The Touch Of Your Lips: Tribute To Bill Evans
By System Records
Manuel Rocheman is one of France’s finest jazz pianists and his latest CD honours the hugely influential Bill Evans who passed away in 1980. However it’s clear from the outset of this recording that Rocheman is never seeking to imitate and instead aims to evoke all the music that Evans has inspired within him.
Bill Evans’ favoured context was, of course, the piano trio where interaction with the rhythm section was paramount. It’s fitting, therefore, that Rocheman is joined by two very creative musicians on this recording - bassist Mathias Allamane and drummer Matthieu Chazarenc. Like Evans, Rocheman places a great deal of value on the interpretation of standards and performs a highly personal take on the title track, a tune immortalized by his predecessor. Also included are two originals by Evans, Johnny Mandel’s “Theme from M.A.S.H.” (from Evans’ “You Must Believe in Spring” album) and four new compositions from Rocheman himself.
By C. Michael Bailey
Bill Evans’ favoured context was, of course, the piano trio where interaction with the rhythm section was paramount. It’s fitting, therefore, that Rocheman is joined by two very creative musicians on this recording - bassist Mathias Allamane and drummer Matthieu Chazarenc. Like Evans, Rocheman places a great deal of value on the interpretation of standards and performs a highly personal take on the title track, a tune immortalized by his predecessor. Also included are two originals by Evans, Johnny Mandel’s “Theme from M.A.S.H.” (from Evans’ “You Must Believe in Spring” album) and four new compositions from Rocheman himself.
By C. Michael Bailey
The French Naive record label, long known for its fine releases of classical music—particularly its ongoing Vivaldi Opera project—has initiated a jazz stream, highlighting French jazz talent, including pianist Manuel Rocheman's The Touch of Your Lips: Tribute to Bill Evans. It is somehow fitting that a tribute to America's last great pioneer in jazz piano (apologies to Cecil Taylor) comes from the land of the Impressionists. Bill Evans, more than any other pianist—notJohn Lewis, not Jacques Loussier, not even the great Art Tatum—elevated jazz piano to a chamber art. His music, particularly that performed close to his 1980 death, was characterized by a fragile intensity, a phenomenon so friable, that the pianist's performance threatened to dissolve at any moment, like a smoke ring in the wind.
Rocheman, in his tribute, adds a quickening support to Evans' art like scaffolding buttressing an ancient sculpture that better allows for the ethereal to gain substance, to be seen and heard. Few pianists could pull off the high-wire act that was Bill Evans, and Rocheman does not even attempt to. Instead, he provides definition, darkening the lines of Evans' thought, making a clearer picture. The Johnny Mandel melody of "Suicide is Painless," from the 1970 movie M*A*S*H, demonstrates Evans' visions in its Red Garlandblock chords and modern bass-drums support. Here, Rocheman solos confidently, with tart punctuation and comment on the higher harmony of the composition.
The Evans' composition "We Will Meet Again" from the pianist's last studio recording of the same title (Warner Brothers, 1979), offers the scent of Evans' 1961 Village Vanguard trio inMathias Allamane's bass solo. Allamane surfaces from the impressionistic somnolence with a musing, flat in tone that takes off on the perpendicular to Rochemann's direction. This is the most potent presence of the spirit of Scott LaFaro on the disc, one that is gratefully not overplayed. "Daniel's Waltz" lilts with a swinging ferocity that does not draw attention abruptly; rather, revealing itself like an intellectual connection being made, when things become clearer.
Bill Evans is justly a hard musical target. His influence is like an apparition barely seen but registered nevertheless. Rocheman and his trio turn up the musical sensitivity on Evans so that he may been seen with greater clarity without losing any of the mystery that was that pianist's certain specialty.
Track Listing:
Rocheman, in his tribute, adds a quickening support to Evans' art like scaffolding buttressing an ancient sculpture that better allows for the ethereal to gain substance, to be seen and heard. Few pianists could pull off the high-wire act that was Bill Evans, and Rocheman does not even attempt to. Instead, he provides definition, darkening the lines of Evans' thought, making a clearer picture. The Johnny Mandel melody of "Suicide is Painless," from the 1970 movie M*A*S*H, demonstrates Evans' visions in its Red Garlandblock chords and modern bass-drums support. Here, Rocheman solos confidently, with tart punctuation and comment on the higher harmony of the composition.
The Evans' composition "We Will Meet Again" from the pianist's last studio recording of the same title (Warner Brothers, 1979), offers the scent of Evans' 1961 Village Vanguard trio inMathias Allamane's bass solo. Allamane surfaces from the impressionistic somnolence with a musing, flat in tone that takes off on the perpendicular to Rochemann's direction. This is the most potent presence of the spirit of Scott LaFaro on the disc, one that is gratefully not overplayed. "Daniel's Waltz" lilts with a swinging ferocity that does not draw attention abruptly; rather, revealing itself like an intellectual connection being made, when things become clearer.
Bill Evans is justly a hard musical target. His influence is like an apparition barely seen but registered nevertheless. Rocheman and his trio turn up the musical sensitivity on Evans so that he may been seen with greater clarity without losing any of the mystery that was that pianist's certain specialty.
Track Listing:
M.A.S.H; Send in the Clowns; We Will Meet Again; Daniel's Waltz; For Sandra; Only Child; Rhythm Changes; The Touch of Your Lips; La Valse Des Chipirons; Liebeslied.
Personnel:
Personnel:
Manuel rocheman: piano; Mathias Allamane: bass; Matthieu Chasarenc: drums.
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