From left, Bill Charlap on piano, with Gary Smulyan, Harry Allen, Jerry Dodgion, Jeremy Pelt, Peter Washington and Kenny Washington / Credit: Katie Orlinsky for The New York Times
Last Monday, Bill Charlap presented The Gerry Mulligan Songbook for Jazz in July, and the New York Times approved. They wrote: Bill Charlap waited until almost the last possible moment in “The Gerry Mulligan Songbook,” a tribute at the 92nd Street Y on Monday night, before divulging a sentimental piece of trivia. It was in that room, he said, where he played his first concert with Mulligan’s quartet, in 1988. The evidence suggests that it was a fine debut: a review in The New York Times singled out Mr. Charlap as “a particularly enlivening element in the group,” adding that “broad gestures, even incipient levitation, helped him milk emotions from the piano.
Mr. Charlap didn’t levitate this time, but there was plenty of emotion in his solo reading of “Noblesse,” an impressionistic ballad from the late shift of Mulligan’s career. And in many ways Mr. Charlap’s bandstand experience informed the entire program, part of Jazz in July, a concert series he has produced for the last five years.
The last concert in the festival, Saxophone Summit, takes place tomorrow evening. And Jazz Piano at 92Y Series beginning in Oct is now on sale, get your tickets here.
Previously:
Tony Bennett Surprises Jazz in July Crowd Last Night at 92Y
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