Great artists can’t help but respond to the world around
them, absorbing the tensions, angst and joys vibrating throughout society. At
the same time, musicians provide energy for the necessary struggle, “washing
away the dust of everyday life,” as drum legend Art Blakey said, describing
jazz’s transformative power. This double duty is at the core of pianist Laszlo
Gardony's new solo album Serious Play. He created most of the music
spontaneously in the studio, with a few soulful reimaginations of beloved standards
added, providing a potent reminder that the longtime Berklee College of Music
professor is one of jazz’s most emotionally trenchant and melodically inventive
solo piano practitioners. His 12th album and 9th recording for Sunnyside,
Serious Play is slated for release on July 14, 2017.
Possessing a ravishing touch and a singular style that draws
on the post-bop continuum, various strains of folk music and his Central
European classical training, he “went into the studio with two goals that went
hand in hand,” says Gardony, who couldn’t help but carry with him an acute
sense of rising anxiety in the country. “One goal was to sit down and improvise
for an extended amount of time,” revisiting the compositional approach that led
to Clarity, his celebrated 2013 solo piano session. "The other was to
organically connect that soul-baring material to soul soothing arrangements of
beloved standards.
“In the studio, I asked Paul, the sound engineer, to keep
the recorder running. There was the sense that this is again the right time to
let spontaneous improvisation unfold and express my feelings about our times
and my responsibilities in it, thereby adding my voice to our collective
conversation."
He opens and closes Serious Play with familiar standards reimagined,
what Jackie McLean called “new wine in old bottles.” He starts his journey with
a sublime meditation on Hoagy Carmichael’s “Georgia On My Mind” that builds on
a melody that drips with longing. He follows with the album’s longest track, a
caressing exploration of Coltrane’s sublime ballad “Naima” that builds between
meditation and tension with his rumbling left-hand figures driving his solo,
contrasting with his peaceful statement of the melody.
The album’s title track - the first of the improvised pieces
- is something of a mission statement, a headlong slalom that seems to pick up
momentum without gaining speed. The resounding bass chords keep the tune
serious, while his frolicking right hand exalts in a swerving broken-field
sprint. The spirit of it is active and positive - a musical call to action. The
brief and contemplative “Night Life” is the first of several brief tracks that
serve as a thematic bridge to the next statement, the polyrhythmic “Forward
Motion,” which develops from a 5/4 groove, and has the feel of wheels in
motion, literally and figuratively.
The brief and reflective “Watchful Through the Night”
continues the emotional journey and hints at Gardony’s love of prog rock with
its concluding diatonic harmony, while “Folk at Heart” evokes a community of
people who stand together in their demand for a more compassionate, humane
tomorrow. The tune naturally leads to the relentless syncopated energy and
almost dissonant harmonies of “Truth to Power,” a song that suggests a clean
sweep, a tidal purge of the negative, manipulative forces that attempt to sow
dissonance in our hearts. Gardony closes the album with a breathtaking version
of Harold Arlen’s chestnut “Over the Rainbow.” Brief and reharmonized, the
rendition is haunting - a sound-vision
of a place that ill will cannot touch.
As Gardony writes about recording this album, “music has a
direct effect on our emotions and also on our well-being. What we need at all
times - but perhaps now even more - is a clear mind, so we can assess our
reality accurately, energy, so we can take positive and protective action, and
of course, courage, fearlessness…With this CD my focus was on strengthening us
so we can be resilient and resistant, and also on washing away any fatigue,
doubt, or desperation we may feel."
Born in Hungary, Gardony took to the piano not long after he
started to walk. He wasn’t much older when he started improvising, devising
little tunes inspired by the blues, pop and classical music he heard around the
house. Immersed in the European classical tradition while growing up, he was
drawn to progressive rock as a teenager, and spent countless hours improvising
blues-based music at the piano. He investigated gospel and studied jazz, a
passion that soon overshadowed his classical pursuits. While there weren’t many
jazz musicians around “there were some very knowledgeable people and a lot of
records,” he recalls.
After graduating from the Bela Bartok Conservatory and the
Science University of Budapest, Gardony quickly earned a reputation as one of
the continent’s most accomplished accompanists. He also started recording as a
leader. Possessing a powerful sense of swing, a strong feel for the blues and a
firm command of post-bop vocabulary, he gained invaluable insight by sharing
festival stages with acts like Art Blakey and Abdullah Ibrahim. After several
years on the road, Gardony decided he needed to deepen his knowledge of jazz.
In 1983 a full scholarship to Berklee brought Gardony to the
United States. Miles ahead of most of his fellow students, he was hired by
Berklee to teach upon graduation. He made his US recording debut with the
acclaimed 1988 album The Secret (Antilles) featuring Czech bass great Miroslav
Vitous and drummer Ian Froman, but it was his 1st place win the following year
at the Great American Jazz Piano Competition that catapulted him into the
national spotlight.
He seized the moment with 1989’s brilliant release The
Legend of Tsumi (Antilles), a trio session with bassist Dave Holland and
drummer Bob Moses focusing on Gardony’s lyrical originals (“Being with Dave and
Miroslav was such an education,” Gardony says. “If you really immerse yourself
in those moments, it can change you.”) The album earned rave reviews. Over the
years he’s collaborated with saxophone greats like David “Fathead” Newman and
Dave Liebman, but his subtle and rhythmically intricate pianism has meshed
particularly well with jazz’s most inventive guitarists, including Mick
Goodrick, John Abercrombie, John Scofield, Mike Stern and the late Garrison
Fewell.
His primary vehicle for most of the 21st century has been
his state of the art trio with bassist John Lockwood and drummer Yoron Israel,
an ensemble first documented on the 2003 Sunnyside release Ever Before Ever
After. One of the finest working trios in jazz, the group performs and records
regularly, exploring Gardony’s extensive book of originals as well as the
occasional standard and jazz classics by the likes of Horace Silver and Billy
Strayhorn.
No band has stretched Gardony more than The Wayfaring
Strangers. A long-time fan of Gardony’s who credits the pianist’s first solo
album Changing Standards with opening his ears to modern jazz, violinist Matt
Glaser initially recruited him to perform on one track of 2001’s Shifting Sands
of Time (Rounder), contributing a haunting solo to Ralph Stanley’s elemental
rendition of “Man of Constant Sorrow.” By the release the project’s second
album, 2003’s This Train (Rounder), Gardony was an essential member of the
ensemble. The group continues to perform, exploring its singular synthesis of
bluegrass, Appalachian roots music, and jazz. Like every other profound musical
experience under his belt, some of the Wayfaring Strangers has shaped Gardony’s
expression in straight ahead contexts. With Serious Play, he’s once again
extended his creative purview, capturing the emotional pitch of the moment with
a timeless statement.
“I always have a reason I make an album,” Gardony says. “It
has to be something new. When I was a kid I really appreciated progressive
rock, Bartok, folk music, and of course jazz and blues. With all of those
musics, people never step into the same river twice.”
At a time of hunger for reason and thirst for peace of mind,
Serious Play arrives like an energizing meal, accompanied by a tall drink of
pure, clear water.
