Leslie Pintchik - So Glad To Be Here

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 59:23
Size: 136.0 MB
Styles: Piano jazz
Year: 2004
Art: Front

[6:15] 1. All The Things You Are
[4:37] 2. You Keep Coming Back Like A Song
[5:57] 3. Scamba
[5:42] 4. Hopperesque
[4:43] 5. Let's Get Lucky
[5:11] 6. Happy Dog
[7:17] 7. Mortal
[5:30] 8. Terse Tune
[4:52] 9. Luscious
[5:06] 10. Something Lost
[4:09] 11. We See

Leslie Pintchik (piano), Scott Hardy (bass), Satoshi Takeishi (percussion).

Pianist and composer Leslie Pintchik has played clubs in New York for several years, and it shows in the natural approach that predominates on this her first release. She gives plenty of space to skillful bassist Scott Hardy, who's also her husband, and to drummer Satoshi Takeishi, whose style is imaginative yet unobtrusive. The three players demonstrate their easy rapport on the opening standard "All the Things You Are," taken in a comfortable samba-like groove. Supporting Pintchik's supple line is the active melodic interplay of Hardy and Takeishi, the latter remarkable for his light and high percussion palette that includes colorful oriental cymbals. On Berlin's "You Keep Coming Back Like a Song," Pintchik plays a plain but emotive line with a gorgeous sound. Hardy contributes one composition, "Scamba," a samba tune with some triplets for rhythmic variety. After Pintchik introduces and improvises on the tune, Hardy's solo explores and reveals the core of the piece.

Pintchik's compositions predominate, and her more balladic are particularly notable. Outstanding is "Hopperesque," which evokes and interprets the work of American painter Edward Hopper, with a '50s-style Afro-Cuban beat and interludes in which Takeishi plies his cymbals. Pintchik seems to favor diminished chords, and the major-minor seventh that closes the work suggests film noir-associated pieces like Washington's "Invitation." Pintchik's "Something Lost" is masterful, a work that sounds through-composed and influenced by impressionistic Bill Evans ballads such as "Time Past." Pintchik's "Mortal" is perhaps the most original and emotive work on the disc, lyrical and pensive, a little foreboding but peaceful. Takeishi starts with spooky cymbals and Japanese-sounding melodic drumming, and the drums continue to wash over and converse with Pintchik's melodic line. Gradually the pace picks up as Hardy's bass turns higher-pitched and more active. ~Virgina A. Schaefer

So Glad To Be Here mc
So Glad To Be Here zippy

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Leslie Pintchik - Quartets

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 55:50
Size: 127.8 MB
Styles: Piano jazz
Year: 2007
Art: Front

[5:31] 1. Happy Days Are Here Again
[6:52] 2. Too Close For Comfort
[5:53] 3. A Simpler Time
[6:21] 4. Not So Fast
[5:49] 5. Over Easy
[7:13] 6. Private Moment
[6:48] 7. Fugu
[5:35] 8. Small Pleasures
[5:44] 9. Somewhere Berimbau

Both quartets on Quartets include pianist Leslie Pintchik, bassist Scott Hardy and drummer Mark Dodge. One quartet extends its percussion section with Satoshi Takeishi, who played drums and percussion on Pintchik's first release, So Glad to Be Here (Ambient Records, 2004). The other quartet features Scott Wilson on alto or soprano saxophone.

A strength of this disc is its three standards, inventively arranged by Pintchik and Hardy. "Happy Days Are Here Again" moves at a stately pace, starting with an aura of hushed wonder, enhanced by Takeishi's rattling and tinkling and Dodge's cymbals. The mood gradually builds to a contained exuberance. "Too Close For Comfort" drives along in a percussive Brazilian groove in which all players bear down hard on the "too close" figure. (Ken Dryden's liner notes point out that they actually use two different dance rhythms.) Pintchik enriches with bluesy chords and figures, and Hardy plays an agile, swinging solo.

