Live at Jazz Standard
Bill Mays is one of the most complete pianists in jazz. His range, spontaneity and inventiveness are all in the foreground on this set,Live at Jazz Standard, with his regular partners, Matt Wilson on drums and Martin Wind on bass. A consummate ballad player, Mays keeps finding fresh ways to approach a slow tune, reaching into the piano for the eerie muting of "Darn That Dream," strumming the strings like a banjo on "Willow Weep for Me," or letting luminous sustained notes hang in the air on his own "Euterpe." Mays also swings in any number of ways as he and Wilson and Wind move joyously through the great composers of jazz. There’s an ebullient bounce to Ellington’s "Squeeze Me," a rambunctious energy to "Let’s Call This" (introduced with a welter of quotations from other Monk tunes), and a soulful drive to Ornette Coleman’s "When Will the Blues Leave."--Stuart Broomer