Tag: Upper West Side

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Israeli-born pianist Ehud Asherie teams up with tenor saxophonist Harry Allen for an 11-pack of standards, most, if not all composed before either player  was born.  “Upper West Side“, the second CD the duo has recorded for Posi-Tone Records;  they worked with a rhythm section on 2010’s “Modern Life.”  If you have only heard Asherie as a organ player, you should be impressed by his formidable piano work.  There are moments when his left hand has the power associated with “Jelly Roll” Morton or Art Tatum (listen to him fly on (“I Want To Be Happy“)  and one can hear a healthy dollop of Teddy Wilson.  At times, a touch formal but he can be quite playful  (i.e. his “Spanish tinge” on Jobim and Silva’s “O Pato.”)  As for Allen, he’s the perfect foil with his breathy Ben Webster tone and calm demeanor, bluesy smears and airy high notes. He dances his way through his solo on “Learning The Blues” bouncing over the rumbling piano bass and trilling high notes.   His “old world” charm works just fine on “Our Love Is Here ToStay” and does he ever caress Billy Strayhorn’s “Passion Flower” (with more than a hint of Johnny Hodges in his approach.)

“Upper West Side” is a positive experience from beginning to end. By returning to the blues roots of 1930’s piano jazz, Ehud Asherie shows his continuing maturity as a player – his playing throughout command’s one attention.  Harry Allen makes no bones about his roots or “throwback” tenor style.  He also loves melody and his solos are often quite hummable.  Together, they sound as if they are having the best of times; the listener should laugh, sing along and tap his/her feet.  What depression?  This music will drive your “blues” right out of the house.  To find out more, go to www.posi-tone.com.

http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=41385

The closing track on pianist Ehud Asherie’s Modern Life(Posi-Tone, 2010), whether intentional or not, came to serve as musical foreshadowing for this album. Modern Lifehas Asherie leading a crack quartet through a program of largely lesser-performed gems by cream-of-the-crop composers like George Gershwin, Jerome Kern and Tadd Dameron, but when the album reaches its conclusion the rhythm section is relieved of its duties, while tenor saxophonist Harry Allen stays onboard for an emotionally riveting two-man take on Billy Strayhorn’s “A Flower Is A Lovesome Thing.” Three months later, this pair would find itself in a Brooklyn recording studio, ready to make more duo magic with the music of Gershwin, Strayhorn and many others.

That music from that session, which would come to be called Upper West Side Story, sat on the shelves for two-and-a-half years, but it couldn’t have been due to a lack of quality. This is Grade A jazz performed by two consummate, classy musicians with an intimate knowledge of this repertoire and each other’s mannerisms. They casually work their way through the Frank Sinatra-associated “Learnin’ The Blues,” turning up the heat and grit as they go, deliver playful lines when they visit Brazil (Jayme Silva’s “O Pato”), fly through “I Want To Be Happy,” and converse via traded solos at various points throughout the album.

While Asherie has shown his (post) bop chops and organ abilities on other albums, he has built his reputation on his skills as a practitioner of the lost piano arts which are on display here. He’s often a man out of time, performing in a style that one would sooner associate with the early twentieth century than now, but that’s what makes him so special. Allen, who has his own throwback sound that occasionally touches on stylistic hallmarks of early masters like Ben Webster and Coleman Hawkins, is in a similar headspace and, though both men can hold their own in modern digs, it’s a pleasure to hear two musicians of this caliber, willing to stop and take a look back.

While the pair finds success on every track, the emotional—and literal—centerpiece of the album comes with another Strayhorn-made musical scenario. Allen is Johnny Hodges to Asherie’s Duke Ellington on “Passion Flower” and despite Allen playing a larger horn he still manages to capture the mood and spirit that surrounded the famous Ellington-associated altoist.

Viewed in its entirety, Upper West Side Story is a program of delightful duo music that doesn’t try to win anybody over with outré ideals, surprise twists or forced displays of showmanship. Allen and Asherie simply play the music, and they do so with clarity, class and charm.

http://thejazzword.blogspot.com

Ehud Asherie w/Harry Allen – Upper West Side

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Ehud Asherie with Harry Allen, Upper West Side (Posi-Tone)

Piano and tenor sax duo recordings are the exception rather than the rule, but this teaming of Israeli-born pianist Ehud Asherie and tenor player Harry Allen rules on a number of levels. They principally mine the world of romance ballads on this fine session, but the opener and closer are the true treats because of the multiple facets they reveal in each player’s chops and ideas. Those tracks are Dolores Silvers’ “Learnin’ The Blues” (a Frank Sinatra hit single) and the chestnut “My Blue Heaven.” Allen is best known for his way with a ballad, but he really knows how to tear it up on a frisky blues, or tune a popular song into one as happens on the former. They both stretch the closer, with Asherie working several distinct uptempo styles into his solos and comping. Duos are not everyone’s cup of tea, but these guys make their two instruments sound like a full combo with their creativity. This is Asherie’s fifth CD as a leader.

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The talented young pianist Ehud Asherie doesn’t look to bowl you over with sheer speed and power but rather, seduce you with taste and swing. You’re much more likely to hear some of his main influences like Erroll Garner or even James P. Johnson in his approach than, say, McCoy Tyner. For his fifth album Upper West Side, Asherie chose to play without a combo and make this a more direct affair with only a tenor sax with which to share the sound space. And who better to couple up with than the tender, pre-war sax sounds of Harry Allen? No bass and drums are needed to swing, and swing with authority. Just take a gander of their treatment of a great old tune like “I Want To Be Happy,” that sounds every bit as rhythmic as a full big band. Or the unabashedly romantic take on “I’m In The Mood For Love,” where Allen’s sax is as emotive and sensitive as Lester Young’s. Asherie, meanwhile, is able to pivot to and from comping and leading with ease, often blurring the lines between the two. Though all eleven sides are well known, well worn standards, Asherie and Allen breathe new life in them by, ironically, giving them old readings. Perhaps the joy I take from this record comes from there being so few who seem willing these days to take on those tunes like that anymore. Hats off to Ehud Asherie—and Harry Allen—for minding the jazz of a great, forgotten era.

Upper West Side, from Posi-Tone Records, will go on sale January 31.