From Charlap: Nonstandard Standards

Pianist Bill Charlap’s lineage almost guarantees a familiarity with the Great American Songbook. His father, Moose Charlap, was a Broadway composer who wrote some of the music for “Peter Pan”; his mother, Sandy Stewart, was a singer with the Benny Goodman Orchestra.

So it wasn’t surprising that Charlap’s first set on Tuesday at the Jazz Bakery was largely dedicated to such classic song items as “The Best Thing for You Would Be Me,” “All Through the Night,” “Blue Skies” and “My Shining Hour.” Nor was it unexpected that his audience was peppered with the sort of celebrities who would usually only show up at the Bakery for a performance by, say, Woody Allen.

That said, however, Charlap’s playing offered some authentic jazz views of his material. His style can best be defined by listing a few noble predecessors who came to mind throughout the set: Erroll Garner, Ahmad Jamal, Tommy Flanagan, Peter Nero and Roger Williams. That’s an eclectic list, by any estimation, but Charlap revealed bits and pieces of style and manner from each. The pace, timing and structure of Garner and Jamal; the brisk, bop-based swing of Flanagan; the engaging personality of Nero; and the rhapsodic pianistics of Williams.

There were times when the lack of focus produced by this range of influences was distracting. He opened “All Through the Night,” for example, with a grandly extravagant cadenza before suddenly shifting into up-tempo high gear as his two accompanists, bassist Peter Washington and drummer Kenny Washington, joined him. Other pieces were delivered in similarly disjunct fashion, often shifting emphasis in ways that seemed unreflective of both the words and the music of the songs--a surprising lapse in an artist with such a strong awareness of the full, story-telling qualities of classic standards.

When he was good, however, Charlap was very good indeed. The suspended sense of drama he brought to the slower ballads, for example, was exquisite, a stunningly effective use of tone and timing. And in the passages in which he momentarily set aside pre-set arrangements and virtuosic technical displays and simply dug into inventive, spontaneous improvising, one finally got a sense of the high quality of his jazz skills.

Charlap was particularly well aided by the presence of the two Washingtons. Drummer Kenny Washington’s brush playing was a marvel to hear, and together the two players adroitly maneuvered through the music’s frequent starts and stops while maintaining a propulsively dynamic, rhythmic swing.

*

The Bill Charlap Trio at the Jazz Bakery, 3233 Helms Ave., Culver City. Tonight through Sunday, 8 and 9:30 p.m. $25 admission. (310) 271-9039.