Neranenah, a nonprofit cultural event series formerly known as the Atlanta Jewish Music Festival, is ending its current season with a performance from the Bill Charlap Trio.
The event, An Evening with the Bill Charlap Trio, will take place at the Atlanta HIstory Center’s McElreath Hall at 7 p.m. on March 17. The trio also includes drummer Kenny Washington and bassist Peter Washington and has been playing together since 1997. A Grammy winner, Charlap has played with the likes of Phil Woods, Tony Bennett, Gerry Mulligan and Wynton Marsalis.
“You’re going to hear a trio that’s been together for close to 30 years that has a vast repertoire,” said Charlap about what audiences can expect during the show. “For maybe the last five years, we’ve kind of been improvising our sets from start to finish, in terms of the pieces that we choose, and the trajectory that we take.”
Ahead of the performance, Rough Draft Atlanta spoke with Charlap about his career. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
I know that you grew up in a musical family, and your father was a composer. Was there ever a time that you thought music might not be the career path for you?
Bill Charlap: Well, nobody was pushing me to play or to be a professional musician, but in answer to your question, the short answer is no. There was never a time when I didn’t know that that’s what I would do. It wasn’t a question of being pushed. It was just natural. And it wasn’t a question of anyone saying, we don’t want you to do this, or we do want you to do this. I just did.
However, given that my parents were both artists, there was none of that tension of, gee I don’t know if this is a career plan, you know, that people go through.
Yeah, I feel like people always have stories, when they go into music, about their parents being worried.
Charlap: Sometimes. No, it was more me who was worried! [Laughs] I wanted to make sure that I, you know, was going to have enough development and a full box of tools that I could actually do this.
Speaking of those tools, I read that you studied classical music at some point in your life. What led you to jazz as a genre?
Charlap: Well, first of all, let’s turn it around. I was never geared towards being a classical pianist, and I never had the notion that that’s what I would do professionally in any kind of way. Everything I learned, I learned at first by ear and simply by making it up. However, later – and when I say later, I’m talking about by the time I was so I don’t know 10 years old or so. And that’s late for a concert pianist – by the time I was 10 or so, I was starting to want to develop classical training. Mainly because I was drawn to Bach and Brahms and Beethoven and Mozart and Chopin, etc. And also that I knew intrinsically that no matter what music I was going to play, that sort of training and music was going to open up a world of possibility for me. But mostly it was that I was simply attracted to the music, and I realized what the stringent disciplines were. And I realized that that’s something I’d better do if I was serious
Like it’s good to have the training before you go off in a different direction.
Charlap: Well, all at the same time. I’d never look at them as different directions, actually. That’s what I want to clarify – that it’s all at the same time and all a piece of each other.
Who would you classify as your musical influences? Who do you think has kind of shaped the way you play? Maybe it’s no one, but if you were to pick?
Charlap: I don’t think you could say for anyone that it’s no one. It’s just that the list is simply too large. And it’s not just pianists, you know? On that list, I would include Louis Armstrong, and Lester Young, and Benny Goodman, and Charlie Parker and Miles Davis and John Coltrane, as well as all of the pianists – from Scott Joplin through my peers today. Everything from Earl Hines, to Teddy Wilson, to Bud Powell, to Bill Evans to Keith Jarrett, etc. That’s just a small smattering.
But very importantly, was the piano Dick Hyman, who was a great mentor of mine. I spent a lot of time around him in my teens, and also he was one of my dearest friends. We’re even distant cousins, we found out. Also the composer Sir Richard Rodney Bennett, who was a highly influential musician on me. He was a very great composer, a student of Pierre Boulez, knighted by the Queen of England. He was Sir Richard. He also had a comprehensive knowledge of American popular songs and was a wonderful pianist and singer as well. So there was a lot in terms of understanding the depth of the songs that came from being exposed to Richard’s work and being friends with him.
Some other important people were the pianist and composer Jack Reilly. He was my private teacher for a number of years when I was in high school and a mentor to me. Also the pianist Eleanor Hancock, a great concert pianist … There’s some, and there are more. Any important artists that I’ve played with have been major influences, from Jim Hall to Gerry Mulligan, to Phil Woods, to Tony Bennett – all of these people influenced me. And one more piece, which I think is important, is your peers. The people that you grow up playing with, such as Kenny Washington and Peter Washington. We’ve been playing together for 27 years. Definitely, they’ve informed my perspective on the music. Not to mention my wife, who is Renee Rosnes, one of the world’s greatest jazz pianists. I’ve learned a lot from Renee, just from her aesthetic and her musical point of view.
So all of those things … you become obsessed with various players at different times in your life. But there’s no one pianist that looms so large that that’s the paradigm for me. There have been at different times in my life, but not now at 57 years old.
I’m glad you brought up Peter and Kenny. I’d love to hear just a little bit about how you came together for the first time – I believe it was 1997.
Charlap: That’s right. I was aware of Kenny Washington and Peter Washington individually from the work that they were doing with people like Tommy Flanagan and Phil Jackson, or Dizzy Gillespie. They’re both a bit older than me – Kenny’s about nine or 10 years older and Peter about five years older. They were on the scene in New York.
