Roger Kellaway: Live at Mezzrow
An album review of the classy new live trio jazz record by master pianist Roger Kellaway
Roger Kellaway
Live at Mezzrow
Cellar Live under exclusive licence to La Reserve Records, LLC
The great Roger Kellaway, 84, still kicking, was musical director for Bobby Darrin in the 1960s, he accompanied Liza Minnelli, Carmen McRae and, well, many others. He’s been a sideman to Sonny Rollins and Herbie Mann, and has made forays into the pop world, including recording on George Harrison’s Dark Horse, and leading the band through Van Morrison’s live recreation of Astral Weeks in 2008. He composed for TV in the 1970s, including the end-credits for All In The Family, and for years he’s been leading a trio through so many of the jazz world’s great standards.
I love Roger’s playing — for most of the last two decades he has been the leader of a drummer-less trio (piano, guitar, bass)
but there are plenty of recordings of him working with the more conventional piano/bass/drums too:
Here, on a live date recorded last year, he combines approaches, mostly working in piano/bass/drums with long-servicing bassist Jay Leonhart, and a drummer new to the fold for Kellaway, Dennis Mackrel, with special guest, guitarist Roni Ben-Hur. The material features standards from Miles Davis, Billy Strayhorn, and Thelonious Monk, with a couple of originals from Kellaway.
A brace of Miles Davis Kind of Blue-era tunes early on show the great skill of this band in delivering both the perfectly recognisable (All Blues) and the radically reworked (Blue in Green). On Ettore Stratta’s lovely ballad, Pages of Life, the rhythm section frame the song delicately for Kellaway’s lyrical playing. He’s a master of melody, conjuring it effortlessly, he moves from modal to blues and back again, he shapes songs so exquisitely.
This album is a subtle masterclass. Back to Miles for So What, and the gorgeous use of Mackrel’s brushes, and Leonhart’s strong bass work, allows this tune to feel full despite the lack of horns.
Guitarist Roni Ben-Hur is nimble-fingered across Straight No Chaser, with Kellaway sitting directly in under, and somehow able to let his playing peek out around the sides as well. The album closes with this, and a version of Take The “A” Train, songs you might feel you’v heard enough already. It’s the great skill of this trio/quartet to take you back through familiar fields and make you feel like it’s your first time. Kellaway is simply having a wonderful time on A Train, pushing the melody to the left and right of the metre and allowing his rhythm section to just sit in the space of comping, marking the time, making the bed.
I so love his gently exquisite playing. And Live At Mezzrow is a perfect introduction if you’re new to his playing, and/or simply a fan of trio/piano jazz. It’s yet another victory lap, if you’re already well acquainted with this subtle genius.
