Music |
Chris Gillespie
By
Published: Jan 01, 2007
Category:
Jazz
Chris Gillespie Live At The Carlyle
If you are of a certain age, odds are good that you saw Bobby Short sing at the Carlyle Hotel.
I did. It was a necessary part of my New York education, signifying that I was no longer Craven Youth, with the beer and the pot and the hippie hair. Showing up at the Carlyle bar — in regulation blazer and tie, my date more familiar with Calvin than Couture — testified that I knew how to open a door for a woman, order a grown-up drink, plot a seduction that ruffled no feathers along the way. And how simple it was to do that: Just join the out-of-towners, the December lovers, the tragic drunks and the devotees of the Great American Songbook as they paid homage to Bobby Short, the master of the sophisticated song.
Since Short’s death in 2005, Chris Gillespie has filled much of the gap. Tall, suave and exotic — his father is Dutch, his mother Tasmanian — he was born and raised in Munich, where he was classically trained. And then he made the fateful decision to cast his lot with Cole Porter, the Gershwins, Irving Berlin, Jimmy van Heusen, Howard Dietz and Arthur Schwartz.
On the surface, Chris Gillespie is the Terminator of saloon singers. He’s got a decisive piano style; long ago, he seemed, he banished all offensive unnecessary touches. His voice is smoother than the most expensive liquor at the Carlyle bar. If this live CD is any indication, patter is — mercifully — not his thing. And he has exquisite taste in sidemen: Vito Lesczak (drums), Keith Loftis (sax) and, on bass, Frank Tate, who accompanied Bobby Short for a decade.
Which is not to say that Chris Gillespie is channeling Short — or anyone. He’s far too witty. “Live at the Carlyle” begins with a song about a man and woman getting to know one another. But we’re not far into “How About You?” before he departs from the melody to do a bit of flirting of his own — his piano slips into “New York, New York” and then slides into “Rhapsody in Blue.” He even goofs on the lyrics, but justthismuch.
That first song is a warning. This may be music that you listen to because it’s comfortable and familiar, but when Chris Gillespie is on stage it still demands close listening. So “Alone Together” begins as if the song will be pounding rock and roll, but the Dietz-Schwartz tune quickly moves into a South American beat. And in case you thought that Dave Brubeck and Paul Desmond owned their signature song, Gillespie shows how well “Take Five” and Bach get along.
I haven’t been to hear music at the Carlyle in decades; I’m way past needing to prove my adulthood with a knowing nod after a piano solo. But the eleven songs on Chris Gillespie’s CD make me rethink that. I know: It isn’t rock and roll. But I like it.
To buy “Chris Gillespie Live At The Carlyle” from Amazon.com, click here.
To visit Chris Gillespie’s web site, click here.
