Tag: Sam Yahel

A Jazz Pianist Who Has Honed His Style While Hiding in Plain Sight

by Ben Ratliff

Sam Yahel played his own song “Truth and Beauty” around the middle of his early set on Tuesday night at the Village Vanguard. In the past he’s recorded it on Hammond organ, in a different group, with saxophone and drums. Here he was playing it on the piano, with the bassist Matt Penman and the drummer Jochen Rückert, and it had a different personality: first more tense, with its crowded contrapuntal opening, then more permissive and abstract. Lots of space opened up. Mr. Yahel played straight notes over swung grooves and slow phrases over cruisingly fast bass and drums. The music felt suspended and comfortable, and kept its cool.

Mr. Yahel came to New York in 1990, starting music school as a pianist. Then he adapted to the organ, and a career quickly came into view: he had less competition. Many associate him with the organ, either in his own groups or touring with Joshua Redman and Brian Blade.

But he never gave up playing piano. About five years ago he started playing regular piano-trio gigs at Smalls, and after a few years of them he made a convincing piano-trio record, “Hometown,” which was recently released on Positone. As a result, he’s leading a band at the Vanguard for the first time.

The group is developed and ready, yet most of us are only hearing it now as it should have been heard long ago: on a good record and in the Vanguard’s sonic environment. Consequently, this band represents an undiscovered view of jazz from the recent past. It’s hard to talk about Mr. Yahel’s style, which weighs searching phrases against alert, melodic swing from the bebop tradition, without bringing up another pianist, Brad Mehldau. The two went through music school together, playing together a lot, and there are deep similarities — not only in the individual keyboard sound but in their strategies for piano trio as well.

The difference is that long ago Mr. Mehldau started playing hardball, stylizing his sound as he became relatively famous, and Mr. Yahel, even with his unusually sharp songwriting and smart arrangements, still sounds as if he’s having a casual good time. With Mr. Penman and Mr. Rückert, Mr. Yahel played versions of John Lennon’s “Jealous Guy,” Thelonious Monk’s “Think of One,” Cole Porter’s “So in Love” and the standard “My Ideal”; he also played another stately original, “Oumou,” inspired by the Malian singer Oumou Sangaré.

It was the details that mattered, both in what he did and didn’t do. More than once Mr. Yahel used the melody of the previous song as a spur for improvising in the present one, making the set feel interconnected. He was always temperate: in “Oumou,” when the rhythm collapsed in on itself, he kept the melody standing, playing a murmured, concentrated version of it. It was a wise set, sweeping and unpretentious.

www.jazztimes.com
Sam Yahel
Hometown
By Susan Frances

Pianist/organist/composer Sam Yahel has found his melodic voicing on his latest solo record Hometown from Posi-Tone Records. After having performed as a sideman for such notable recording artists as Norah Jones, Joshua Redman, and Jim Rotondi, Yahel is stepping onto the frontlines of modern improvisation with his trio, which additionally comprises of bassist Matt Penman and drummer Jochen Ruckert. The graceful curves of Yahel’s lines, the simmering lolls of Penman’s bass grooves, and the quick-silver flicks of Ruckert’s drum sticks canvassing the snare drums are striking and exert the energy of a well-seasoned trio. The threesome has tailored a litany of improvisations which keep them volleying the ball among themselves, and creating an ambience that is suited for supper clubs and mood music for cocktails at music lounges.

The bluesy glint in “Blue Pepper” is soothing and liken to the music of Norah Jones. The animated agility in Yahel’s ruffled keys and Ruckert’s quickly rotating drum loops in “Think Of One” are reminiscent of the theme songs featured in Charles Schultz’s cartoons for the Peanuts Gang. Yahel’s briskly moving sweeps through “Jealous Guy” produce a sarong of serried rhapsodies and buoyant propulsions while the deep tones of the bass in “Oumou” move in woozy patterns. Yahel displays a nonchalant swagger in his finger movements along “United,” and smooth pensively cobbled pathways through “Moonlight In Vermont.” The improvisations add timely sprinkles and surges of rapidly furled lines through “My ideal.” Yahel’s piano keys are the cogs that keep the melody’s wheels rolling, while the rhythm section establishes the pace of the canter along the rides like in the reclining grooves of “So Long.” The straight-ahead jazz schematics of “River Song” and the title track have a pleasant ruffling and silky ramparts that listeners can seclude themselves in like a cozy café filled with twinkling improvisations and flexible grooves.

