By Bill Milkowski
Given the authority and sheer ferocity that Gary Husband has
demonstrated over the past two decades as a powerhouse drummer with the
likes of Level 42, bassist Jack Bruce and guitar god Allan Holdsworth,
it is remarkable to see him abandon the traps set altogether on this
daring solo piano offering.
Of course, doubling is nothing new in jazz. The great
bassist-composer Charles Mingus recorded an album of solo piano in 1963.
Jazz drummer Jack DeJohnette, an alumnus of Miles Davis' volatile â70s
bands, has performed and recorded on keyboards while former Mahavishnu
Orchestra keyboardist Jan Hammer has performed and recorded on drums.
Pianist and Return to Forever founder Chick Corea played drums on Wayne
Shorter's 1969 album Super Nova and tenor saxophonist Joe Lovano played
drums on his collection of duets with Cuban pianist Gonzalo Rubalcaba,
1997's Flying Colors. So the precedent is there. What's rare is to hear
a musician capture the essence of another composer's vision so
completely on an instrument not normally associated with him.
Such is the case with The Things I See, Husband's highly
impressionistic take on Allan's oeuvre. Performed exclusively on piano
by the drummer's drummer, it is a heartfelt homage to a friend and
long-time colleague whose evocative music has had a profound impact on
Husband and a legion of die-hard Holdsworth fans around the world.
Through these sparser, acoustic piano interpretations, purists and
electrophobes who have heretofore been unable to get past the sound of
solid body electric guitar tweaked with distortion and sustain may
finally be able to appreciate Holdsworth's gift for melody and lyricism,
his sophisticated sense of counterpoint and harmony and his undying
penchant for romanticism.
On The Things I See, Husband boldly plumbs the depth of passion
inherent in Holdsworth's captivating compositions. His adventurous
extrapolations on these Holdsworthian themes draw as much on the Eastern
European classical composers that he studied in his youth as they do on
Allan's signature style while also reflecting the considerable influence
of fusion keyboard maestros Jan Hammer and Joe Zawinul, whose harmonic
discipline he greatly admires.
Of course, Husband is no stranger to keyboards. He has performed
admirably as a pianist/synthesist on Jack Bruce's Sitting on Top of the
World (1987), Allan Holdsworth's Wardenclyffe Tower (1992) and Billy
Cobham's Focused (1998). His prodigious keyboard talents have also been
showcased in the context of The New Gary Husband Trio, which has been
for the last few years a very important part of Gary's musical life and
activity. That trio, featuring Gene Calderazzo on drums and Mick Hutton
on bass, has become quite a distinctive and popular group around London,
performing regularly at Ronnie Scott's and around the UK. Their
modernistic approach was documented on the trio's 1999 debut for
Jazzizit Records, From The Heart, and a follow-up recording is already
in the works. The gifted multi-instrumentalist has also released a solo
synthesizer recording, (The Complete) Diary Of A Plastic Box, which is
slated for reissue this year.
But in spite of those pianistic achievements, Husband has never
before presented himself in such stark and revealing terms as he does on
these evocative solo piano interpretations of Holdsworth's idiosyncratic
music.
There are several highlights along the way on this sonic journey:
"The 16 Men of Tain" (title track from the 2000 album on Gnarly
Geezer) opens with gentle droplets of sound that give way to driving
chords and rippling runs up and down the keyboard that are very much
reminiscent of Allan's own mindboggling dashes up and down the neck of
his guitar.
"Shadows Of" is a brief, Satie-like breath of calm sandwiched between
two of the more turbulent pieces in "The 16 Men Of Tain" and the urgent
"Temporary Fault" (from 1985's I.O.U.), a rhythmic showcase that gives way
to a full-fledged percussive assault on the strings inside the piano,
executed by Husband with Cecil-esque (as in Taylor) fervor.
There's a tenderness to his rendering of "Mr. Berwell" (from 1986's
Atavachron), underscored by a zen-like use of space that is at odds
with Husband's propulsive propensity on the drum kit. His jaunty version
of "Out From Under" (from I.O.U.) is imbued with the quirky swing feel
of jazz masters Herbie Nichols and Thelonious Monk.
Husband's rhapsodic reading of "The Things You See" (the title track
of a 1979 quartet date with pianist Gordon Beck, bassist Jean-Francois
Jenny-Clark and drummer Aldo Romano, subsequently reprised on Allan's
I.O.U.) recalls some of the more moving passages of Keith Jarrett's
landmark solo piano album, Koln Concert, before sequing to a
provocative, purely percussive section of slaps, claps, whistles,
scrapes and taps on the wooden body of the keyboard.
The brief interlude "Wish" (from Allan's 1977 debut as a leader,
Velvet Darkness) is a wistful, elegiac reading that builds to a
grandiose sweep. Then Husband turns in a heroic reading of "Devil Take
The Hindmost" (from 1985's Metal Fatigue), one of Holdsworth's most
strikingly familiar melodies. Here Gary works in odd bits of
counterpoint via overdubbing while also getting a chance to showcase his
considerable piano chops with some dazzling right hand runs on the
keyboard. Husband's gentle reading of "Kinder" (which originally
appeared as "Fred" on the 1975 New Tony Williams Lifetime album Believe
It! and subsequently appeared as "Kinder" on Allan's 1997 debut, Velvet
Darkness) is a surprisingly introspective take on Allan's denser,
bristling original. And this loving tribute closes on a bittersweet note
with a brief excerpt from "Looking Glass" (from Atavachron).
In some ways, Allan Holdsworth's music seems ideally suited to the
piano. The breakneck arpeggiations and rapidly moving harmonies on "The
16 Men of Tain" or "Devil Take The Hindmost" fall more easily on the
keyboard than on the fretboard. Husband executes these brisk, cascading
passages with requisite right hand flourishes. Few other plectorists
would be able to make the stretches and navigate the impossible
intervallic leaps with such fluidity. But then, few other plectorists
have the amazing reach, the astounding command and immense heart of
Allan Holdsworth. He has long ago transcended the six-string instrument
in his ongoing quest for a personal voice as a composer. As fellow
guitarist Andy Summers recently noted, "He's sort of gone beyond guitar
to where it's just almost like another instrument."
Indeed, at this point in Allan's fabled career -- after a dozen
highly personal recordings as a leader -- the guitar is merely a tool in
his hands, helping him to realize the rush of sounds in his head. And
Gary Husband -- intimate, colleague and fan for the past 16 years -- has
an uncanny empathy for Holdworth's composerly vision. He remains
uniquely qualified to lead us through this tour of Allan's extraordinary
music on The Things I See.
"The Things I See (Interpretations of the Music of Allan Holdsworth)"
Gary Husband
Art Of Life Records
Available April 2001
Bill Milkowski is a regular contributor to Jazz Times magazine. He is
also the author of "JACO: The Extraordinary and Tragic Life of Jaco
Pastorius" (Miller Freeman Books) and "Swing It! An Annotated History of
Jive" (Billboard Books)
