Ethan Iverson
Triskel Arts Centre, Cork
★★★★☆
Solo piano has a long and noble tradition in jazz. From Scott Joplin, the “king of ragtime”, at the turn of the last century, through stride-piano maestros such as Fats Waller and James P Johnson, the all-encompassing genius of Art Tatum, modern masters such Erroll Garner and Paul Bley, and on to the more free-form explorations of Keith Jarrett and Cecil Taylor, the discipline has always offered a rare opportunity to hear an artist up close and personal, to discover what kind of musical statement they would make if left entirely to their own devices.
The 52-year-old American pianist and composer Ethan Iverson may be better known as one of the founding members of The Bad Plus, the “avant-garde populist” trio he left in 2017, or as a prolific and supersmart blogger, critic, essayist, educator and scholar, but he has also been praised for, and drawn to, playing solo, both at home in his Brooklyn apartment, from where he has posted a number of engaging unaccompanied piano videos, and occasionally in concert. This St Patrick’s weekend performance at the Triskel Arts Centre in Cork is part of Iverson’s first solo piano tour of Europe; he played two shows at the Cooler in Dublin the night before.
Iverson is also captivated by cover versions, from Black Sabbath’s Iron Man to Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring, with The Bad Plus, to Thelonious Monk’s ’Round Midnight and Roberta Flack’s Killing Me Softly with His Song on his most recent Blue Note release, Technically Acceptable. Combine this with his love of film noir, science fiction and 1970s television shows, and a certain playful and contrarian spirit, and you have Into the Dark, Iverson’s new programme of movie and TV theme tunes, both real and imagined, which sits somewhere between his twin passions of form and freedom, composition and improvisation, high and low art.
Beginning with the title piece, an Iverson tune he describes as “cinematic and dramatic with a hint of Bud Powell”, the pianist leads the audience through a highly evocative and successful 70-minute set that includes such immortal themes as Henry Mancini’s The Pink Panther, Bernard Herrmann’s Scène d’Amour, from Vertigo, and a clever commingling of “two Lauras” – David Raskin’s jazz standard Laura and Angelo Badalamenti’s Laura Palmer’s Theme, from Twin Peaks – ending with a slightly more sunny boogie-woogie original called Return to the Light.
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All the material is elevated by the pianist’s deep knowledge, harmonic elegance, winningly relaxed manner and often supremely fleet and delicate touch. An inclusive and entertaining musician who believes in a certain simplicity, Iverson once said that he was “willing to sacrifice jazz hipness for clarity”. On this showing, it is a sacrifice well worth making.
The night before, Triskel played host to an outstanding quintet led by the trombonist, composer and Cork music hero Paul Dunlea. Playing a range of jazz standards and pop favourites across two 50-minute sets, Dunlea also showcased original music from a forthcoming album, which includes a suite inspired by the struggles and sacrifices of men and women in west Co Cork during the War of Independence. If the recording captures anything like the ardour and energy of this performance, it is likely to be one of the Irish jazz albums of the year.
