March 2000

Eye & Ear
Archive <& /articles/eyee_archive.tmp &>

By Janet Sommer

Bill Charlap cannot remember a time when he didn't play piano, first learning to play by ear the songs of his childhood. Born in New York City in 1966, to vocalist Sandy Stewart and composer Moose Charlap, those songs ranged from Jazz standards to Broadway show tunes. Moose Charlap wrote the songs "I Was Telling Her About You" and "Here I Am In Love Again," which have become standards, as well as co-writing with Carolyn Leigh, the music for Broadway's "Peter Pan," starring Mary Martin. Sandy Stewart has sung in a variety of settings, including a stint with Benny Goodman, and still graces such rooms as Michael's Pub. She is sometimes accompanied by her son, who not only leads his own trio and has worked regularly with Phil Woods and the late Gerry Mulligan, but has developed quite a reputation as a singer's pianist. In spite of the inevitable (and numerous) comparisons to Bill Evans, Charlap considers himself as much an extension of Jimmy Rowles as he does Evans, if not more.

Bill Charlap has things to do. As I write this, he is preparing for a gig at Joe's Pub in New York City on March 8 and 9. That in itself is a a kind of preparation for his trio's next recording date in mid March. The trio, consisting of Bill on piano, Peter Washington on bass, and Kenny Washington on drums, recently appeared on Branford Marsalis'"Jazzset," and have been booked for a week at the Jazz Standard and a week at the Village Vanguard later this year. Two tours of Japan are scheduled, as well as a Blue Note release of the new CD, which is being recorded for their Japanese sister company, Something Else.

But that's not all. When I initially called Bill to set up a time to talk about what he'd been up to, he was fixing dinner for his wife Sandra, and their two daughters. For a man who believes that the actions of everyday life are reflected in his music, this is not a rarity. "If you live selfishly," he says, "You're going to sound selfish." Selfishness is one thing you won't find in Charlap's generous, lyrical playing. As author Whitney Balliett noted in an article for the New Yorker last year, "He always leaves something to remember him by."

"I've been working on developing a really delicate balance of the right trio partner's for a long time, and I always felt that Peter and Kenny would be perfect...and so I called 'em!" Charlap laughs. "What it really is, is that we made a record together, the chemistry was really immediate, and I felt, "Well, this is it. This has got to be a group." So I started working hard at getting us working, and it's been very fruitful of late."

"More important than that is what this group is really about, which is real trio playing. What do I mean by that? Extensions of the guys that we all consider the master rhythm section players. To me, there are three really important trio's, I'm talking about piano, bass and drums, now."

I venture the obvious... "Bill Evans."

"Yeah, that would be one, absolutely, but with Scott LaFaro and Paul Motian. That's the one... Oscar Peterson, with Ray Brown and Ed Thigpen, and Ahmad Jamal with Israel Crosby and Vernel Fournier. Those three sort of set the standard for trio's with piano, bass and drums. There are other important people, like Nat Cole, but that's more about the piano, bass and guitar formation. And there are certainly other very important rhythm sections like Red Garland, Paul Chambers, Philly Joe. Miles' rhythm sections, of course. And then there's Lou Hayes and Sam Jones, that combination...And Tommy Flanagan today, certainly burns the candle very bright. He's got a great trio of course, with Peter and Lewis Nash. So, that's a big part of who we are, but more than anything we focus on the songs, because that's what I'm about really. That's what I come from, in my musical upbringing, is the American Popular Song. So this group is really about two things. It's about rhythm section playing, and utilizing the trio as an orchestra. Using all the colors you can get out of the trio, but it's also about the repertoire that we play. That is, I love playing the melody as much as I love improvising. One's not more important than the other. It's almost a singer's approach on occasion."

I agree, and ask him if he hears the lyrics as he is playing the melody.

