John Medeski will be at the Barns of Wolf Trap tomorrow night for a solo piano performance. As long as there have been jazz pianists, there have been solo piano performances and recordings. The instrument is perfect for such a setting because of its dynamic range and ability to simultaneously combine melody, harmony and rhythm. A solo performance can also be a daunting prospect because the pianist has no colleagues to draw ideas from or hide behind.
“The piano is really like an orchestra,” said John Medeski, who will be performing solo tomorrow night at the Barns of Wolf Trap. “There are so many things you can do and it’s a very sweet instrument.”
Medeski is best known for his work with Medeski Martin & Wood, the eclectic trio that is capable of moving from avant-garde noise to funk to anywhere in between. He crossed the rubicon into solo performance with A Different Time, a recording he released earlier this year. The recording session’s setting had a significant impact on the album’s ultimate sound. Producer Henry Hirsch engineered it in his own studio that is a converted 19th century church located in New York’s Hudson Valley. Vintage microphones were used in order to replicate the sound from well-known classical recordings by pianist Arthur Rubinstein.
After recording an entire album’s worth of material on a Steinway, Hirsch suggested that Medeski try a seven-foot, 1924 French Gaveau just to mix things up. The piano was built to replicate 19th century instruments that Romantic-era composers like Frédéric Chopin would have used. The Gaveau is not as resonant as contemporary pianos and was thus a revelation to Medeski. This resulted in a very introspective approach to the recording.
“The instrument is more delicate and takes more control,” Medeski said. “It enabled me to play in a very different way, very simply. It made certain kinds of things easier.”
A Different Time is a collection of improvisations, originals compositions and covers that include Willie Nelson’s “I’m Falling in Love Again” and Charlie Gabriel’s standard “His Eye Is on the Sparrow.” Tomorrow’s performance will be a similar mix, but Medeski believes that it all the music will come out based on his feelings in the moment and the reaction he receives from the audience.
“Jazz is the language of creation and freedom, and self-creation and self-expression,” he said. “I hope everyone gets something out of it that’s meaningful.”
John Medeski will perform at the Barns of Wolf Trap tomorrow night, December 5, 2013, at 8 p.m. Tickets $25.
