Music Preview: Musician Bill Cunliffe jazzes things up this weekend
If you listen closely to pianist Bill Cunliffe, you can hear much of the history of piano jazz in his playing. His tune “Sweet Andy,” from Cunliffe’s current “River Edge, New Jersey” album (Azica), is a case in point.
You’ll hear the floating, florid chords of Ahmad Jamal, the oblique phrasing of Thelonious Monk, dreamy no-time notes that swirl over the bass and drums, Keith Jarrett-like propulsion, complex right-hand runs that bring to mind Oscar Peterson, and the whack-a-mole games that Herbie Hancock plays with chord changes and the beat.
Yet Cunliffe manages to reshape the various ingredients into his own personal statement. That’s a working definition of an artist.
Cunliffe’s next recorded project will be with his Big Band, for which he composed and arranged the book. That orchestra performs Sunday at All Saints Church in Pasadena.
Since he moved west from Cincinnati at the end of 1989, Cunliffe has established himself as a first-call pianist for recordings and bands. One need only observe him in the studio to understand the degree of creativity he brings to any given situation.
When there are problems with getting into or out of a tune, when the rhythm section needs to pull together, when the singer’s phrasing needs ironing out, when the monotony of round-robin horn solos need breaking up, when a piece needs an interlude or a modulation — Cunliffe always seems to have the right solution.
He didn’t land in Los Angeles without a portfolio. Cunliffe spent 18 months in the final edition of the Buddy Rich Big Band, playing and arranging. The Duke University and Eastman School of Music grad had also just won the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Piano Competition in Washington D.C.
He’s proud of a recently recorded album that Cunliffe arranged and played on for singer Freda Payne. “I don’t work with a lot of singers,” he cautions, “but I love when I get to create something from the ground up. As an arranger, that’s a big part of what I love to do.”
Cunliffe indicates that there’s more to Payne than a disco-era hit about honeymoon disappointment.
“She’s wonderful!” he declares. “If you took Ella Fitzgerald and combined her with the bluesy feeling of Dinah Washington — that’s Freda. She’s a good improviser and she’s absolutely a good ballad singer.”
Another singer whom Cunliffe loves working with is Denise Doantelli; she’ll be singing with him Sunday.
“I view Denise as an instrument in the Big Band,” he offers. “She’s got a higher alto voice that’s clear, bright and beautiful — a lovely sound. She’s also got great pitch and she improvises beautifully. I have her singing some vocalese parts along with the horns.”
“My big band writing comes from a lot of places,” Cunliffe says, from his home in the Valley. “The charts I wrote for Buddy were all swinging stuff. The writers I loved were Duke Ellington, Thad Jones, Johnny Mandel, Sammy Nestico. But I’ve recently been listening to Edward Elgar and Brian Wilson.”
“I’ve been playing ‘God Only Knows’ with my New York trio of bassist Martin Wind and drummer Tim Horner,” Cunliffe says. “That’s a beautiful, deep piece of music.”
There’s nothing novel about jazz pianists having classical studies under their fingers. It’s been a requirement ever since Bill Evans brought the Impressionist harmonies of Ravel and Debussy into the jazz vernacular in the late 1950s. Cunliffe also finds great value in the Baroque music of Johann Sebastian Bach.
“Bach was a great improviser,” Cunliffe advises. “His melodies and his counterpoint are timeless. And his music has been taken to so many different places: by Virgil Fox the organist, pianist Glenn Gould, the Swingle Singers. But his great power is the way his music communicates emotionally. Ultimately that’s what it’s all about for me.”
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Who: Bill Cunliffe Big Band
Where: All Saints Church, 132 N. Euclid Ave., Pasadena
When: Sunday, April 17, 5 p.m.
More info: (626) 796-1172
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KIRK SILSBEE writes about jazz and culture for Marquee.