1. Lulu’s Back in Town
2. ‘Round Midnight
3. Body and Soul
4. Little Girl Blue
5. Take the “A” Train
6. A Child is Born
7. Basin Street Blues
8. Rosalie: How long has this been goin’ on?
9. The Nearness of You
10. Wizard of Oz: Over the Rainbow
11. Things Ain’t What They Used To Be
12. Perdido
Andrew Litton (piano)
Recorded November 2012, Potton Hall, Suffolk, UK [54:00]
Andrew Litton is best known as a conductor and was recently announced as the director of the Colorado Symphony, a role he also holds with the Bergen
Philharmonic. He is conductor laureate of the Bournemouth Symphony, and has a number of extremely fine recordings to his name. I knew of his interest in
jazz piano but it was a serendipitous meeting in London that led to the existence of this CD. A musical gathering saw Litton, Stephen Hough and Steven
Osborne play for friends. It was Osborne who piqued Litton’s interest with a performance of Osborne’s own arrangement of an Oscar Peterson tune. Osborne’s
transcriptions – he took them down from the Peterson recordings – form the basis of this beautifully recorded, artistically successful disc.
To the question, why record Peterson transcriptions - why not listen to the original? - I suppose one could counter-argue; why not? Litton is an articulate
soloist, stylistically very much aware of the milieu, plays on a gorgeous-sounding Bösendorfer Imperial in an excellent acoustic venue – Potton Hall, a
familiar and well-liked studio space. Also, he has taken all-solo Peterson recordings so we get a kind of Essence of Oscar feel in this 54-minute recital
of largely well-established pieces from the Songbook.
Lulu’s Back in Town
is an up-tempo swinger whilst in ‘Round Midnight Litton relishes Peterson’s sometimes quite rich harmonies, those powerful runs, and the sheer
amplitude of the thing. He replicates Peterson’s compulsive look at the implications of Body and Soul with substituted chords and a wistful sense,
too, of the piece’s trajectory. Little Girl Blue is, indeed, as Litton avers suffused in plangent harmonies and also a sense of optimistic upturn
– this is a favourite piece of Litton’s and he played it at his mother’s memorial service. Litton is thankfully up for the challenge of breakneck Stride in Take the ‘A’ Train as well as the ultra-sophisticated variations on Spencer Williams’s Basin Street Blues as he goes through the lexicon
from Stride to romanticist and beyond. Then there is the slight hint of tristesse in Over the Rainbow to enjoy, the slow rolling Blues of Things Ain’t What They Used To Be and, to finish, Peterson’s electrifying take on Juan Tizol’s Perdido.
Confirmed Petersonians may baulk at Litton being, as they might see it, literalist in his tribute. Others will greatly enjoy his joyful and confident
salute, whilst knowing that Oscar’s recordings are always available to listen to, and that Litton is offering a nuanced and personal salute to the great
man.
Jonathan Woolf
CD Reviews
BIS SACD 2034
