: April 25, 2008
“As far as I know,” says saxophonist Ken Field, “ Forked Tongue is the only CD ever released to include songs by both Ornette Coleman and Billy Idol.”
- Cinematic
Talking with Nathaniel Facey, the alto-saxophonist in the London band Empirical, you find it difficult at first to pin down where and how the quintet developed their unusual compositional style.
- Fourth-quarter earnings
Times a-wastin' on 2008, so before it's too late, here's a handful of discs that have caught my ear over the past few months.
- School days
Fred Woodard graduated from Berklee in 1983 — and that’s when he really started to go to school.
- All them 88s!
From free to funky, it sometimes seems like a golden age of jazz piano.
- In all languages
For the past half decade or so, saxophonist Chris Potter has alternately traveled with two of the best bandleaders in jazz, Dave Holland and Dave Douglas.
- Hearts of glass
In the photo it is night, and two women in cocktail dresses sit — perhaps chatting while jazz plays in the background — in a spare modern living room.
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Music Features
, Entertainment, Music, Greg Osby, More
, Entertainment, Music, Greg Osby, Ornette Coleman, Jazz and Blues, Dalai Lama, Danilo Perez, Dave Brubeck, Robert Glasper, Brad Mehldau, Less
