Green's Blues
Green's Bluesis the first CD in pianist Benny Green's already distinguished career to feature an entire program of solo piano. That genre offers nowhere to hide, but Green has the necessary chops, imagination, and power to shine in the spotlight--not for nothing is he Oscar Peterson's official protégé. The 12 tracks abound in melodious, swinging enterprise, and despite a suitably contemporary harmonic sophistication, there's a delightfully old-fashioned feel to much of the music. Green eschews the kind of emphasis on rhapsodic, free-wheeling exploration that characterizes the solo performances of Tyner, Jarrett, and Bill Evans, centering his attention instead on the classic patterns of stride and boogie-woogie. His efforts are as convincing as they are affectionate, and they are notably inventive, too: his reading of Garner's "Misty" owes nothing to the composer, while "I Got It Bad" is a nobly individual version of Ellington's incomparable lament. The CD is on the short side at 52 minutes, and a severe critic might add that it will prove but a minor footnote in the literature of solo piano jazz. Maybe so, but that matters little when there is so much pleasure and fine playing on offer.--Richard Palmer