RACHEL Z
Everlasting
Tone Center
Read the Jazzitude
Review of Rachel Z/Grace
Rachel Nicolazzo, or Rachel Z, emerged in
the 1990s as a talented “Young Lion” pianist.
Having graduated from the New England Conservatory in 1984,
she has studied with John Hicks, Richie Beirach, and JoAnne
Brackeen, and has toured with such performers as Wayne Shorter,
Al DiMeola, and Lenny White. In addition she was a member
of the 1980s fusion band Steps Ahead and the Arsenio Hall
Show band. Z also figured prominently on Wayne Shorter’s
1995 album High Life, creating synthesizer orchestrations
for Shorter’s compositions and serving as musical
director on the tour that followed. Most recently she has
toured as keyboardist with Peter Gabriel.
Her early solo recordings were a bit unfocused,
with a combination of acoustic straight-ahead work and fusion.
This approach worked fairly well on 1993’s Trust
the Universe and 1996’s Room of One’s
Own, giving Rachel a contemporary edge, but firmly
placing her as a solid jazz player. The same cannot be said
1998’s disastrous GRP release, Love Is the Power.
That recording threatened to carry the talented musician
off into the neverland of smooth jazz. Fortunately, Z found
a new approach (piano trio) and a new label (Tone Center)
that would allow her to focus on her acoustic work and show
what she could do. Her first release for the label, On
the Milky Way Express was a tribute to the compositional
diversity of her old boss Wayne Shorter. Leading a supportive
trio through a selection of Shorter’s work, Rachel
demonstrated that she was the real deal. In 2002, she released
The Moon In the Window, a tribute to Joni Mitchell.
While Z focused maybe a bit too much on Mitchell’s
earlier, major chord-folky material rather than the later,
jazz-influenced work, the album managed to do justice to
both Mitchell’s songwriting and Z’s impressive
talent.
On Everlasting the approach is once
again to take contemporary pop music and make it serve the
purposes of a jazz piano trio. This time out she works with
drummer Bobbie Rae, who also played on Moon at the Window,
and bassist/Chapman Stick master Tony Levin, another member
of Peter Gabriel’s recording and touring group. Levin
adds a lot to this disc with his solid yet elastic sense
of time, and Rae is a welcome return, creating an ongoing
dialogue with Rachel and Levin.
Nicolazzo’s choice of material is nearly
unerring in terms of allowing her to display the best features
of her playing. Following the same concept as The Bad Plus
and singers like Cassandra Wilson, the pianist takes her
repertoire from a spate of ‘80s and ‘90s pop
songs, with versions of the Stones’ “Wild Horses”
and the timeless “Ring of Fire,” made famous
by Johnny Cash. In Rachel’s hands, the songs become
fodder for her explorations of post-modern piano jazz, often
resembling their original versions very little. Take the
opener, a version of George Harrison’s “Here
Comes the Sun” that explodes forth with a McCoy Tyner-like
blast of modal power chording with a swingy, 6/8 feel. Underlying
the melody with skeletal chord voicing in the keyboard’s
low range, the piece resembles John Coltrane’s re-imagining
of “My Favorite Things” until, a little over
a minute in, it breaks into a swinging 4/4 for Rachel’s
solo, which is lighter and much more evocative of Bill Evans.
Though her style has its limits—she
relies heavily on healthy doses of Evans’ impressionism,
Keith Jarrett’s earnest American gospel, and the wide-open
chord voicings of a singer/songwriter—she manages
to balance the need of her audience to hear familiar melodies
and song structures with her ability to play straight-ahead,
complex jazz. Her touch is light and nuanced, never resorting
to novelty or bombast. Some will see her as a populist performer,
but ultimately her take on the piano trio is often more
compelling and satisfying than the high-flying acrobatics
of The Bad Plus.
Some of Rachel’s material is better
suited to her adaptations than other. “Ring of Fire”
comes off as too mannered, prissy even, and the fast bebop
of “Black Hole Sun” undercuts the natural majesty
of its melody. But when she and her trio get it right, the
results are wonderful. Steely Dan’s “Kid Charlemagne”
loses some of its nervous jitters and becomes a sultry,
slinky tune, thanks in large part to the funky bass figure
that Tony Levin invents to open the track. Rather than belabor
the snappy, dissonant chords underlying the melody, Rachel
finesses the whole thing, allowing the energy to come from
the song’s natural momentum and the push of drummer
Bobbie Rae. King Crimson’s “One Time,”
on which Levin played originally, has an introspective feel
and is an excellent vehicle for Rachel’s improvisations.
And the album’s closer, a version of Peter Gabriel’s
“Red Rain” is magnificent, exuding a quiet power
that gets inside the listener. There are also two Interludes,
the first one extensive, and a song, “Mortal”
composed by Nicolazzo and Rae, which link some of the other
material and provide proof that Rachel Z is not dependent
on pop music to make her musical mark.
I’m sure many jazz aficionados and modern
music fans will consider Rachel and Co.’s approach
to be a bit too light to hold their attention, but understated
does not necessarily translate to ‘light’ music.
Nicolazzo, Rae, and Levin are all accomplished musicians
who play and interact well together. On Everlasting
Rachel seems more interested in getting down and playing
some piano than worrying about the semantics of musical
labels, and that suits this listener just fine.
