Some Other Time - CD

ENGLISH

Elegance is a difficult quality to pin down, but you know it when you see it—or hear it. Duke Ellington, of course. Lester Young: Oh yeah. Or to take it into the piano trio game: Bill Evans, Hank Jones, Jessica Williams, Ahmad Jamal.<br /> <br /> With his debut Some Other Time, Los Angeles-based pianist Greg Reitan can also be added to the elegance category.<br /> <br /> Boundaries are being stretched in the piano trio format, with jamband approaches and added electronics coming into play, but Greg Reitan plays the game straight, with a classic sound that harkens to Bill Evans and Ahmad Jamal. A piano man with an exquisitely supple touch along with an obvious erudition—erudition and elegance go hand-in-hand—Reitan has crafted a superb set, opening with Cole Porter's "All of You. " The time-tested standard is given an airy, buoyant ride by the trio, with Reitan's succinct, lighter-than-air right hand flurries dancing—each note crisp and clear and sharp, in the mode of Ahmad Jamal.<br /> <br /> Reitan has chosen his non-originals well. Vince Guaraldi's "Star Song " showcases the trio's sympathetic rapport and full-on swing, with Reitan caressing the melody with reverence and care. "Dear Prudence, " from The Beatles' classic The White Album (Apple, 1969), begins with the original lugubrious tempo, but in short order Reitan cranks things up and slips into a persistent rhythm; and if Prudence wouldn't come out to play with John Lennon—he sounded so wet blanket tired back then—she could hardly resist the Reitan Trio's friskier, more insistent approach.<br /> <br /> "Time Remembered, " from the pen of the late Bill Evans, goes inward, in a searching exploration of pensive beauty. The seemingly unlikely—for a piano trio—take on John Coltrane's "Giant Steps " boosts the trio's energy level to a high peak of momentum with, for Reitan, some Jessica Williams-like speed. But the tune also moves into a drifting, ethereal and strikingly lovely interlude with some of the most intricate three-way interplay of the set.<br /> <br /> Five of the twelve tunes are Reitan originals, all strong compositions with, perhaps, "Joy's Song " standing out, featuring a gorgeously light-hearted melody that works an extroversion/introversion dynamic with aplomb.<br /> <br /> Reitan closes the set with Leonard Bernstein's "Some Other Time, " a wistful wrap-up to the twelve-chapter musical tale that began with Cole Porter's boldly optimistic demand for "All of You. " It is a beautiful, melancholy closing to the show, displaying the pianist's mastery of the ballad and ending the album on a note that begs for more.<br />