New York Portrait

JazzTimes Review of New York Portraits By Susan Frances Standards like George and Ira Gershwin's I Loves You Porgy and Lorenz Hart and Richard Rogers' classic tune My Heart Stood Still are garnished with a modern flare in the hands of pianist Alex Levin. Levin's trio comprising of bassist Michael Bates and drummer Brain Floody grazes the stars of jazz music's yesteryear on the group's latest recording New York Portraits, which additionally features two original tracks written by Levin. Pensive and penetrative, New York Portraits is driven by the winds of showtunes style harmonies and swing-inspired melodies. The tracks elevate the spirit with each one displaying Levin's keen melodic sensibilities and the trio's ability to fuse their ideas into a striking mix. The title of the album, New York Portraits, refers to the theme resonating through the recording as Levin puts together a collection of songs that are descriptive to him of New York City including his original contributions, the cushiony gospel tones of Last Train To Brooklyn and the jitter-fused swing palpitations of Blues For Charley. Levin's strokes are elegantly hewn and the trio's interlocking verses exude a sophistication reminiscent of Nat King Cole. The group's renditions of the Gershwin's Isn't It A Pity? and Irving Berlin's Cheek To Cheek are checklist perfect, and the musicians own improvised add ons like Bates' whirling arcos in My Heart Stood Still and Levin's wiggling keys glittering along Who Can I Turn To produce a sleek ruffling. The somber coloring of Body And Soul closes out the album with a vision of the city winding down and it's inhabitants having a last dance before turning down the lights. In many ways, New York Portraits seems like Levin's dream of what the music played in the swing clubs around New York City during the '40s, '50s, and '60s must have sounded like. The melodies live in two worlds, the past and the present. The songs are steep in nostalgia in their phrasing but the tones and the improvised lines are purely contemporary. New York Portraits is a vital asset to jazz music's gallery. It bridges two worlds that are far apart and yet enjoy each other's company, at least the way Levin's trio presents it. ****************************************************************************************************************************************************** New York pianist Alex Levin dreams of the 40's, 50's and 60's, those rich decades in jazz when musicians gigged across the city, uptown in Harlem, on 52nd Street, and down in the Village. For Alex, New York City remains aprimary inspiration for his music. Walking down Broadway or any big street in New York is like playing jazz, if you're doing it right, he explains. It's fun; it's improvisational; it's diverse; it's musical. The city came to life for Alex when he moved there in 1993 to study at The New School's Jazz Program. It was there that he met his teacher Arnie Lawrence who introduced Alex to Ahmad Jamal's music, and, while in New York, Alex studied piano and composition while meeting collaborators and friends. Alex explains, New York Portraits is like a big painting of New York City, and it incorporates the musical brushstrokes and techniques I have learned while living in New York. So there's some of Arnie Lawrence's great romanticism to our rendition of Body and Soul, and Herman Foster's piano is echoed a bit in the block chords of Who Can I Turn To. I hope that when you listen to the record you find yourself transported to New York, and that you can imagine the millions of lights in the buildings at night, and perhaps the quiet solitude one experiences while riding the subway home late at night. See, when I first came to New York, I felt really overwhelmed by the layers upon layers of beauty in the city. With this record I was trying to distill some of the feelings I have had as a New Yorker. Once you live here, you really start to understand how beautiful a big city can be. In my opinion, jazz is the soundtrack of New York City. All the horns h