Heroes is dedicated to pianist Roger Kellaway’s heroes, namely pianist Oscar Peterson. Most of the songs on the album are songs Oscar’s trios from 1952 to 1959 played. In the liner notes, Kellaway comments that he was attracted to Peterson’s trio’s because of their “clarity,” “musicality,” and “Will to Swing.” This “Will to Swing” is, sadly, what is missing from too much of Heroes.
The biggest reason for this is the lack of drums. Kellaway’s trio is just guitar, bass, and piano. So much of the beauty of piano playing in jazz music is how it interacts with the drums. The best players play around with the tempo, sometimes playing with the beat, sometimes playing in the spaces between it. In jazz, few things are more exciting than hearing a great pianist fit a full measure’s worth of notes into half a measure and make it sound utterly natural.
That being said, Kellaway, a fine pianist, is putting himself at a huge disadvantage by playing sans drums. The result is that, in my opinion, the only songs that work are those with strong melodies, such as George Gershwin’s I Was Doing All Right. Like all great melodies, the melody to that one sounds like it formed out of thin air, each note the logical extension of the next. Kellaway’s trio understands this and doesn’t stretch the song too far past its changes.
Night Train, a Forrest and Washington composition, works as well because its melody is unmistakable: it’s the “bunny hop” heard at children’s birthday parties. Like on I Was Doing All Right, Kellaway and his trio play beautiful solos, Bruce Forman’s guitar work on the song is especially nice.
The trio’s version of Oscar Peterson’s “Hymn to Freedom” is an interesting case, because the main melody, a call and response chorus of trills, is absolutely gorgeous and every time the trio returns to it it’s pure magic. But when they stray from the chorus into their solos, it sounds like noodling. Thankfully, the players seem to be in love with the trills as I am, and keep returning to it every four or five measures. Heroes, though hurt by its lack of drums, still has enough gems on it to redeem some of the more unfocused tracks. With the right melody, the trio’s “Will to Swing” comes through loud and clear.
Tracks: Killer Joe, Cotton Tail, I Was Doing All Right, Nuages, Night Train, I’m Smiling Again, Midnight Sun, Moten Swing, 52nd Street Theme, Hymn to Freedom
– Daniel Krow