Yahel’s compositions show accoutrements of progressive jazz elements as well as several nuances steep in straight-ahead jazz. Hometown is an ambitious effort that challenges Yahel’s talents and displays his ability to harmonize with his bassist and drummer. His movements are natural, and provide the tunes with lifts when they are appropriate and folds where they need to be. His instincts are sharp and his voicing is lyrical even as his improvisations show gymnastic-like jumps and furls. His compositions take the listener out of living a hum-drum existence and provide excursions that are plentiful in unexpected turns.

www.allaboutjazz.com
Hometown
Sam Yahel | Posi-Tone Records (2009)

By J Hunter

Sam Yahel has made the grade. His signature Hammond B3 sound—appearing on both his own work and on recordings by Joshua Redman, Bill Frisell, and Norah Jones—has identified him as one of the players that will take Jimmy Smith’s favorite instrument deep into the 21st century. So what does Yahel do on Hometown, his fifth disc as a leader? He puts the organ in the closet and does a piano-trio record, which believe it or not, is a good move.

Yahel is not unfamiliar with the piano; in fact, it was his original instrument. He considers himself to be “a much more natural organ player than a natural pianist,” and admits he really has to work hard to reach the level of quality he expects from himself. Given that Hometown has echoes of piano aces like Horace Silver and Jacky Terrasson, Yahel must have worked really, really hard here.

Hometown opens with a 21st-century standard—John Lennon’s “Jealous Guy.” Ben Allison covered this on Little Things Run the World (Palmetto, 2008), though Allison went a lot farther in re-interpreting Lennon’s protagonist. Yahel starts out in the clear, seemingly ruminating over past liaisons that didn’t work well, and then he slides right into a cool, almost balladic take on the tune, as if to say, “Hey, that’s just how I roll—no need to stress about it!” Bassist Matt Penman and drummer Jochen Rueckert build Yahel a backdrop as he expands on his theme with well-placed bursts of notes, before switching to longer, more definite runs as he gets more comfortable.

Yahel doesn’t stay in the comfort zone long, jumping head-first into a runaway version of Thelonious Monk’s “Think of One.” A steady groove starts to take hold, but Yahel’s complex opening figure swallows it whole as he attacks his solo with extreme relish. There’s more living dangerously on “Blue Pepper” as Yahel moves from 60s-era Blue Note soul-jazz into free exploration that has everybody working in zero gravity. Yahel momentarily loses his minimalist approach on “River Song” in favor of a more dangerous tack, while the melody on Chet Baker’s “My Ideal” gets chucked at the outset as he starts improvising immediately and never stops.

Penman qualifies for another MVB (Most Valuable Bassist) award as he gives Yahel’s music a second solo voice. Penman’s bookend solos on “Oumou” are stark and pulsing as Yahel and Rueckert pen a tone poem behind him, and on “Moonlight in Vermont,” he matches Yahel’s heretofore-unknown talent for lyricism. Rueckert’s out-solo on “Think” is one hellacious exclamation point, and his extended tradeoffs with Yahel on the ebullient title track give him much-deserved spotlight time, after dwelling mostly in shadow.

The fact that Yahel believes piano is not his “best” instrument speaks volumes about the brave choice to make Hometown a piano date. Still, they say hard work eventually pays off, and it sure paid off here.

Track listing: Jealous Guy; Think of One; Blue Pepper; Hometown; Oumou; River Song; Moonlight in Vermont; United; My Ideal; So Long.

