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Short Stories
Gareth Williams
Label: Miles Music
Released: 2022
Duration: 01:07:34
Views: 518
Tracks
Not Bossa; Unwritten Hymn; Derivatives; Mr JT; Who Can I Turn To?; Buster Keaton; islands of Men; Another Waltz; One More Blues; For Palle; Short Story; Too Young to Go Steady
Personnel
Gareth Williams
pianoMartin France
drumsPalle Danielsson
bass, acousticChris Laurence
bass, acousticAlbum Description
If you have never heard of him, {{Gareth Williams}} is a quiet piano master who enjoys a bigger reputation with fellow musicians than with the public. A founder member and MD of the Nineties jazz/hiphop band {{Us3}}, and former accompanist for the singer {{Claire Martin}}, he has worked at the highest level for 30 years, mainly in London. But London is a city blessed with many international quality jazz pianists, and Williams has faced formidable competition during his career. On the evidence of this album alone, he can hold his head high amongst any of them. Short Stories consists largely of his own compositions, plus solo piano renditions of the ballads "Who Can I Turn To?" and "Too Young to Go Steady," this one featuring Williams’ rather staccato vocal. The drummer throughout the album, which was recorded in 2019, is {{Martin France}}, and the bass chair is shared between veterans {{Chris Laurence}} and {{Palle Danielsson}} - both of them legends in their own right. The latter, who plays on four of the 12 tracks, worked with {{Keith Jarrett}} in the late 70s/early 80s, and has that uncanny ability so vital in a trio to lock into the mind of the piano player and anticipate what he’s going to do next. This is nowhere more evident than on the opener, "Not Bossa," which begins and ends out of time, the middle section picking up a subtle latin rhythm. There’s a certain austerity in some of Williams’ playing, a bright, cool, almost classical detachment. On the ballads and on the tracks "For Palle" and "Short Story," he reveals a more lyrical side, whilst "Buster Keaton" begins with pentatonic openness before the crazy clatter of France’s drums forcefully suggests the sort of physical scrapes the great silent star so often found himself in on screen.
Review
- Short Stories by Peter Jones
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