Grammy® Award-Winning
Pianist Laurence Hobgood
Steps into the Spotlight with New Heavy Hitting Trio
on Honor Thy Fathers - Available February 12
on Honor Thy Fathers - Available February 12
Trio Features John Patitucci and Kendrick Scott
"...'Honor Thy Fathers' can be considered
Hobgood's strongest recording to date.." - Chicago Tribune
"One of the finest pianists out there. Period." - JazzTimes
With Honor Thy Fathers, Laurence Hobgood
embarks on a striking new chapter in what has already been a storied
career. Hobgood's 18-year tenure as musical director for singer Kurt
Elling drew to a close in late 2013, leading to a long-overdue step into
the spotlight for the renowned virtuoso pianist, composer and arranger.
He seizes that opportunity with a bold and original trio outing that
pays homage to a selection of personal mentors, influences and father
figures.
Hobgood's
incredibly fruitful collaboration with Elling garnered Grammy®
nominations for each of the ten albums on which they collaborated, two
for Hobgood's arrangements, and a win for Hobgood as producer of 2009's Dedicated To You: Kurt Elling Sings The Music Of Coltrane and Hartman.
The same qualities that earned such high praise are brilliantly
displayed here: finely crafted compositions, inventive arrangements, and
deeply soulful expression.
There may be no greater testament to the esteem in which Hobgood is held among his peers than his collaborators on Honor Thy Fathers: bassist John Patitucci and drummer Kendrick Scott.
The pianist isn't exaggerating when he refers to the pair as "two of
the world's greatest musicians," but only modesty would exclude him from
the same estimation. Hobgood originally worked with both under Elling's
auspices - Patitucci on The Gate (2011) and Scott on its follow-up, 1619 Broadway: The Brill Building Project
(2012) - but this recording session marked the first time all three had
played together. Their sensitivity and profoundly intuitive interplay
belies that fact, however, sounding more cohesive and empathetic than
many a long-established trio.
While Hobgood has released several albums in the past, both solo and with jazz greats like Charlie Haden, Honor Thy Fathers marks
a new beginning for the pianist, one in which he finally plays the lead
role. "I'm in a unique position because I'm well known in the jazz
world but I'm not known as a leader," he admits. "I've toured all over
the world, played in the best situations alongside top acts, and worked
with some of the greatest people in the record business. In the course
of having those kinds of experiences you learn a lot about what goes
into making a great record."
Honor Thy Fathers
begins with its most obvious honoree: Burnet Hobgood, the pianist's
father, who passed away in December 2000. "Sanctuary" movingly projects
the sense of "quiet strength" that Hobgood always associated with his
father, a theater artist and devoted family man. "He was very loving and
brilliant but quietly so," Hobgood remembers. "For me, the ideal of
manhood is a quiet, giving, loving strength and support. And that's who
he was. Hence the statement about how he was my sanctuary for 41 years."
Another
integral figure in Hobgood's early development was his teacher at the
University of Illinois, the Sicilian-born classical composer Salvatore
Martirano. He's memorialized with the elegant sweep of "Triptych;"
intricate yet melodically lyrical, this piece exemplifies the "left
turn," Martirano's cherished concept of the unexpected moment that makes
harmonious sense. "It's the perfect thing to come right now, but the
last thing you would have expected," Hobgood explains. "Sal and I both
liked risk. I like to hear people painting themselves into corners and I
want to find out how they'll get themselves out. Sal embodied what I
think of as the big lessons of music."
Most of the tributes on Honor Thy Fathers pay
respect to musical rather than personal influences. That begins with
"Straighten Up and Fly Right," a cannily harmonized reinvention of Nat
King Cole's signature tune. Buoyed by a sleek groove--and a smartly
re-cast in 7/4 times--the piece is a raucous and rollicking take on the
classic song, maintaining the sly humor of the original lyrics. Hobgood
sums up the legendary pianist's legacy succinctly in the liner notes,
writing, "Nat Cole is one of the most underrated jazz pianists who ever
lived. Period."
"Give
Me the Simple Life" and "The Waltz" celebrate Hobgood's two earliest
piano heroes: the former is the first track on the first jazz record
that young Hobgood ever owned, Oscar Peterson's "Tracks;" while the
latter is an original penned in tribute to Bill Evans. Hobgood's own
approach to the keyboard may show the more obvious influence of Evans'
hushed genius, but the traces of what he calls Peterson's "ebullient,
virtuosic artistry" remain as well. The album's closer, "Shirákumo No
Michi (White Cloud Way)," salutes Wayne Shorter by drawing on The Way of the White Clouds,
an inspirational book about a German-born man who became a Lama in
Tibet - an apt parallel for the mystically-minded Shorter, who Hobgood
calls "the paramount Bodhisattva of modern jazz music."
Stevie Wonder's "If It's Magic," from the classic Songs in the Key of Life
shows off Hobgood's deft ability to both interpret popular song and to
wholly re-imagine his material. Originally a wistful ballad, which
Wonder sang to the accompaniment of a classical harp, Hobgood's
rendition is a spry, up-tempo burner. Finally, with "The Road Home"
Hobgood memorializes Charlie Haden, the influential bassist who passed
away last year. The two played together on Hobgood's 2013 release When the Heart Dances, which proved to be a momentous occasion for the pianist.
"With
'The Road Home,' I set out to capture the combination of Charlie's
soulfulness with his incredible intelligence, something that Charlie and
I had in common," reflects Hobgood. "We both had family-based roots in
southern traditional music - in his case, the folk music of the Ozark
mountains, for me my parents' ties to Kentucky and the Appalachian
traditional music of the Pine Mountain region. Getting to make a duet
recording with Charlie was one of the most meaningful experiences of my
life. His sound was so huge because his spirit was so huge."
On Honor Thy Fathers,
Hobgood's tips of the hat to these mentors come across not only through
the pieces' literal dedications and choice of material. Perhaps the
most important tribute he pays is by playing in the expressive,
distinctive voice that each of them has played a part in forging.
Laurence Hobgood · Honor Thy Fathers
Release Date: February 12, 2016
For more information on Laurence Hobgood, please visit: LaurenceHobgood.com
For media information, please contact:
DL Media · 610-667-0501
Matthew Jurasek · matthew@dlmediamusic.com
Don Lucoff · don@dlmediamusic.com
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