Pianist Matt
Baker's new recording, Almost Blue, is his fifth as a leader and second since
2010 when he moved to New York City from Sydney, Australia. Baker abandoned a
comfortable career to position himself in the pool of big fish who leave an
international array of smaller ponds to test their mettle in the jazz capital.
That it was a wise decision is evident: Baker--well-known in Australia and
Europe during the '00s for an approach deeply informed by Oscar Peterson, his
idol and first influence in matters of intention, execution and time
feel--interacts seamlessly with young New York A-listers Luques Curtis on bass
and Obed Calvaire on drums, placing his exhaustive knowledge of chords and
scales and stylistic dialects at the service of swinging melody without letting
you see him sweat. Master guitarist Lage Lund augments the unit on six
selections, while formidable tenor saxophonist Joel Frahm projects his singular
instrumental voice on three.
The
intersection of Baker's musical and personal journeys in New York is the
subject of the 14-tune program, which Baker and eminent producer Matt Pierson
culled from the Great American and late 20th Century Pop Songbooks. "I
chose these songs because of the lyrics," Baker says. "Each one
represents a certain place in my life during the period that led up to the
recording. They convey the album's narrative, and have equal weight as pieces
in the story."
Speaking of
narrative, Baker sings on three selections, presenting his vulnerable
emotionally connected voice on the title track by Elvis Costello; Beach Boys'
Brian Wilson's "Wouldn't It Be Nice;" and Canadian singer-songwriter
Ron Sexsmith's "Foolproof."
Among the
instrumental highlights are a beautifully re-harmonized, bittersweet trio
rendering of "I'll Be Seeing You" on which Baker displays his
contrapuntal prowess; a mellow, melancholy interpretation of "The End Of A
Love Affair" on which Lund and Baker each offer their perspective; a
stick-to-the-melody version of Jim Webb's "Didn't We"--again
showcasing the pianist's mighty left hand--that puts a bright spin on giving a
relationship a good shot but not quite getting there; a grooving treatment of
Doc Pomus' "Lonely Avenue" enhanced by Calvaire's propulsive funky
backbeat; a stark "Wee Small Hours Of The Morning" that palpably
brings forth the emotions attendant to, as Baker puts it, "lying in bed
late at night, looking out the window, hoping this is the night when she'll
call."
"I've
been singing for 20 years, and singing will always be there, but playing the
piano is strongest in my heart," says Baker, whose latest encomium is Back
Stage magazine's 2016 Ira Eaker Special Achievement Award, given to "an
outstanding performer on the rise."
In 2016, a
worldwide audience can witness the fruits of Baker's New York R&D as he
supports Almost Blue with a new trio, including Ahmad Jamal alumnus James
Cammack on bass, and the crackling young drummer Darrian Douglas. "Since
coming here, I feel I've begun to play with the band as opposed to having them
accompany me," Baker says. "I feel that Darrian, James and I are
creating whatever it is we do-various meters and rhythmic complexities,
harmonic development, textural development--in the moment together."
The son of a
jazz trombone player with a good record collection, Baker started jazz lessons
at 12, and at 15-years-old he took a once-a-week gig "at a café close to
my school that had a piano," which he retained until his twenties. During
his final year at Sydney Conservatory, he spent several months in New York,
where he encountered and took lessons from such piano heroes as James Williams,
Benny Green and Jacky Terrasson. "Friends in Sydney were forcefully
telling me I had to get to New York," Baker recalls. "I started to
realize what I didn't know and what I had to learn, and I felt pressure-in a
good way-to up my game and not get comfortable."
Baker
recorded Talkin' Soul Food a week after returning to Sydney from another trip
to New York, taken with the express intent of hearing every set by Peterson
during a week-long engagement at the Blue Note. During that week Peterson
befriended the intense, well-mannered youngster, and he remained Baker's friend
and mentor for the remainder of his life, a fact that Baker honors with a still
ongoing program devoted to Peterson's original music.
On the
strength of that recording, Baker brought his trio to the 2003 Montreux Jazz
Festival to serve as house band for its entire 2½-week duration. Festival
founder and artistic director, the late Claude Nobs brought the trio back the
next year, and had Baker play solo piano for the 2005 and 2006 editions. Baker
represented his Swiss experience-which gave him an opportunity to meet and pick
the brains of an international array of jazz celebrities, such as Herbie
Hancock and Michel Camilo-with the 2006 trio and chamber orchestra album From
An Afternoon With the Mountains.
With a
year's savings as a cushion, Baker spent his first year in New York networking
at such jam session hubs as Smalls, Fat Cat, Cleopatra's Needle and Smoke,
where he "hung out, listened, gave out the business card, and had stacks
of people not call me," while also studying with pianist Taylor Eigsti,
whom he met on a 2009 New York visit. In 2011, Baker self-recorded Underground,
with top-shelf generational contemporaries: trumpeter Jeremy Pelt, tenor
saxophonist Dayna Stephens, bassist Joe Sanders and drummer Greg Hutchinson. He
spent the next four years building a solid career, side-manning with, among others,
7-string guitarist Bucky Pizzarelli, and vocalists Tierney Sutton, Judy Collins
and Patrizio Buanne, and refining his own repertoire presentation in diverse
rooms like Birdland, the Blue Note, Iridium, Kitano, Gin Fizz, Bemelmans, Le
Cirque, the Zinc Bar, the Side Door and Scullers Jazz Clubs.
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