"Always, always." he says. "Those lyrics mean as much to me as the melodies, they really do. I'm not singing them, but I'm hearing them. I would never play a song at a tempo or in an arrangement where I couldn't sing it. I'm not a snob about it. I hear jazz musicians do 5/4 arrangements of "Over The Rainbow" or whatever, they may deconstruct the tunes, and I like it. I can hear it and say "Hey, that's really cool and I like what you're doing there," but I can't do it that way. Because to me, it's not the song, and I just don't hear it that way."

When I mentioned that I didn't think a lot of younger players really get the importance of hearing vocal arrangements, Charlap was quick to say that it isn't so much the vocal, as the song.

"A lot of the players that came from some very important developments in the '60's, particularly Coltrane, forgot the fact that Coltrane was such a great bop player and also such a great... you know, he was another great singer of the song. He wasn't just... as cerebral as Coltrane ever got, it always sounds like the blues. So, people get half of it, but they don't get the other half. It's like Bill Evans, people think it's all flowery arrangements and a nice touch and impressionist chords, but they forget the fact that Bill Evans was a heavy bebop player, who was linearly very, very strong, with great time and comping. You know, you have to go to Sonny Clarke to understand Bill Evans, or else you don't. If you don't go to Bud Powell, you can't understand Bill Evans in a profound way."

So, what about all those comparisons to Bill Evans? I told Charlap that almost everything I had read about him compared him to Evans, and asked him how he felt about it, knowing there would be no easy answer.

"To me, Bill Evans is one of the most profound and important jazz musicians, musicians period, in the history of 20th century music. Period. I'm not going to say that he's more profound than Tatum, or more profound than Bud Powell, he isn't. It's different." He pauses, obviously wanted to get this right. "But, the reason I get compared probably is...Part of it is the sound on the piano, another part of it is a certain richness of harmony, and, of course he's influential to me, he's one of the focal figures on piano. But, he's not more influential, say, than Jimmy Rowles, or even Tommy Flanagan. I think people like to pigeon-hole you, and they like to find some way of saying "Well, that's where he's at, that's where he's coming from..." He (Evans) is one of the people who is really important to me, but I think that sort of misses the point. And more and more, as we grow older, we grow more into ourselves. I mean, I'm as influenced by Gerry Mulligan too, horn players and things like that. My line is not Bill's line at all. People miss that stuff. They hear the surface a lot of the time...I know what they're saying, they're saying I don't waste. I understand that, and believe me, I'm not saying that's not true. Obviously Bill was a very profound person for me, but I think it's dangerous to get involved in any of those things. If I would play in front of Bill, and then Bill would sit down and play...If you were to hear us really play right next to each other, the same tune, you would notice that it's completely and totally different."

As for the Bill Charlap Trio, although all three of them continue to play with other groups, Charlap can't help but be excited about their combination. He worked with Kenny Washington and knew that as a small group drummer, there was nobody who could really be better, particularly in the fact that he's got such a comprehensive understanding of small group playing , and that he is a virtuoso on his instrument. Charlap also knew that Peter Washington was one of Kenny's favorite bass players, if not the favorite. He knew too, that he wanted the depth of sound that Peter has, as well as the sophistication that he would bring to the music. In getting to know each other, they have also all become good friends, and share a commitment to the music.

"There's nothing generic about these guys," Charlaps says emphatically. "They're both the extensions of the players they love. Peter Washington is a modern day George Duvivier and Paul Chambers. Kenny Washington is a modern day Jo Jones and Philly Joe Jones. And they're extensions of those people, they're not anachronisms. They're not antiquarians by any means, they are extensions of a certain tradition of playing, just as much as Michael Moore extends from Red Mitchell. So, that's why it works, and that's how it happened. It's just such a joy every time I hit a downbeat, and I know that this is the right mixture."

The Bill Charlap Trio will be playing songs from their soon to be recorded CD at Joe's Pub on March 8 and 9, at the Jazz Standard July 5th through the 9th, and at the Village Vanguard November 14th through the 19th.

Photo © Copyright Janet Sommer.