Among Pintchik's compositions, the upbeat "A Simpler Time" has an organic form and triplet phrasing over a duple meter. "Over Easy" has an active melody that, like other Pintchik compositions, repeats a phrase in different keys with rhythmic displacements. Wilson plays the lead on soprano and takes two interesting solos. "Small Pleasures" is a catchy tune, served well by the dark and rich tone of Wilson's soprano. Pintchik's solo hints at the style of Herbie Hancock in her use of arpeggios, blues-riff ornamentation, and alternation of single notes and octaves on a melodic line.

"Private Moments" has a long, songlike melody mixing duple and triple rhythms. Throughout, Pintchik's playing moves through tonal centers, suggesting light following shadow. Wilson takes the lead on soprano and plays an emotive solo. As an inspiration for the composition, Pintchik cites Pierre Bonnard's paintings of his wife bathing. I can feel a connection between her musical style and the painter's use of spare outlines with underlying meticulous brushwork that conveys complex light and color.

An intriguing departure from Pintchik's other compositions here, "Not So Fast" is a minor blues in a finger-snapping shuffle groove, with an angular melody reminiscent of "Something's Coming" and "Cool" from West Side Story (an association reinforced by the disc's closing "Somewhere/Berimbau"). A more weighty character emerges through Pintchik's boppish solo and then Wilson's solo full of blazing runs. As background to Dodge's deft solo, the other musicians play a modal-jazz rework of the tune based on its opening motif.

Hardy's composition "Fugu" is a samba poised between major and minor. As Pintchik plays the melody quietly, Hardy interpolates a falling half-step for a moving call-response effect. Hardy uses the singing character of his instrument to complement and extend the inherently percussive sound of the piano.

The closing standard, "Somewhere," is a standout. The song is effectively framed by a contrasting introduction and ending. The musicians ply varied tempos and grooves to convey the song's ambiguous message (should we believe and rejoice, or sigh at the futility?). For the introduction, Pintchik plays a descending-fifth motif over a four-measure chord vamp, which Dodge and Takeishi embellish and Hardy enhances with melodic swells. Pintchik improvises as the tempo increases and then falls back. The pitch drops a half step and then another, and they begin the theme. The simultaneous rise in intensity and fall in key is briefly disorienting.

Pintchik's treatment of the melody reflects the yearning quality of the Bernstein-Sondheim song in its original setting. At the same time, Hardy's walking bass with pedal points, as well as Dodge and Takeishi's percussion that includes cymbals, bells, and occasional snare rolls, add a tension and forward momentum that's almost marchlike. When the opening vamp returns, Pintchik solos with a bluesy touch. The tempo speeds up and then drops back for the return of the head. In the original arrangement, the "somewhere" cadence in parallel major triads has a modal flavor. Pintchik pares that down to parallel fourths, which suggests tenuous hope. But on the final "somewhere," she shifts its accent to create the instrument-mimicking introductory figure of Baden-Powell's "Berimbau," ending the piece in a joyful Brazilian groove. ~Virginia A. Schaefer

Quartets mc
Quartets zippy

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Leslie Pintchik - You Eat My Food, You Drink My Wine, You Steal My Girl!

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 46:14
Size: 105.9 MB
Styles: Piano jazz
Year: 2018
Art: Front

[4:44] 1. You Eat My Food, You Drink My Wine, You Steal My Girl!
[6:10] 2. I'm Glad There Is You
[6:13] 3. Smoke Gets In Your Eyes
[7:19] 4. Mortal
[5:27] 5. Your Call Will Be Answered
[5:57] 6. Hopperesque
[4:39] 7. Happy Dog
[5:42] 8. A Simpler Time

Leslie Pintchik (piano); Steve Wilson (alto saxophone), Ron Horton (trumpet and flugelhorn), Shoko Nagai (accordion), Scott Hardy (bass and guitar), Michael Sarin (drums), and Satoshi Takeishi (percussion).

On this, her sixth album, pianist Leslie Pintchik shows that she can compose distinctive melodies. All of the original compositions she does on this CD are bright and memorable and even the two standards she covers are given surprising arrangements.

