Bill Charlap & Renee Rosnes, two pianos – Double Portrait – Blue Note 509996 27560 2 0, 49.9 min. [6/8/10] ****:
Both of these jazz pianists have successful careers. Charlap is the son of Broadway composer Moose Charlap, and has been involved in a series of fine projects involving the music of Gershwin and Bernstein among others. He has also worked with Tony Bennett. Renee Rosnes already has 14 albums as a leader – nine of them for Blue Note. She was a founding member of the SFJAZZ Collective.
The couple married in 2007 and this is their first two-piano recording, made at a live concert last year at the 92nd Street Y in NYC. They had performed in duo format live a number of times and wanted to set it down for posterity, which they have now done. Charlap says their chemistry as husband and wife is reflected in their music. Rosnes points out that with 20 fingers going there is a high potential for musical clutter, and the couple searches for clarity, trying to put the music first.
That may explain the simpler structure of some of the nine tracks, with Charlap usually taking the lead and Rosnes doing a sort of accompaniment role. It’s different from those two-piano sessions where both performers seem to vying for topping one another. The tunes are by such stellar composers as Gershwin, Jobim, Lyle Mays, Wayne Shorter, Joe Henderson, Gerry Mulligan and Frank Loesser. The Saros Cycle is by Rosnes and illustrates in its title her interest in astronomy. The opening two tracks provide a swinging Brazilian-flavored mood to start things off. Lyle May’s Chorinho, patterned after the Brazilian choros folk form, goes into Jobim’s Double Rainbow – one of the great bossa nova tunes. The duo’s 8 ½ minute treatment of My Man’s Gone Now from Porgy & Bess makes it into a touching pianistic lament. The closing Never Will I Marry finds the couple in a tongue-in-cheek mood, making fresh and witty musical comments on the Frank Loesser tune.
This isn’t quite as virtuosic a two-piano show-off session as some, but two-piano fans should find it a gem nevertheless. The sonics are fine, with just enough separation between the two instruments. (To exaggerate the effect I like to listen to two-piano albums on headphones.)
TrackList: Chorinho, Double Rainbow, Ana Maria, The Saros Cycle, My Man’s Gone Now, Dancing in the Dark, Inner Urge, Little Glory, Never Will I Marry
– John Henry
