Jack Reilly and Company Raise the Standards

Pianist Jack Reilly has never been content to simply place himself at a keyboard and let his imagination fly. Despite his considerable improvisational skills, his long career has been continually infused with thoughtful, probing journeys into the elemental aspects of the way jazz is created.

A considerable number of those journeys have reached into the music of Bill Evans, a longtime Reilly friend and one whose harmonic vision has been a frequent source of inspiration. (Reilly’s insightful book, “The Harmony of Bill Evans,” is an impressive technical treatise of particular value to improvising players.)

Reilly, who is based on the East Coast, has also spent a a great deal of time offering his theoretical insights in educational environments, from the New England Conservatory of Music to the New School and New York University. It’s unlikely, however, that his teaching admonishments ever provided much advice about what to do while playing in a wind tunnel. And while that might be a somewhat hyperbolic description of what Reilly had to deal with Friday night when his trio (with drummer Paul Kreibich and bassist Jack Simon) performed at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, it’s a fair description of what it felt like to be in the audience as a chilly, 15- to 20-mph wind whipped through the venue’s open courtyard.

To its credit, the Reilly trio appeared unaffected by the intemperate conditions as it moved easily through a program largely dominated by standards. The most appealing quality of the music was the consistently rich harmonic schemes, especially noticeable in the ballads, in which Reilly’s playing supplemented, and occasionally altered, the songs’ original harmonies.

But he was also capable of shifting gears into blues-tinged groove passages, and it was in these segments that he was especially well-aided by Simon’s articulate bass work and Kreibich’s ever-dependable rhythmic propulsion.

In fact, the intriguing qualities of Reilly’s overall presentation led one to wonder whether his pedagogical activities have had a diminishing effect upon his performance opportunities. Whatever the reason, his playing--even in somewhat difficult circumstances--made it clear that he deserves a far wider hearing.