1. Drop Me Off in Harlem
2. Manhattan Serenade
3. 52nd Street Theme
4. Autumn in New York
5. 42nd Street
6. Lullaby of Broadway
7. Somewhere
8. Harlem Bound
9. Lovers in New York
10. Lonely Town
11. Harlem Strut
12. Manhattan
13. Take the "A" Train
Ehud Asherie - Piano
Ehud Asherie is an Israeli-born pianist who now lives in New York. This appears to be his first solo album, and the publicity gives the impression that his playing is a mixture of all kinds of styles - from stride to bebop. Yet most of the tracks demonstrate that, at least on this CD, he is a stride pianist in the mould of Ralph Sutton.
Sounding like Ralph Sutton is no bad thing, especially as Ralph's style takes us back to such earlier piano masters as Fats Waller. And Ehud does the stride bit very well, as he shows right from the very start with Drop Me Off in Harlem, where he keeps the stride's impetus by using a judicious amount of sustain pedal. It is good to hear neglected melodies like Manhattan Serenade and 42nd Street, but they date from 1928 and 1932 respectively, thus maintaining the atmosphere as well as the methods of the stride era.
Thelonious Monk's 52nd Street Theme is a beboppish tune but Ehud interprets it mainly in stride mode, with occasional echoes of Monk. At one point there are even hints of the old-time song Nagasaki. Autumn in New York is more of a contemplative ballad. Lullaby of Broadway replaces the striding left hand with single bass notes, although stride returns in the middle 16.
Somewhere is from a later time and is given a thoughtful reading, with pairs of chords in the left hand. Asherie wrote Harlem Bound himself and it very much has the air of (say) James P. Johnson, while the little-known Lovers in New York hints at a lilting rumba rhythm, with an unforeseen quotation from George Shearing's Conception along the way (although he used the same quote in UMMG on his trio CD of music by Billy Strayhorn!).
Lonely Town is from the Leonard Bernstein musical On the
Town but Ehud still can't resist hints of stride piano. And stride
is at the heart of James P's Harlem Strut. Manhattan returns
us to a pensive ballad, taken without any undue hurry so as to savour
its richness. The final number is that old warhorse Take the "A"
Train, for which Ehud supplies a single-note bass line and then
a full-on chordal stride.
Even if he plays differently on other recordings and there are hints
of other styles in Ehud's playing here, this CD portrays him as essentially
a pianist of the old school. But there's nothing wrong with that.
In fact I enjoyed this album, despite expecting something else from
the impression given by the promotional material and the sleeve-note.
Tony Augarde
CD Reviews
Arbors Jazz ARCD 19406
