Jazz pianist Bill Charlap plans program of American standards
“I have, happily, been in Ann Arbor quite a bit,” he said by phone recently from his West Orange, N.J., home. “I was there with Marian McPartland in 2007. I have also played at Kerrytown Concert House, once solo piano and once with my mom. And I appeared once with the ‘Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil Tour’ many years ago.”
The 43-year-old Charlap — considered by many one of the world’s best jazz pianists and premier interpreters of the great American songbook — brings his trio to town for two University Musical Society-sponsored performances at Lydia Mendelssohn Theatre.
He comes by his talent naturally. His father, Mark "Moose" Charlap, was a Broadway composer and songwriter, and his mother, singer Sandy Stewart, performed with Benny Goodman and scored a Grammy nomination for her single “My Coloring Book,” written by songwriters Kander and Ebb.
Bill Charlap performs with Sandy Stewart:
“I don’t know if I remember a time when music wasn’t the central thing in my life creatively and I don’t ever remember a time when I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life,” said Charlap.
“I am surrounded by music all the time. My wife, Renee Rosnes, is one of the world’s premier jazz pianists — I’m standing in my living room right now looking at two nested Steinway grand pianos. Renee and I are working on a two-piano project that will be released in the spring.”
His most recent CD is “Live at the Village Vanguard.”
Other members of his trio, which has been together for 11 years, are bass player Peter Washington and drummer Rodney Green, who is filling in for the trio’s usual drummer, Kenny Washington, presently touring with Ahmad Jamal. Charlap called Green “a drummer from a slightly younger generation who has really been making a great name for himself playing with people like Diana Krall and various others. He’s an absolutely superb musician.”
Bill Charlap performs at the Village Vanguard with Peter Washington and Kenny Washington:
The same might be said about Charlap.
For more than a decade, he has been building his solo career and earning terrific reviews in the process. In the late 1980s he joined baritone saxophonist Gerry Mulligan’s quintet and, in 1994, was enlisted by alto saxophonist Phil Woods for his band. He received the pianist of the year Jazz Award in 2003 from the Jazz Journalists Association and was named outstanding jazz soloist by Manhattan’s Night Life Awards in 2003 and 2004. In 2008, Charlap became part of The Blue Note 7, a septet formed that year in honor of the 70th anniversary of Blue Note Records. He has recorded six albums as a leader for Blue Note.
Charlap received a Grammy nomination for the disc “Somewhere: The Songs of Leonard Bernstein,” part of his exploration of American composers featuring jazz reworkings of “Cool” and “America” from “West Side Story,” as well as selections from “On the Town,” “Fancy Free” and “Candide.”
Charlap said his program will focus on American popular songwriters such as Irving Berlin, the Gershwins, Harold Arlen, Cole Porter and others, as well as great jazz composers such as Horace Silver and Gerry Mulligan, as well as some blues and bebop.
He said the kind of music he plays is so well written it will never fade from popularity.
“(The music)” is so good, it’s in such a perfect balance and it’s so unique,” he explained. “If you think about the melodies, rhythms, lyrics and harmony, it’s so fertile for a jazz musician and such a huge part of the sound of American music. … I don’t think it will ever go out of style any more than Stravinsky or Bach. It’s not antiquated either, it’s a very much a living breathing thing.”
Who: The University Musical Society presents jazz threesome consisting of Bill Charlap, piano; Rodney Green, drums; Peter Washington, bass.
What: American jazz standards.
Where: Lydia Mendelssohn Theatre, 911 N. University Ave.
When: Friday, Oct. 2, 7 and 9:30 p.m.
How much: $30-$40.
Info: 734-764-2538; UMS web site
Roger LeLievre is a free-lance writer who covers music for AnnArbor.com.