JAZZ REVIEW : Tapscott Has No Problem With Vision Thing

Horace Tapscott is a very visual pianist. Certainly he’s interesting to watch: his long arms spread as he hunches down at the keys while swaying easily to the rhythm. But he’s visual in an aural sense as well, generating vivid scenes and personalities in the listener’s imagination through sound and rhythm. You might even call his approach “visionary.”

Tapscott’s expressive talents were there to be seen Saturday during the first set of a two-day run at Maxwell’s by the Sea. The pianist, in the company of drummer Fritz WiseQ and remarkable bassist Roberto Miguel Miranda, conjured up glimpses of settings and personalities while putting on an impressive technical display. Though his style at times made heavy demands on the listener, it could also be bright, airy and swinging. This combination of the familiar and the far-out made the show one of the year’s most engaging.

Take for example Tapscott’s “Sketches of Drunken Mary” and “Mary on Sunday,” the tunes combining into a character study of “one of the first homeless people,” the pianist explained during a short introduction, “and a figure everyone knew in the community.” Turning to the keyboard, he intoned a series of irregular lines that jerked along like a stumble, before moving into an intense swaying passage when he was joined by the combo.

Spurred by Miranda’s solid foot work, the tune switched to a simple walk that Tapscott decorated with seared, twisted lines. Next the pianist turned to a rag-influenced time that he marked with splashes of dissonant tones before moving into a series of chords so elegant they seemed classically derived. Throughout the piece one had a sense of Mary’s confused, difficult life as well as her need to go on.

“Lino’s Pad,” as Tapscott explained to the audience after its performance, painted a picture of an artist’s hangout visited by a constant parade of personalities. Wise’s march-like snare set the pace for this procession, while a dark repeating line, played in unison on piano and bass, suggested the seriousness of the proceedings. Tapscott added ringing declarations over this line with his right hand, before a long, aggressive solo that opened on a swelling rush of cascading lines.

Miranda’s unaccompanied improvisation on “Lino’s Pad” was impressive for its range and aggressive intent, as was his work all through the set. He broke from the tune’s vamp to add upper-register echoes and two-toned double-stops that rang like a bell. The direct amplification of his upright bass created crisp, reverberating tones that often melded into a wall of sound during more furiously played passages. This approach made for some explosive moments as the bassist raced across the neck of his instrument, popping off high-end shots that he balanced with deep, resonant plucks. At times, he added flamenco-like touches while strumming chords with his thumb.

Drummer Wise’s mallet solo on “Lino’s Pad” built slowly on tom-tom phrases into a snarling array of snare and cymbal rolls. His job as timekeeper in such involved outings as the “Drunken Mary” medley was challenging, yet he managed to add his own shading and color while keeping the ever-changing beats from becoming confused.

Tapscott worked with an uncharacteristic spareness on Charlie Parker’s “Now’s the Time,” working around Thelonious Monk-inspired lines until he began to quickly chop out chords with his left hand while swirling to the highest keys with his right. He led Wise and Miranda through a jet-paced version of Sonny Rollins’ “Oleo” that also found him quoting Monk. On Cal Massey’s “Bakai” he matched moving melodic passages with the kind of taunt attack that Cecil Taylor would admire.

Despite the occasional references to Monk and Taylor, Tapscott is very much his own man and his dense, thought-provoking style is immediately recognizable as his alone. That his most recent recording is more than two years old (and on an obscure, though respected Swiss label at that) is a crime. Some free-thinking record company should do us all a favor and sign this man.