Jazz Pianist Enjoying Freedom of Playing Solo

Claude Williamson remains one of the top Bud Powell-influenced pianists in jazz, a sparkling and rhythmic improviser who, as critic Mark Gardner wrote, brings “a touch of elegance” to Powell’s be-bop-based vocabulary.

Still, when Williamson started working unaccompanied at Monty’s Steakhouse in Woodland Hills about six months ago, he found himself in a rut--this despite having released what he considered his best album ever just two years ago.

Most of his career, Williamson, a native of Brattleboro, Vt., who lives in Studio City, had played with horn players (during the ‘50s in Los Angeles when he was a member of the Lighthouse All-Stars) or in duos or trios. His only solo job was in 1961-62 in piano bars on the Sunset Strip.

“I was bored as hell,” he said.

Exactly the same thing happened when the 71-year-old Williamson began to play solo at Monty’s. He had formerly been the house pianist there with Danny Pucillo’s trio. (Pucillo no longer works the room.) This time, though, the pianist had listened to, and learned from, fellow keyboardist Dave McKenna, who had developed an interesting solo style.

“When Dave plays solo, he sounds like a whole rhythm section,” said Williamson, who’s at Monty’s on Friday and Saturday (and Oct. 31-Nov. 1).

“So, like him, I’m now able to keep a pulse moving. I never played this way before. Now I play a bass line in my left hand on medium and up-tempo tunes, though I don’t play the bass constantly. And when there’s a space in the improvised right-hand line, I also throw in the occasional chord, like I’m comping for myself. And I use a pedal point, as Bud did, playing one note in the left hand and letting chords float over the top. It’s all working out fine.”

There are many fine aspects of playing unaccompanied, Williamson said, and these days, with his newly found style, he’s free to enjoy them.

“You can changes tempos at will, change keys,” he said. “If you’re tired of playing ‘All the Things You Are’ in A flat, then you can play it in A major without bothering the horn player. And I like the way that the bass line is counterpoint to the right-hand improvisation.”

In his former solo days, Williamson was limited to ballad medleys and standard tunes played out of tempo.

“Now my repertoire has changed considerably,” he said.

Williamson has found a way to maintain his composure at Monty’s, where the lounge is really more of a sports bar than a jazz haunt--the main reason why the prior jazz policy with Pucillo’s trio plus guest horn players didn’t succeed. The pianist said he tunes out the sports fans’ hubbub and plays to “the people that come in to listen. I’m enjoying it.”

BE THERE

Claude Williamson plays Friday and Saturday, 8:30 p.m. to 12:30 a.m., at Monty’s Steakhouse, 5371 Topanga Canyon Blvd., Woodland Hills. No cover, no minimum. (818) 716-9736.