Noah Haidu: Slowly: Song For Keith Jarrett

Rating: ★★

Record and Artist Details

Musicians:

Noah Haidu (p)

Label:

Sunnyside

June/2021

Media Format:

CD

Catalogue Number:

SSC1596

RecordDate:

Rec. 2020

I haven't heard the 48-year-old Haidu's recent Sunnyside tribute to Kenny Kirkland, which apparently contained not only an album but a film and a self-authored book. Whether or not he brought the same enthusiasm to this follow-up project, and whether it was suggested by the record company, the results are rather lukewarm.

The pianist's unaccompanied title-track is one of the more interesting items here, but the programme opens with originals written by Buster Williams and Billy Hart, who stimulate Haidu into some appropriate contributions. On the other hand, three well-worn standards are comparatively perfunctory (apart from Williams's solo on ‘But Beautiful’) with the pianist providing often simplistic left-hand chording and sometimes uneven right-hand lines that include unconvincing funky bits. But the Haidu composition simply called ‘Keith Jarrett’, full of triadic harmony and would-be tension-filled phraseology, falls embarrassingly flat. If you ever wondered if you've heard too much of Jarrett himself, this will make you want to check out the original again.

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