I wasn’t just aware of them individually, but also as a team, as a rhythm section team. They were making a lot of records, particularly for the Dutch label Criss Cross. They were making a lot of records for this label, which was kind of a label that was like what Blue Note was, perhaps in the 50s and 60s, in that they were recording the best and the brightest of the young musicians in New York City, and also other major artists … Anyway, I was aware of both of their playing. I had played with both of them maybe one time – once with Kenny, once with Peter. And I knew that they had been a house rhythm section for Criss Cross, where I had made a few records with some rhythm sections, and I wanted to make a record with them.
It was funny, the producer of the label, the owner of the label, said – well, what do you want to do that for? They play with everybody. And I said, I have a gut feeling about the chemistry. I don’t know why I felt that, but the moment we got in the studio – the first album that we made is called “All Through the Night,” it’s on Criss Cross Jazz. If anyone wants to hear the first time we played together, drop the needle on that record. The reason I say that is that the chemistry is already there. The sound of the trio is there. What’s so attractive to me is that – well, first of all, we have some like-minded feelings about the music, about our own personal sounds on our instrument, which are paramount to us. And then the idea of the instant arranger in the group aesthetic. All of those things are there. And then there’s just simply good chemistry. You know, when you get on with somebody, you usually get on right away. Just like when you don’t get on with somebody. That’s kind of fast, too.
I’m glad you brought that up. My dad’s a musician, he played in bands when I was growing up.
Charlap: I see. What did he play?
Guitar and piano. He played in a bunch of Atlanta clubs, mostly doing country stuff throughout the 80s and 90s. But he’s talked about that chemistry aspect, and I wanted to ask you – how common is it to find someone and know that quickly that you guys match up in that way? What is that feeling like?
Charlap: One of the things in our music, especially in jazz, is that you learn to listen to where people are coming from, and you learn to blend and you learn to fit in, in a way that doesn’t negate your individuality. At the same time, really special chemistry is a rare thing. I think that when it’s that palpable – like the chemistry I have with my wife Renee Rosnes when we play two pianos, or with Kenny and Peter, and with some other important people in my life – it’s rare, and it’s palpable when you feel it. But there are all types of different chemistries that as a complete musician, you learn to find an avenue. So that’s something we’re looking for, and something that we can create to some degree. But sometimes it’s completely effortless. You say, hey, these pants fit! I don’t need to take them to the tailor. [Laughs]
“Street of Dreams” was the last album you released. I’m interested in the process of putting together an album. When I think of doing that, I think of writing the songs and then figuring out how they go together. But when you’re doing jazz standards and things like that, how do you fit them all into an album?
Charlap: Well, I take it – I should have asked you – you’re a musician too, aren’t you?
Yes.
Charlap: Are you a songwriter?
I’ve tried – you know, I’m a writer, but songwriting was never a strong suit for me.
Charlap: I see. Well what do you play? What do you do?
I played piano growing up, and I sing.
Charlap: Well in my case, first of all, the repertoire that I play is mostly pulled from The Great American Songbook, which means the great theater writers mostly. It’s not always theater, such as Hoagy Carmichael, whose songs are not from the theater. But mostly we’re talking about Kern, Gershwin, Berlin, Porter, Rogers, Arlen, and many others. Maybe there’s another 20 composers [laughs]. And then the great jazz writers – people like Horace Silver and Kenny Dorham. Billy Strayhorn, was also a songwriter of course. Duke Ellington, was also a songwriter of course. Thelonious Monk, etc. And then there’s the blues, which is at the center of everything.
Now, this trio has made many records over the last close to 30 years. We have made records focusing on the music of one composer, like records of Hoagy Carmichael or Leonard Bernstein, etc. When you’re putting together an album like that, you’re picking and choosing and you’re making sure that it’s balanced, and essentially just playing things you want to play. However, in the last – I guess it’s the last three records … what we’ve been doing now – because we have such a vast repertoire, and we’re playing so often – for “Street of Dreams,” I remember we were driving down to Baltimore to play an engagement, and I said gents, here’s about 30 pieces that I’m thinking of recording. Now, all we need is, you know, maybe about seven or eight. So I’m just gonna say the name of the tune, and if I get two yeses I check it off. If I get one no, it’s out. So everybody has to be in on the yes. I’ve already said yes. We went down very quickly … I said okay, I’ve got about eight songs here, this is good. This is what we’ll record.
Then, we just go for it. We play like we would play a set. I did four tunes one day and four tunes the next. At this point, that’s how we like to operate, because there’s already an operating system of balance and touching on various different moods and feelings and compositional techniques and improvisation techniques. So that’s a piece of what happened for “Street of Dreams,” and the chemistry – the particular meal that we were cooking came out really very nicely, and naturally, is the point.
The next record that we have coming out is exactly this, but in real time. It will be coming out in August, and what it is is a live album from the Village Vanguard, the world’s premier jazz club. We’ve made a live album from the Vanguard before, close to 20 years ago now, maybe 15 years ago or so. But this is the second one that we’ve done, and it pretty much is one of the sets that we can play straight down. Not in exactly that order, and a couple of pieces from a different set so we balanced it out. But I think it was all Saturday night – our last run. We always do two weeks at the Vanguard in September. It was, I think, on the first Saturday night, and that’s the record. It balanced naturally, because it’s a set that we play. So, that’s the long-winded answer. We improvise, with three votes yes and some feeling of the trajectory of a story.
Tickets for this event can be purchased online.
A previous version of this article referred to Mr. Charlap as a Grammy nominee. It has been corrected to reflect he is a Grammy winner.