|
contents | jazz | |||||||||||||
| Bill Charlap Makes His Debut At The Max The Grammy Award-nominated jazz pianist Bill Charlap -- who has gained a stellar reputation for his skill at interpreting standards in ways that maintain the original essence of the music while also creating something new and surprising -- brings his trio to Orchestra Hall at the Max M. Fisher Music Center on Friday, January 6 In these LaSalle Bank Paradise Jazz Series concerts, Charlap appears with bassist Peter Washington and drummer Kenny Washington, with whom he has made several celebrated recordings for the Blue Note label. Bill Charlap has received rave notices from virtually all the major critics writing about music today. His trio has been exploring the music of the "Great American Songbook" on his Blue Note recordings, beginning with 2000's Written in the Stars, a collection of standards by a variety of American composers. This was followed by 2002's Stardust, celebrating the songs of Hoagy Carmichael, and 2004's Somewhere: The Songs of Leonard Bernstein, for which he received a Grammy nomination. He recently released two new CDs: Bill Charlap Plays George Gershwin - The American Soul, released in June and featuring an all-star horn section; and Love Is Here To Stay, a CD of ballads recorded with his mother, singer Sandy Stewart, which was released in September Born in New York City into a musical family, Bill Charlap is the son of Moose Charlap, a Broadway composer and songwriter whose credits included the scores to Peter Pan, The Conquering Hero, Whoop-up, Alice Through the Looking Glass and Kelly. His mother, Sandy Stewart, is a popular song singer who performed with Benny Goodman, co-starred on TV's Perry Como Show and scored a Grammy nomination for her hit single, "My Coloring Book" by the songwriting team of Kander and Ebb. Charlap began playing the piano at a very young age. He studied with jazz pianist Jack Reilly and classical pianist Eleanor Hancock and informally picked up pointers from jazz/popular song pianist Dick Hyman, who was a distant cousin on his father's side. Charlap was fully thrust into the jazz world in the late '80s when he joined baritone saxophonist Gerry Mulligan's quintet, and in 1994 was enlisted by alto saxophonist Phil Woods for his band. Charlap was the musical director of the musical revue Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil: A Celebration of Johnny Mercer as a part of the JVC Jazz Festival in New York, and later took the show on the road. Charlap started his solo recording career in 1994 and began playing with Peter Washington and Kenny Washington two years later. In 2003 Charlap received the pianist of the year Jazz Award from the Jazz Journalists Association and was named outstanding jazz soloist by Manhattan's Night Life Awards in 2003 and 2004. In 2004, he and his mother received the top jazz duo Bistro Award for their engagement at the Algonquin in New York. Also that year, Charlap and his trio opened Jazz at Lincoln Center's (J@LC) new performance venue, Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola, on Columbus Circle in the Time-Warner Building. He was also enlisted by J@LC to put together a series of concerts honoring great songwriters, including Jerome Kern, George and Ira Gershwin, Harold Alden, Irving Berlin, Cole Porter and Richard Rodgers. Charlap succeeded Dick Hyman as Artistic Director of Jazz in July at the 92nd Street Y's Tisch Center for the Arts in July 2005. write your comments about the article :: © 2006 Jazz News :: home page |