In
fashion circles, the adjective "bespoke" denotes custom-made suits and
shirts and signifies the person who designs and constructs them. On The Bespoke Man's Narrative, his brilliant Mack Avenue Records debut, pianist Aaron Diehl extrapolates this notion to matters of musical invention.
"The
idea for the metaphor was that the composition and concept were
specifically for these musicians," Diehl says, referring to his working
quartet of 30-ish all-stars - vibraphonist (and Mack Avenue artist)
Warren Wolf, bassist David Wong and drummer Rodney Green - that
interprets the five originals and five arrangements comprising the
program. "There's a sequence, an arc, a beginning, middle and end. Each
piece has something to do with my musical development."
The
project gestated in April of 2011 in Indianapolis after Diehl, 26,
earned first place in the rigorous Cole Porter Fellowship in Jazz
Competition of the American Pianists Association. The award garnered him
$50,000 in career support and an opportunity to record with Mack Avenue
Records.
"I
thought it would be wise to use the opportunity to document this
ensemble," Diehl states. "I decided to compose and arrange music in line
with our own sound and conception, while using the strategies of
bandleaders like John Lewis and Duke Ellington, who developed their
music in line with the abilities of their personnel."
Diehl
is singularly positioned within his generation to apply these lessons
to a contemporary context. An alumnus of Todd Stoll's Columbus (Ohio)
Youth Jazz Orchestra, which specializes in performing a broad timeline
of Ellington's music, he spent the last six months of his sophomore year
at Juilliard - he was 19 at the time - helping pianist John Lewis'
widow, Mirjana, to organize her late husband's archive of manuscripts,
scores, reel-to-reel tapes and recordings. Already intimate with the
stride piano canon from his teens, Diehl applied the quality time with
Lewis' Bach-to-blues oeuvre towards finding a conceptual space in which
to coalesce his varied interests.
This
quartet initially took shape in 2008 - then with drummer Quincy Davis -
when Diehl was asked to play a concert of Lewis' music. By an April
2010 performance of this repertoire at Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola, Rodney
Green had assumed the drum chair.
"Warren
is a virtuoso," Diehl says of his fellow Mack Avenue artist. "There
couldn't be anyone more appropriate to play the part of Milt Jackson.
David is a fluid, precise player with a lot of finesse and a strong bow,
who comes straight out of the bebop-based approaches of Percy Heath and
Paul Chambers. Mrs. Lewis said that John would have loved him.
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Photo Credit: John Abbott
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"I
hadn't realized it, but Rodney listened a lot to Connie Kay, and told
me that one reason he wanted to be part of this project was to get more
inside Connie's approach."
In
preparing this program of creative refractions of the aforementioned
oeuvres, Diehl focused on nurturing an ensemble sound. "Rather than
feature just my piano playing, I like to involve everybody in the
process," he says. "Sharing the wealth allows for more musical
possibilities."
For
all his collective orientation, Diehl commands attention at the piano.
Addressing a Fazioli F-228 grand piano, he showcases a nuanced touch, a
comfort zone with tempos ranging from rubato to brisk, encyclopedic
harmonic knowledge, an abiding sense of blues expression and a will -
when necessary - to swing. He's assimilated vocabulary across the
timeline, finding fresh, idiomatic ways to mix-and-match ideas drawn
from a diverse cohort including, among others, Lewis, Ellington, Ahmad
Jamal, Marcus Roberts and Kenny Kirkland. As he puts it, "My overall
goal is trying to figure out how to connect all the language to make an
interesting and engaging performance, and also develop my own voice. Why
limit yourself to just playing something here and something there? It's
all gold."
Diehl's
all-jazz-is-modern attitude dates to formative years. "I started young
with Bach, so going into jazz, I had an affinity for piano," he says. He
also developed a feeling for music's ritualistic functions by playing
for Mass in the Catholic Church that his parents attended, as well as
services held for a primarily African- American clientele at his
father's funeral home. At 13 he joined Stoll's Columbus Youth Jazz
Orchestra; at 16 he took a steady trio gig in a Columbus hotel lounge;
at 17, directly after graduating high school, he joined the Wynton
Marsalis Septet for a European tour of one-nighters. That fall, he
matriculated at Juilliard, where Oxana Yablonskaya worked with him on
"how to develop various aspects of my sound."
The
group simpatico shines through on "Moonlight In Vermont," to which
Diehl imparts an Ahmad Jamal meets the MJQ feel, establishing bespoke
ensemble support for solos by Wong and the leader.
The
chops come out full force on "Stop and Go," a boppish contrapuntal
quartet piece that, Diehl says, "alternates between half-time and
double-time." He adds that the term is used in aviation (Diehl's a
licensed pilot who learned to fly in high school) that is used when you
land on the runway, briefly touch the ground, stop and then immediately
take off again. "Aviation has always been my second passion, ever since
my father began flying when I was a toddler. After earning his license,
my mom wouldn't fly until he had a few more hours logged, but my sister
and I never declined opportunities to get in the air."
Diehl
wears his classical erudition lightly on a gorgeous trio re-imagination
of the "Forlane" section of Maurice Ravel's "Tombeau de Couperin." He
approaches George Gershwin's "Bess, You Is My Woman Now" similarly,
improvising intensely on the melody while remaining true to the score.
"This
record is just a starting point, something on which to build and
invest," Diehl says. "Hopefully, over the long term, the ensemble will
develop and refine a band sound." Devotees of the idiom will eagerly
await the process.
The Bespoke Man's Narrative track listing:
1. Prologue (Aaron Diehl)
2. Generation Y (Aaron Diehl)
3. Blue Nude (Aaron Diehl)
4. Moonlight in Vermont (John Blackburn/Karl Suessdorf)
5. Single Petal of a Rose (Duke Ellington)
6. The Cylinder (Milt Jackson)
7. Stop and Go (Aaron Diehl)
8. Le Tombeau de Couperin (III. Forlane) (Maurice Ravel)
9. Bess, You Is My Woman Now (George Gershwin, Ira Gershwin, Du Bose Heyward)
10. Epilogue (Aaron Diehl)
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