Pianist Cunliffe Blends Style With Skill

The Southern California jazz scene is blessed these days with opportunities to hear an unusually diverse array of pianists. Tonight, for example, Monty Alexander brings his take on reggae to the Jazz Bakery, and next week, the gifted young Eric Reed puts in an appearance at Catalina Bar & Grill.

Bill Cunliffe may have somewhat less national visibility than either of them, but his recent work, both live and on recordings, has suggested that the winner of the 1989 Thelonious Monk Jazz Competition award is worthy of considerably more attention. And his performance--regrettably only a one-nighter--at Rocco Ristorante in Bel-Air Wednesday was the work of a potential world-class artist with a distinct voice of his own.

Cunliffe would probably be the first to acknowledge his debt to bebop, and he underscored his mastery of the style by including a pair of Bud Powell compositions--the familiar “Tempus Fugit” and the far less known “Glass Enclosure”--in his set. The first was performed at a high-speed tempo that didn’t appear to faze Cunliffe, who ripped off one crisply articulated chorus after another. His style, here as elsewhere, tended to flow around a series of long, flowing phrases interrupted by dramatic pauses--almost like a singer or an instrumentalist taking a deep breath before continuing a musical thought.

The more placid material--Cunliffe’s original ballad “Song for Maureen” and the standard “Stella by Starlight”--revealed a rare sensitivity of touch, a capacity to draw a lush spectrum of sound from the piano. And his compositional skills (also apparent in “Sweet Andy,” a tribute to the late bassist Andy Simpkins, who died earlier this month) were equally impressive, the work of a classically trained artist who has managed to apply effective structural techniques to his compositions and arrangements while retaining the rhythmic drive essential to jazz.

Bassist Darek Oles, always dependable, proffered his usual fine work despite some audio problems along the way. And drummer David Hocker, if occasionally a bit clattery in the slower tunes, generally provided a solid, propulsive rhythmic flow.