BILL CHARLAP TRIO
Somewhere: The Songs of Leonard Bernstein

Blue Note

Read the Jazzitude review of Bill Charlap/Live at the Village Vanguard

Somewhere: The Songs of Leonard Bernstein, takes as its text the music that Bernstein wrote for musical theatre, including West Side Story, Wonderful Town, On the Town, Candide, and Fancy Free. It’s true that this is the music Bernstein is best remembered for, despite his wish to be known as a composer of serious concert hall works. His more ‘serious’ work is indeed excellent and deserving of recognition, but even there, in his Age of Anxiety and Jeremiah Symphonies and his Mass, he reveals himself to be a product of his times. He consistently crossed boundaries and was steeped in the mixing of both musical genres and presentation media.

Bernstein clearly had a deep regard for jazz, presenting his What Is Jazz? to young people and using it for inspiration in his own compositions. Therefore, who better than a jazz musician to tease the subtleties and rare beauty out of Bernstein’s theatre music? Bill Charlap, himself the son of a Broadway composer, is s sensitive and often inspired pianist who would certainly seem to be an ideal interpreter of the Maestro’s music. He proves to be that, providing a program of music that is always tasteful and beautiful and which plays much more to the heart than to the head.

The piano trio format is a perfect way for Charlap to explore these songs in an intimate, late night kind of voice. The ballads here are lush, romantic interpretations, and the late night saloon numbers are shot through with the appropriate mix of weariness and beaten down hope. Overall, the trio approach here is of the traditional stripe one might associate with Oscar Peterson or Tommy Flanagan. Though Charlap is influenced by both these pianists, he exudes much more of a stylistic empathy with his influences than any outright attempt at copying them. “Lucky to Be Me” contains both elements of the Peterson Trio’s approach to swing and the more romantic approach of Bill Evans. “Lonely Town” carries the lushness of Errol Garner.

Another thing that Charlap is able to contribute to our understanding of these Bernstein songs is his abilty to bring stylistic elements from jazz that Bernstein never explicity intended but which help make the music more vivid. He’ll insert bluesy runs into the melodic DNA of a song like “Some Other Time” or take “Big Stuff” on a stride tour through Harlem on his way to and from the melody. The arrangements here, too, are really wonderful, bringing an excellent variety of sound and texture to the basic trio sound.

The occasional more rhythmically aggressive numbers are also handled with élan. “Cool” opens the album on a high note, with the group playing up the modern jazz elements of the tune. Listeners can hear right away that the trio members are all very much in synch, and they can also hear that Charlap will not be treating these songs like sacred objects enshrined in some museum where the sunlight from the window lights up dancing dustmotes at 3 in the afternoon. Instead, he treats many of them like a sports car, driving them around town to see how they handle, then hitting the highway and opening them up, seeing what they can do. “It’s Love” demonstrates the easy swinging side of Charlap, with his wit and inventiveness preventing the track from lapsing into a cocktail piano outing. “Jump” turns into a crazy bebop workout that demonstrates Charlap’s ability to play any style he wants. “America” undergoes a major transformation. Eschewing the rhythms of the Bernstein original, Charlap instead uses a subtler Cuban vibe, allowing the melody to float over the more fiery rhythm section. He then deconstructs the song, using fragments of the song’s actual melody, his own improvisations, and a bit from the original Bernstein score suggest and insinuate the song without having to state it in obvious terms.

Two songs Charlap doesn’t mess with much are the title track and “Glitter and Be Gay” from Bernstein’s operetta/musical Candide. “Glitter and Be Gay” doesn’t deviate all that much from the melodic content written by Bernstein, despite its seven-and-a-half minute length. This might suggest boredom, but in fact it allows one to appreciate the mournful beauty of the melody and to realize what a gorgeously melodic composer Bernstein could be despite the fact that he often emphasized rhythm to a great extent. “Somewhere” is rendered as a piano solo, in stately tones, much like the dawn of a new day. It is a song that suggests timelessness and resurrection, and Charlap’s interpretation maintains that spirit perfectly.

Some might say that Charlap’s approach to these songs is a bit mannered and lacking in energy, but listen to this program of music a few times and it begins to breathe, to coalesce into a whole that really brings these tunes alive. This is a jazz ‘concept album” that truly is best appreciated as a whole. In that regard it helps listeners understand that there is more at work in Bernstein’s theatre music than they may have realized. It may not have comforted Bernstein to be remembered for this music, but the reason that it endures so well is that he didn’t treat these songs like poor stepchildren; he put every ounce of artistry and attention to detail into them that he did his ‘serious’ classical music. Charlap succeeds because he approaches the songs that way, too, and isn’t afraid to put some of himself in there as well.