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Thursday, January 19, 2006
From one of our own

Jack Reilly, Tzu-Jan: the Sound of the Tarot, Vol. 1 and 2

Last time I wrote about pianist and composer Jack Reilly (also check out his Seq21 blog), he was performing at a tribute to Al Cohn and Zoot Sims. There he spryly injected his classical leanings into a straightforward jazz setting with delightful results. On the two volumes of Tzu-Jan: the Sound of the Tarot, Reilly traverses the boundary between classical and jazz in an entirely different fashion.

Tzu-Jan is two CDs of live solo piano improvisations. Each track is based upon a particular Tarot card, which was projected during the live performance. The premise, of course, conjures up the unrestrained, windy world of free jazz. But Reilly's playing has next-to-nothing in common with the fierce, frenetic blowing that seems to dominate most free jazz. Instead, Reilly grounds himself in classical phrasing, development, and restraint. Reilly finds the key to his success, as Lynn René Bayley points out in the liner notes to the first volume, in maintaining a constant and firm grasp on the structure of each improvisation. Like a chess master, Reilly plans his moves well before they need be made. The end results immediately bring to mind the improvised fantasias described by audiences of renowned pianist/composers from Liszt to Chopin.

All of this is not to say, however, that a jazz fan will find nothing to love on the CDs. Reilly is committed to bridging the realms, and though he avoids most of the genre markers, a bit of jazz inevitably creeps in. Most frequently, harmonic voicings and melodic ornamentation are the sites of the spillage. These moments consistently enrich rather than confound the music.

My only complaint is that the first CD fails to reveal which Tarot card corresponds to which improvisation. Digging into each piece on the second CD looking for clues as to its connection to the associated card adds to the fun. And for those further interested, I'm told that there's an as-yet-unreleased video of the second volume. I'm sure seeing the cards as well as Reilly in action would only augment the experience.
posted by Lanier Sammons 8:13 AM


 


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