JAZZ AND POP REVIEWS : Dick Hyman Superb, Eclectic in Bakery Solo Recital

To claim that uniquely eclectic pianist Dick Hyman touched all bases in his show Saturday at the Jazz Bakery would be an understatement.

In a 90-minute solo recital, Hyman was consistently on the move, from idiom to idiom, from swinging jazz to ragtime to stride to classics, from 4/4 to 3/4 (both “Russian Lullaby” and “Sophisticated Lady” were presented as waltzes), and to a generous supply of Ellingtonia.

Even the Ellington pieces covered an unusually broad span of the Duke’s music. “Clothed Woman,” atypical and partly atonal, was inspired by one of the more obscure Ellington piano solos. “Jubilee Stomp” was a highly authentic reworking of a 1928 band number, and the delightfully conceived, tricky composition “Tonk,” written for (and performed by) Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn as a piano duet, somehow worked for Hyman, who played as if he had four hands.

Recalling a recent appearance for an opera-oriented audience, Hyman offered his personalized yet faithful treatments of the “Habanera” and “The Pilgrims’ Chorus.”

Hyman’s technical mastery is a given, but one still finds it hard to believe the peripatetic adventures of his left hand, which seemed at times to have a life of its own.

The packed house rewarded him for his tour de force with the longest and strongest ovation this reviewer has ever observed in this room. It’s high time Hyman traded in his one-night stands here for a full week run.