Luke Gillespie – Moving Mists – Patois Records PRCD025 67:39***1/2
Luke Gillespie is an inventive jazz pianist with a non-traditional approach to the interpretation of the material generally used in the genre. As a teacher in the Jazz Studies Faculty at Indiana University’s Jacob School of Music, Gillespie took advantage of his sabbatical year in 2018 to write and record with faculty colleagues. The result is Moving Mists in which Gillespie performs in groupings from solo piano to septets on an eclectic range music from original compositions, to jazz standards, to popular songs.
Proceedings begin with “I Hear A Rhapsody” which was featured in the 1952 noir film by Fritz Lang called Clash By Night and was sung by Tony Martin. While the song was originally slated as a ballad, over the years it has gained favour as an up tempo swinger. Gillespie accompanied by bassist Allen and drummer Houghton has taken a quirky approach that falls somewhere between a ballad and an up tempo style incorporating various metre changes.
The next six tracks are really the heart of the album and encompass two Gillespie originals “Blues For All” and the title track “Moving Mists”. The three others have become part of the jazz tradition including the Rodgers and Hart standard “My Funny Valentine” along with John Coltrane’s “Giant Steps” and Thelonious Monk’s “Round Midnight”.
The first Gillespie original is the composer’s alteration of Miles Davis’ All Blues with trumpeter John Raymond and saxophonist Walter Smith III substituting for Davis and Coltrane on the Kind Of Blue album. This interpretation is slightly more oblique than the original but it is in keeping with Gillespie’s intention and falls within his writing style. The title track also showcases John Raymond but this time on flugelhorn. His lengthy solo shows both poise and agility and along with Gillespie’s nimble touch gives the number a captivating reading.
An expression of Luke Gillespie’s piano prowess comes on his two solo efforts. Firstly, Thelonious Monk’s “‘Round Midnight” and then the last track of the album the Oscar Hammerstein & Jerome Kern hit “All The Things You Are”.
On the former number, Gillespie sets the tone by a lovely evocative exploration of the theme using Frederic Chopin’s nocturnes as the base line, while Monk’s melody is delicately framed by Gillespie’s right hand. In the latter composition, the number is taken at a slow deliberate pace, with a spectral atmosphere, as Gillespie runs through the theme that ends abruptly.
This is an impressive release from an inventive pianist.
Musicians:
Luke Gillespie – piano; Jeremy Allen – double bass #1,2,3,4,6,9; Steve Houghton – drums #1,2,3,4,6,8,9; John Raymond – trumpet #2,4/flugelhorn #6,9; Walter Smith III – tenor saxophone #2,4,9; Tierney Sutton – vocal #7; Dave Stryker – guitar #8; Tom Walsh – alto saxophone #8/soprano saxophone #9; Pat Harbison – trumpet #8; Wayne Wallace – trombone solo #8; Brennan Johns – trombone #8; Todd Coolman – double bass #8; Brent Wallarab – arranger #8,9
TrackList :
I Hear A Rhapsody
Blues For All
My Funny Valentine
Giant Steps
‘Round Midnight
Moving Mists
Beautiful Love
This I Dig Of Grew
DaNaBar
All The Things You Are
—Pierre Giroux
