A Special Double-Bill

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The New York Sun

The four-handed piano duet is a long-standing jazz tradition in formal concert settings. It’s not uncommon for two heavyweight pianists to get together and trade notes and ideas for an evening, as the legendary Hank Jones and Barry Harris did in October under the aegis of Jazz Forum. But I can’t think of an occasion when a club has presented a piano duo team as a recurring attraction, as Birdland is doing this week with two outstanding pianists named Bill, namely Charlap and Mays.


Although Mr. Mays (whose latest album, “Live at Jazz Standard,” has just been released by Palmetto) is more than 20 years older than Mr. Charlap, both men were initially known for their associations with Gerry Mulligan – in fact, it was Mr. Mays who helped Mr. Charlap get the job with the late saxophone giant. Messrs. Charlap and Mays played as a duo last year at Merkin Hall, but their eight show run this week will allow the twosome to coalesce in the way other ensembles would from steadily working together.


If the opening set on Wednesday night is any indication, the double-Bill is off to a flying start. Mr. Charlap said afterward that he and Mr. Mays had made a point of not deciding beforehand what they were going to play, yet one clear-cut theme was evident: Throughout the performance, they found new and interesting things to do with standards and their variations.


The duo began with “Pennies From Heaven,” or rather, the minor-key variant on it composed by Lennie Tristano, titled “Lennie’s Pennies.” Yet where Tristano’s version barely disguised Arthur Johnston’s melody, Messrs. Mays and Charlap’s treatment obscured the work of both previous composers.


Where “Pennies” was a completely theme-less improvisation, the second tune, “It’s Easy To Remember,” was all melody. Both men decorated the tune with flourishes, and whenever one man’s flourish would evolve into a distinct melody, the other pianist would steer it back to the tune. “Easy To Remember” set a precedent for relevant quotes: Mr. Charlap briefly supplemented the Richard Rodgers melody “Rhythm-a-ning,” Thelonious Monk’s most famous line on the same changes. Later still, the team injected Charlie Parker’s most famous blues, “Now’s the Time,” into his lesser known “Bloomdido.”


The standout ballad of the set was an elaborate construction of three songs reflecting on the nature of youth: “Last Night When We Were Young,” “Blame It on My Youth,” and “Young and Foolish.” The playing of both Bills was so sensitive here that it brought to mind yet a third piano-playing Bill (Evans). The two pianists were so together on this piece that what Mr. Mays referred to as “18 feet of piano” (meaning the two 9-foot grands) seemed like a single giant instrument played by one colossal musician.


The twosome essayed a pair of Latinate numbers to very different effect. “Pensativa” – by yet another pianist, Clare Fischer – was treated as it is traditionally, meaning as the most famous of all North American-born bossa no with another, “It Might as Well Be Spring.” Then, in “Dance of the Infidels,” he supported Bud Powell’s variations on “I Got Rhythm” with vas. By contrast, Antonio Carlos Jobim’s “Zingaro” began with the angular approach of an Argentinian tango, and then briefly became a Bach four-part invention before Mr. Mays brought it home with lightly dissonant secondary intervals that suggested Chinese music.


The two Bills concluded with “Nice Work If You Can Get It,” enhancing the Gershwin standard with the same sort of chromaticisms the composer himself favored in his piano performances. It seemed clear that the more familiar the terrain the two Bills were on, the more their collaboration started to turn into a competition, and the more cut-throat their jousts became. Halfway through, they were trying to out-melody and out-improvise each other; by the end, they were even trying to out-coda each other. Zing! Take that! Nice work, indeed.


Until December 3 (315 W. 44th Street, between Eighth and Ninth Avenues, 212-581-3080).


The New York Sun

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