JORDAN WILLIAMS “Playing By Ear”

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ARTIST

Jordan Williams

ALBUM TITLE

“Playing By Ear”

LABEL

Red Records

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Jordan Williams is one of those musicians whose voracious training is immediately apparent. Born in Philadelphia, he immersed himself from an early age in European classical music, engaged deeply with gospel, and became part of his city’s jazz scene. Above all, he has treated the history of jazz piano as a field to be explored in all its facets. Listening to him, one is struck by a wealth of references: Bud Powell, James P. Johnson, Herbie Hancock, Mulgrew Miller, Horace Silver, Kenny Barron, McCoy Tyner – and at times even Art Tatum. Yet his approach is free of mannered quotation, instead fusing these influences into a single musical current that conveys the essence of jazz pianism in a kind of distilled purity.

Although he has occasionally appeared as an accompanist to Bobby Watson, the twenty-nine-year-old Williams emerges here almost out of nowhere, delivering a debut album of striking impact. As befits a newcomer, he surrounds himself with two seasoned musicians such as Nat Reeves and Jeff “Tain” Watts, and chooses a repertoire populated by major names: Hancock, Kirkland, Buster Williams, Silver, Kenny Garrett, Waldron, as well as Reeves himself.

The result is remarkable, not only because multiple stylistic identities coexist within Williams’s solos, but also for the ease and fluency with which he handles the vocabulary of jazz piano: Earl Hines-like trills, an abundant use of block chords, the wide intervals of bop, and much else besides. In the enigmatic “Waltz for Ellis”, blues and gospel intertwine seamlessly. Williams’s command of the instrument is absolute yet refined, evident across the entire programme, while the support provided by the rhythm section represents the highest level of swing one could wish for.

On four tracks, the trio is joined by Wallace Roney Jr., an improviser who traces his lineage back to Fats Navarro, yet whose phrasing also reveals, in the middle register, the tense contortions associated with Booker Little (notably in “One Finger Snap” and “Peace”).

All things considered, “Playing by Ear” may be regarded as a graduation thesis worthy of the highest honours. The impression remains, however, that Williams now stands in need of further maturation, so that his musical personality may be more fully defined and enriched. Composition could well prove the ideal path forward.

Giuseppe Piacentino

DISTRIBUTED BY

IRD

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