An enticing oasis pulsing with West Coast cool energy is
what the acclaimed pianist and award-winning composer Lisa Hilton has created
with her new release, OASIS. Along with her trio mates, bassist Luques Curtis
and drummer Mark Whitfield Jr., they have delivered on that promise with a new
album that is at times tender, yet emotionally intelligent, and well-conceived.
On OASIS, Hilton notes that the album title refers to a place of refuge, relief
and a realization during the composing process that while she herself needed an
antidote during these tumultuous times, others were seeking their own safe
haven, or "oasis," as well.
The opening track, "Twists of Fate," surprises the
senses with its cool laid back vibe laced with an energy related to the
electricity of Thelonious Monk and Count Basie’s best excursions in bop, with
Hilton leaving plenty of aural room while Curtis and Whitfield lay down some
incredibly arresting rhythms. The trio then segues into the Horace Silver
influenced, "Adventure Lands."
Compositions like the title track, "Oasis,"
"Watercolor World" and "Sunday Morning" showcase the trio’s
collective ability to coalesce around an ethereal or, conversely, an ecstatic
mood; at times with washes of free jazz and cascading notes fluttering. The
classic George Gershwin tune, "Fascinating Rhythm," now travels in
some new directions with the supple grooves of Curtis and Whitfield as well as
yielding the melody under Hilton’s supple touch. This is a good companion to
Hilton’s "Vapors & Shadows" as well as the lively "Just for
Fun."
"Lazy Daisy" is a slow blues for a sunny
afternoon, though here with an impish twist mixing bluesy tones against simpler
melodic ideas. Latin rhythms weave in and out of Hilton’s compositions, and
here are showcased on the fast paced "Sunshine States." The final
track "Warm Summer Night" ends the album in a solo piano version
awash in Americana.
Hilton continues to produce an album a year with what has
been described by Midwest Record Recap as a “throbbing undercurrent of West
Coast Cool.” The pianist's 21st release, OASIS, is meant to lift spirits as a
positive and energizing force in our lives -- something the pianist and her
trio have accomplished using traditional ideas in new and invigorating ways.
Hilton's blues inflected trans-genre or poly-genre style
influences extend beyond jazz legends Thelonious Monk, Count Basie, Horace
Silver and Duke Ellington, to include bluesman Muddy Waters and Robert Johnson,
minimalists like Steve Reich, current rockers Black Keys or modernists
Prokofiev, Stravinsky and Bartok. Hilton has performed at venues across the US
from the legendary Carnegie Hall to Chicago’s historic Green Mill and is known
her expressive technique at the piano as well as for her warmth and
storytelling on stage. Originally from a small town on California's central
coast, Hilton studied classical and twentieth century piano formally from the
age of eight, where she was inspired by her great uncle, Willem Bloemendall,
(1910-1937), a young Dutch piano virtuoso. In college though, due to the lack
of creativity in the program, she became a music school drop out, switching
majors and receiving a degree in art instead. Ever since becoming a
professional musician, this background in the fine arts has well informed
Hilton's composition process.
Committed to helping students who are often overlooked, for
many years Hilton has regularly spent time to help blind students at the
Perkins School for the Blind in Boston, The Chicago Lighthouse for People Who
are Blind or Visually Impaired, The Junior Blind of America in Los Angeles,
Camp Bloomfield for the Blind in California, or The Berklee College in Boston
and their adaptive music lab for visually impaired musicians. "I enjoy
extending help to those with physical disabilities - music should be for
everyone," Hilton explains. OASIS will be the 21st album produced under
her publishing arm, Lisa Hilton Music, and released on the Ruby Slippers
Productions label. Hilton’s catalog of published compositions now totals well
over 200 tracks.
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