While the tunes on Hubub! forgo the raucous takes on the I Dream of Jeannie or Underdog themes, the offbeat sensibility that led Kooshian to such unexpected material is fully intact on his own pieces. As is his enthusiastic love for pop culture, here represented by evocative dedications to actors Steve McQueen and William Shatner.
Not that his nostalgia for the Saturday morning and prime time fare of his childhood was ever the sole source for Kooshian’s spirited sound. Throughout his last three releases, the familiar music of Captain Kangaroo and Baretta sat side by side with Kooshian’s own witty writing, jazz classics from such heroes as Wayne Shorter and Duke Ellington, and rock/pop favorites by Led Zeppelin or The Police. All of those influences merge through the pianist’s own pen on Hubub!, with vigorously swinging jazz, memorably infectious pop melodies and a quirky, inviting sense of playfulness.
Which makes sense given that Kooshian was discovering those formative influences all at the same time as he grew up in the Bay Area. “In the seventh grade there was a new, young band director at our junior high school, who wanted to start a jazz band,” Kooshian recalls. “He played an Oscar Peterson record for me, and it completely turned me around. I immediately thought, ‘Man, this is what I want to do.’ That same band director was really into Star Trek, which I already loved. So he helped me dive further into Star Trek and [legendary stop-motion effects master] Ray Harryhausen and the Marx Brothers in addition to jazz.”
Kooshian has assembled an ideal band for the occasion to help him achieve his unique mixture of influences and approaches. Hubub! features longtime compatriot Jeff Lederer on tenor saxophone, who has appeared on every one of Kooshian’s releases to date; veteran trumpeter John Bailey; bassist Dick Sarpola, another longtime collaborator who filled the same chair on Clockwork; and drummer Greg Joseph. Percussionist David Silliman, a friend since college who appeared on Kooshian’s most recent release, Clowns Will Be Arriving, guests on both “McQueen” and “Shatner.”
The album opens with the title track, which has been in Kooshian’s book for nearly three decades. It was written in 1992 upon the composer’s return to the hectic lifestyle of New York City following a brief respite at his sister’s home in the Boston suburbs. The piece, featuring bold solo turns from Bailey (at his brassiest) and Lederer (low down and funky), vibrantly conveys the frantic kineticism of navigating the traffic and crowds of the Big Apple.
“Wandelen” presents a far more serene and blissful landscape. Kooshian’s wife had gone to Holland as a foreign exchange student, and the couple reunited with her former hosts over the course of several recent summers, each time visiting a different Dutch island. “Wandelen” translates as “walking,” a favorite pastime of Kooshian’s in general and amidst the gorgeous vistas of those sites. The smallest of the Dutch North Sea islands, and the first that Kooshian visited, was “Schiermonnikoog,” inspiring the buoyant tune of the same name.
Opening with a striking, jagged piano solo, “Sparkplug – She Came to Play” is named for Kooshian’s beloved 11-year-old dog. “She's getting a little older now,” he says, “but she's still got tons of energy. She still acts like a puppy, though she's starting to slow down a little.” The album’s sole non-original is Kooshian’s atypically jaunty arrangement of Leonard Bernstein’s “Somewhere,” from West Side Story. The pianist has had experience playing a more traditional version of the tune on a European tour of the show in the early 1990s. The heartfelt “Hymn for Her” was co-written by Kooshian and vocalist Judy Barnett, and features vocalist Jim Mola along with Katie Jacoby on violin and Summer Boggess on cello. Jacoby, a fellow alumnus of the Ed Palermo Big Band (of which Kooshian has been a primary member for nearly 30 years), also tours with rock icons The Who and is featured on “McQueen,” an ode to the late action hero and epitome of cool.
“Bullitt is my all-time favorite movie,” Kooshian explains. “I love The Great Escape and The Magnificent Seven as well, but I always come back to Bullitt. I probably watch it a couple times a year – and I watch the chase scene about once a month. I'm a big fan.”
“Tornetto” is a portmanteau of “tornado” and “Ornette,” and the name perfectly suits the angular whirlwind of a tune. “Desert Island Tracks” not only conjures the ocean breeze and swaying palms of a deserted isle, but is Kooshian’s bid to land on some fan’s list of can’t-live-without favorites (he has his own playlist of a few dozen favorite tunes, just in case of shipwreck). “Space Train” returns to the interstellar terrain previously visited by Kooshian’s cosmic Standard Orbit Quartet.
Which brings us to “Shatner,” an ode to one of Kooshian’s lifelong heroes and star of his favorite show, the original Star Trek. “I'm a huge fan and have been since the sixties,” he says. “I saw his show on Broadway twice and saw him at a Star Trek convention once. Hopefully he’ll like this tune that I dedicated to him.”
Born in San Jose, California, pianist/keyboardist Ted Kooshian grew up in the Bay Area and started playing piano in the 2nd grade. He moved to New York City in 1987 and since then has worked with Aretha Franklin, Chuck Berry, Edgar Winter, Marvin Hamlisch, Sarah Brightman, Blood, Sweat, and Tears, and Il Divo. On Broadway he’s performed with such hit shows as Mamma Mia, The Lion King, Aida, Come Fly Away, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and Spamalot. He has performed at the Detroit Jazz Festival, the Syracuse Jazz Festival, the Sun Valley Jazz Festival, and the Clifford Brown Jazz Festival, as well as festivals in Germany, Estonia, Lithuania, and Latvia. In addition to leading his own groups and projects, Kooshian has been a member of the Ed Palermo Big Band since 1994. Since 2012 he has played solo piano five nights a week at Center Bar, one floor below Jazz at Lincoln Center in the Time/Warner Building.
No comments:
Post a Comment