Jazz Quanta March — Five Pianos

Jazz Quanta March — Five Pianos: Marc Copland, Bill Stewart, Julian Shore, Bob Wijnen, Pablo Held

By C. MICHAEL BAILEY

Published: March 3, 2016

Pianist Marc Copland composes with a certain use of darkness, an updated musical version of Caravaggio's use of chiaroscuro in painting. Copland is aided in his alchemic light-shifting by his regular bassist Drew Gress and drummer Joey Baron. Joining the trio is trumpeter Ralph Alessi, who is given plenty of room to investigate some brass dynamics. On "Sun at the Zenith" Alessi's horn sounds like the cross between a flute and trombone, it is eerie. He shifts faintly to Miles Davis on Duke Ellington's "Mystery Song," enweaving elements of "Freddie Freeloader" and "So What." The lengthy, three-part suite "Air We've Never Breathed" shows Copland's evolution between light and dark matters. It is soundtrack music, the soundtrack of restfulness and thoughtfulness, lying somewhere between being and being content. Effortlessly ambient without the pretentious trappings of new age, Copland's Zenith is a quiet wayside where to count the time in quarter-tones to ten.

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Marc Copland to perform....

Via the Culture Club blog at STLtoday: Pianist Mark Copland (pictured) is bringing his trio to St. Louis to perform on Friday, February 13 at the 560 Music Center, 560 Trinity Avenue in University City. (For those unfamiliar with the venue name, it's the former synagogue building just off the the west end of the Delmar Loop that is currently owned by Washington University but has been operated at various times in recent years by CASA, the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra and Webster University.)

Copland's extensive resume includes work with a number of prominent jazz musicians, including John Abercrombie, Randy Brecker, Bob Berg, Hank Crawford, Art Farmer, Curtis Fuller, Tom Harrell, Eddie Harris, Harold Land and Blue Mitchell, Dave Liebman, Bob Mintzer, Gary Peacock, and Sonny Stitt. The Philadelphia native, who's 60 years old, is known for his lyrical piano style and has recorded at least 18 albums as a leader. His current trio includes bassist Gary Peacock, who also plays in pianist Keith Jarrett's Standards trio, and drummer Bill Stewart.

Copland's St. Louis concert, which is is being presented by the Washington University Department of Music, starts at 8:00 p.m.. Tickets are $20 and are available online via Metrotix or by calling 314-534-1111.

You can hear Copland and Peacock together in the embedded video clip below, "Calls and Answers," which comes from a 2004 film by Julien Caume and also features pantomime Alexander Neander and actress Marianne Fabbro.
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