Personnel: Sam Yahel: piano; Matt Penman: bass; Jochen Rueckert: drums.

http://query.nytimes.com
SAM YAHEL
”Hometown”
(Posi-Tone)

Sam Yahel has been playing jazz in New York since the early 1990s, almost always as a Hammond organist. (He was a fixture in the early days of Smalls, on West 10th Street, along with the pianist Brad Mehldau and the guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel; these days he leads his own trio.) But he hasn’t hid behind the bullying power of the Hammond, its ability to give you shivers with shifting drawbars or a loud crescendo: he has put himself in places where pianists go, playing volatile music with curiosity and hunger in his improvising.

”Hometown” is, surprisingly, his first album as a pianist. It was recorded in 2007; I guess there’s still no rush to get the word out that he’s very good. A piano-trio record made in the studio with the bassist Matt Penman and drummer Jochen Rückert, it’s casual enough to have been a gig, well-produced enough to represent a musician for a long time and strong enough in arrangement, soloing and interaction that it doesn’t lose your interest. That shouldn’t be rare, but it is.

There’s a tensile power in all of Mr. Yahel’s solos here, a drifting and warping of tempo through long lines held together with baroque logic, blues feeling and a lack of cliché. (He knows how to use swing and dynamics too but doesn’t show off; part of this record’s charm is its good sense.) Go straight to his aggressive version of Thelonious Monk’s ”Think of One” for the prime example, but that power is here even in the slower songs, including an industrious version of ”Moonlight in Vermont.”

The sound of this piano trio has a few things in common with Mr. Mehldau’s: the experimental stubbornness of the phrasing; the dry, clean and clever arrangements; and the abiding interest in making use of pop music. John Lennon’s ”Jealous Guy” and Duke Ellington’s ”Blue Pepper” are both here, authoritative with backbeats; so is Bebel Gilberto’s electronic bossa-nova ”River Song,” skimming and skittering on drums and bass. But Mr. Yahel is also substantially different from Mr. Mehldau. Mr. Yahel’s aims are smaller and more streamlined, and this is a smart, satisfying, low-to-the ground record. BEN RATLIFF

www.npr.org

After reading Felix Contreras’ post, I’m looking ahead to my three-year old daughter hating jazz. I’m surprisingly okay with this possibility. I just want her to love music. That’s a good primer for eventually getting the jazz message.

I must say, in her defense, that my girl does love the trombone. She’s into wearing headphones and checking out tunes. She also loves to talk. I’m already advising against a career as a jazz journalist, radio personality or some chimera of the two. (But I’m all for women in jazz.)

This is supposed to be about Sam Yahel’s new record. I’m getting there.

I haven’t seen Sam Yahel since 2005’s Toast of the Nation, when we broadcast Joshua Redman‘s Elastic Trio with Brian Blade. I distinctly remember that time at Yoshi’s (the Jack London Square club in Oakland), and having to fill a minute of national airtime with him. We promoted the California broadcast to the rest of the country.

After Sam inventoried the keyboards and electronic effects at his ready, I asked, “So what you’re saying is this is not your father’s jazz?”

Listening to Sam Yahel makes you wanna shout the two syllables of his last name in reverse order. Courtesy of the artist.

Sam Yahel recently released Hometown, a piano trio recording. Most jazz nerds know that Sam is a tremendous Hammond B-3 organ player, but the piano? How positively acoustic! This could be something that dads might like too. (Who doesn’t like a nice John Lennon cover … I mean, other than a backwards masking of “Revolution 9”?)

Ben Ratliff, music critic for the New York Times, shared his perspective on Sam Yahel during our most recent edition of The Checkout. Feel free to listen with us.

I wrote all this simply to say that this is a record I’m digging, and now that I’m a dad, I think about what a stupid question I asked Sam. “Your father’s jazz” — pfft. Blame it on my youth.

See, I recently introduced my daughter to Sam Yahel’s take on “Blue Pepper,” originally from Duke Ellington’s Far East Suite. Technically, she was listening to “her father’s jazz,” but I wasn’t about to tell. She was far too busy enjoying it on the headphones.

