Search - Jessica Williams :: The Art Of The Piano

Sets a very high bar and bounds joyfully over it

Ian Muldoon | Coffs Harbour, NSW Australia | 10/12/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"To begin, you have to have some chutzpah to call your work the Art of the Piano. On the other hand, it sets a very high bar, and expectation in the listener. Not only in the title, but in the program chosen - originals accompanied by two classics, one by Satie and one by Coltrane. The former in particular is tricky one to chose so beloved is it in the contemplative, mood, impressionistic melody stakes of Western "classical" music - like let's have some swinging Satie by Jessica Williams - ouch. High potential for the cringe factor especially for piano lover's of a classical bent.

Not only that, the program is accompanied by an "artist's statement". These are not just liner notes, but a quite personal statement about the music and her musical journey. I found them enthralling. Jazz live performance, where the audience often treat the music as a background to their eating or drinking or as just entertainment is rarely given the dignity it truly deserves. I once said to Dr Billy Taylor in New York at one of his outdoor events in Central Park "This is the classical music of 20th Century" and he just smiled benignly at my comment, which was probably first made by Mr Edward Kennedy Ellington about 50 years ago. It is true that much beloved jazz has arisen out of such venues as the Cotton Club, the Village Vanguard(VG) etc. One famous record of a piano trio by Bill Evans (at the VG)has an unbelievable level of audience noise it is true, especially noticeable when the bass player solos, but still a selfish intrusion into the music by those in the audience. Perhaps worse is the Plugged Nickel of Miles Davis .I'm completely on side with Keith Jarrett here who tries to encourage certain standards of behaviour from the audience - the musicians' medium is sound so one has to respect that.

In her liner notes statement she makes reference to the predisposition of performers to "play up" to the audience at the expense of the music. I know what she means. The only time I was lucky enough to hear Oscar Peterson perform in a concert setting, he showed the audience an amazing wealth of technical wizardry but left us(me) unmoved. I can assure the reader that Ms Williams in this program The Art of the Piano, she places the music, and its quality of sound, very much first - being made in the presence of a respectful audience shows too.



In this regard her views on the music and the instrument are reassuring and very interesting - both in regards to tuning of the instrument, its characteristics, and her preferences as well as to the quality of the recording. As a long time lover of the piano as the premier instrument of musical expression, the series of piano records made at Maybeck Hall did set something of a standard in jazz piano recital at least in my opinion as a humble listener. Ms Williams recorded their and it was issued as Volume 21 in the series.

To the CD under review: it succeeds and is a very special program of music, played by a consummate artist on a beautiful sounding instrument before a respectful audience and has been recorded to a high standard. It has an aura and feel about it where the artist's statement segues seamlessly into the music, into the sound, and the word "hush" comes to mind. We may hold our breath as she opens Satie's piece, but an improvisation on it settles our fears magnificently. The program is quite a beautiful and heartfelt listen. Perhaps even a major achievement by this artist. A significant record of accomplished pianism."

The Jazz Piano Reexamined

Dr. Debra Jan Bibel | Oakland, CA USA | 10/21/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The title of this album, The Art of the Piano, should be differentiated from The Art of the Pianist, for Jessica Williams, as described in the inserted booklet, has reexamined the instrument itself and its customary use. This goes beyond the manufacturing and model design differences among Steinway, Yamaha, Baldwin, and Bösendofer pianos. Why today should there be three strings per note?, she wonders, observing that when the hammer hits two strings via a pedal shift, the sound is more pure, with less a chance for the slight mistuning of a string during performance. A fully opened lid creates a larger volume at the sometime unnecessary sacrifice for nuance, she notes. Taking a page from Glenn Gould, whom she greatly admires, Williams has experimented with the height of the piano seat and the Thelonious Monk flatness of the hand versus the classical curved fingers when striking the keys. She has reached inside the piano for harp-like effects. She has softened the music with a pedal. And she has returned to the idioms, the more developed bass hand, and the cross-over playing of her classical training. Williams plays the piano in more ways than striking the pseudo-ivory.



What results is heard in this live recording in a concert setting: beauty and subtlety and sweetness. With six of her own compositions and two improvisations on Erik Satie and John Coltrane pieces, her music is akin to Keith Jarrett's romantic and semi-classical solo explorations, though the unique Williams style or "voice" is consistent. Her first track, a fun blues, well demonstrates her novel piano technique and her variation on the Satie Gymnopédie is a rich invention. This decade has seen a remarkable development in her playing, beginning with her 2001 live concert at Maybeck Hall in Berkeley and closing with this 2009 performance at the Triple Door in Seattle. This recording is a brilliant addition to the large Jessica Williams catalogue."