Jazz Pianist Asherie Goes for Repertoire Breadth

Cover of the album being discussed, reproducing Egon Schiele’s 1910 “Composition with Three Male Nudes” (courtesy of Braithwaite & Katz)

A little over a week ago Capri Records released a new album featuring jazz pianist Ehud Asherie entitled Wild Man Blues. The title suggests a reflection back to the earliest days of jazz with a composition that has been attributed to both Jelly Roll Morton and Louis Armstrong with equal uncertainty. In fact, all eight of the tracks present selections that, one way or another, may be viewed as “historical.” Nevertheless, leading a trio whose other members are Peter Washington on bass and Rodney Green of drums, Asherie brings a contemporary perspective to whatever he chooses to play.

Only one composer rates more than a single track on this album. Charlie Parker is represented by both “Parker’s Mood” and “Chasin’ the Bird.” However, Asherie understands the thematic content well enough not only to tease out his own improvisations but also to undermine any listener’s preconceptions that this music was only suitable for bebop saxophone. Indeed, he seems more comfortable pursuing the potential of Parker’s inventive themes than he is on the title track, which, for my money, is a little bit too polite for the spirit of its times.

Curiously, Asherlie’s “comfort zone” seems to lie somewhere between the earliest down-and-dirty days of jazz and the emergence of bebop as we know it. He is quite at home with finding his own voice in George Gershwin’s “Oh, Lady Be Good!,” as well as in Vincent Youmans’ “Flying Down to Rio.” However, from that same period, his comfort zone seems to lie in the songs of Ary Barroso with “Na Baixa Do Sapateiro” (gorgeous melody). That attachment, however, probably has much to do with his having a Brazilian life partner, although those of my generation will probably recognize this tune from its appearance in the Walt Disney cartoon The Three Caballeros.

This may not be a particularly earthshaking album, but it is one that is sure to draw and hold the attention of the serious jazz listener.