Dave Miller Trio – Just Imagine – Summit Records DCD753 54:35****
( Dave Miller – piano; Chuck Bennet – bass; Bill Belasco – drums)
Just Imagine is the most recent release from the San Francisco Bay area pianist Dave Miller. Celebrating the centennial of pianist George Shearing, Miller and his cohorts bassist Chuck Bennet and drummer Bill Belasco, offer in exemplary fashion, a selection of better and lesser known compositions associated with that great musician.
This ambitious adventure starts out with “One For The Woofer” a composition by another terrific pianist Billy Taylor. Driven by an opening bass-piano unison rhythmic cascade, the foundation has been laid for the number to take off. Miller delivers a bold statement in a chordal mode which eventually flows into a stylish exchange with drummer Belasco, before some unison playing closes out the number.
Bebop pianist Ray Bryant wrote a number of well known jazz numbers in a variety of modes including the Latin Cubano Chant, the blues based Little Susie and Slow Freight. However one of his lesser known numbers was “The Bebop Irishman” which by the way was infrequently recorded. Miller’s trio takes the bebop frame to heart with long skittering single note piano runs done at an uptempo pace.
George Shearing was born congenitally blind in Battersea, London in 1919. He began piano lessons at age 3 and studied formally at Linden Lodge School For The Blind. He moved to the US in 1947 and eventually became a naturalized citizen in 1956. He established his first quintet ( piano, guitar, vibraphone, bass, drums) in 1949 and it immediately gained fame through “The Shearing Sound” and their recording of September In The Rain. For those readers who may be unfamiliar with the musical structure of this “sound”, it was based on Shearing using a double melody block chord in a lower octave on the piano, while at the same time the top voice would double with the vibraphone and in the lower voice there would be a double with the guitar.
Although Shearing was also a formidable composer with such well known titles as Lullaby Of Birdland, Conception, Jump For Joy among others, Miller decided to forego including any of them in this session. He did include, however, a Charlie Parker bop classic “Confirmation” which has the same feel as the Shearing number “Conception”. Miller and the band rip through the number in fine fashion with the requisite example of block chord playing which adds to the atmospherics.
The sure sign of an accomplished pianist is not only in the ability to interpret a variety of compositions, but also by playing in several combinations and as a solo performer. Dave Miller demonstrates this versatility in duo tracks with bassist Chuck Bennet on “You Must Believe In Spring” and drummer Bill Belasco on “Careful”.
Dave Miller’s solo excursions are revealed on “A Foggy Day” and the title track “Just Imagine”. The former begins as a ballad as Dave runs through the melody for the fist time. He then swings into a medium tempo groove as he develops several inner soliloquies as the number plays out. On the title track, Miller is in a more ruminative state of mind, but in total command of the underlying harmonic excursion.
TrackList: One For The Woofer; You Took Advantage Of Me; The Bebop Irishman; I’d Love To Make Love To You; Bittersweet; A Foggy Day; A Beautiful Friendship; Confirmation; You Must Believe In Spring; This Time The Dream’s On Me; Careful; A Time For Love; All My Tomorrows; Just Imagine
—Pierre Giroux