Happy Father’s Day.

 

www.allaboutjazz.com

Sam Yahel has made the grade. His signature Hammond B3 sound—appearing on both his own work and on recordings by Joshua Redman, Bill Frisell, and Norah Jones—has identified him as one of the players that will take Jimmy Smith‘s favorite instrument deep into the 21st century. So what does Yahel do on Hometown, his fifth disc as a leader? He puts the organ in the closet and does a piano-trio record, which believe it or not, is a good move.

Yahel is not unfamiliar with the piano; in fact, it was his original instrument. He considers himself to be “a much more natural organ player than a natural pianist,” and admits he really has to work hard to reach the level of quality he expects from himself. Given that Hometown has echoes of piano aces like Horace Silver and Jacky Terrasson, Yahel must have worked really, really hard here.

Hometown opens with a 21st-century standard—John Lennon’s “Jealous Guy.” Ben Allison covered this on Little Things Run the World (Palmetto, 2008), though Allison went a lot farther in re-interpreting Lennon’s protagonist. Yahel starts out in the clear, seemingly ruminating over past liaisons that didn’t work well, and then he slides right into a cool, almost balladic take on the tune, as if to say, “Hey, that’s just how I roll—no need to stress about it!” Bassist Matt Penman and drummer Jochen Rueckertbuild Yahel a backdrop as he expands on his theme with well-placed bursts of notes, before switching to longer, more definite runs as he gets more comfortable.

Yahel doesn’t stay in the comfort zone long, jumping head-first into a runaway version of Thelonious Monk‘s “Think of One.” A steady groove starts to take hold, but Yahel’s complex opening figure swallows it whole as he attacks his solo with extreme relish. There’s more living dangerously on “Blue Pepper” as Yahel moves from 60s-era Blue Note soul-jazz into free exploration that has everybody working in zero gravity. Yahel momentarily loses his minimalist approach on “River Song” in favor of a more dangerous tack, while the melody on Chet Baker‘s “My Ideal” gets chucked at the outset as he starts improvising immediately and never stops.

Penman qualifies for another MVB (Most Valuable Bassist) award as he gives Yahel’s music a second solo voice. Penman’s bookend solos on “Oumou” are stark and pulsing as Yahel and Rueckert pen a tone poem behind him, and on “Moonlight in Vermont,” he matches Yahel’s heretofore-unknown talent for lyricism. Rueckert’s out-solo on “Think” is one hellacious exclamation point, and his extended tradeoffs with Yahel on the ebullient title track give him much-deserved spotlight time, after dwelling mostly in shadow.

The fact that Yahel believes piano is not his “best” instrument speaks volumes about the brave choice to makeHometown a piano date. Still, they say hard work eventually pays off, and it sure paid off here.

 

www.jazz.com

SAM YAHEL: OUMOU

RATING: 89/100 (learn more)

Sam Yahel is best known as the electronic keyboard specialist from Joshua Redman�s Elastic Band. By his own admission, he has always considered himself an organ player, so this track is an interesting example of how he approaches the acoustic piano. �Oumou� is an inspired, rhythmically delicious Yahel composition that is introduced by Penman stating the repeating melody line on the lower register of his instrument. He is soon joined by what sounds like Yahel playing the muted strings of his piano in a delicate pizzicato accompaniment. Undaunted by the lack of electronics, Yahel has found a way to create a texturally interesting effect within the confines of his purely acoustical environment. As the rhythmically swaying tune is allowed to expand over Penman�s throbbing bass, Yahel�s piano improvisations build tension. Ruckert skillfully adds his own brand of subtle cymbal and tom-tom work to the mix. Yahel�s increasingly rapid right hand arpeggios erupt to the surface like a bubbling geyser of creativity until he slowly releases the pressure with some syncopated chording. At the coda, Penman�s bass and Yahel�s renewed pizzicato accompaniment fades to silence. A brief glimpse into the acoustic promise of this artist.

Reviewer: Ralph A. Miriello