She establishes herself from the beginning with the uniquely-titled "You Eat My Food." This turns out to be a nice piece of surging jazz-funk in the manner of early Herbie Hancock with a serpentine piano line and pithy accents from the two horn players. It also features sharp, wailing solos by Steve Wilson on alto sax and bassist Scott Hardy doubling on electric guitar. "Mortal" is a ballad that showcases Pintchik's quietly dramatic ability at slow tempos and has gorgeous solos by Wilson and Ron Horton on flugelhorn. "Your Call Will Be Answered...," the other tune with a mouthful of a title, shows how hard Pintchik can swing in a pure piano trio format accompained by Hardy and drummer Michael Sarin. Shoko Nagai's accordion adds exotic elements to the music on "Hopperesque" and "Happy Dog." The former has a slowly swirling tango feel and the latter emerges as a swinging samba. Both provide space for Pintchik's piano to really sparkle amidst complex rhythm work. The closing ballad, "A Simpler Time" has a pretty, sentimental theme that is played by the group with delicacy and care. As for the two standards they both get slightly unconventional treatments that benefit them. "I'm Glad There Is You" is played as a slow, romantic bolero and "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes" is set to a sly Latin rhythm with a heavy groove set by Hardy with Pintchik's playing coming out both subtle and frisky.

This is an excellent set of piano-led jazz, alternately funky and tender, playful and profound. Leslie Pintchik can play with as much verve and feeling as any other mainstream pianist around and she also writes exceptional tunes. ~Jerome Wilson

You Eat My Food, You Drink My Wine, You Steal My Girl! mc
You Eat My Food, You Drink My Wine, You Steal My Girl! zippy

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Leslie Pintchik - In The Nature Of Things

Styles: Piano Jazz
Year: 2014
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 50:18
Size: 115,7 MB
Art: Front

(5:55)  1. With You in Mind
(4:10)  2. I'd Turn Back If I Were You
(7:37)  3. I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face
(4:53)  4. Luscious
(5:06)  5. Sparkle
(3:48)  6. Terse Tune
(5:53)  7. Ripe
(5:13)  8. Ready!
(7:38)  9. There You Go (Performed Live)

Pianist Leslie Pintchik takes advantage her her New York home base on her recordings by enlisting some of the city's most innovative musicians to help her share her vision. On previous three CD releases Pintchik has sculpted a seductive sound that combines the cerebral with engaging and beautiful, much in the mode of piano legend Herbie Hancock. And here, on her In the Nature of Things she treads softly on more of a Hancock influence, that of his exceptional 1968 Blue Note Records album, Speak Like a Child. Under the influence of composer/arranger Gil Evans, Hancock used flugelhorn, bass trombone and alto flute to float satiny harmonies behind his core trio. Pintchik, expanding her quartet mode to a sextet, adds Steve Wilson's alto saxophone and Ron Horton's flugelhorn, arranged by the set's bassist, Scott Hardy, for a similar effect. Opening with her original "With You In Mind," the horns paint subtle colors as a backdrop for the rest of the group, including drummer Michael Sarin and percussionist Satoshi Takeishi. 

Pintchik's touch is sparklingly exquisite, and Wilson gets a brief sax solo on this gorgeous five minutes of music. "I'd Turn Back If I Were You," another Pintchik tune, brings to mind one of of Herbie Hancock's more overlooked albums, the rhythm-heavy Inventions and Dimensions (Blue Note Records, 1963), a trio outing with an added percussionist, Oscavaldo "Chihuahua" Martinez. Here, the rhythms of Takeishi, Sarin and Hardy are fabulous, and maybe they're Latin-flavored, maybe not, but they definitely keep the effervescence popping in the rhythmic stew. The standard "I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face" is the only non-Pintchik tune of the set. Pintchik lays it down with a deceptive simplicity, no horns added, with her and bassist Hardy acting as equal partner in the exploration of the pure loveliness of the melody. "Luscious" opens with Pintchik's stellar pianism of full display. The band is locked in. Wilson solos superbly. 

The lush, cool horn harmonies kick in, and then the ebullient "Sparkle" glimmers to life, with a warm flugelhorn solo from Ron Horton, followed by Sarin on alto, and by now it's obvious that Pinchik has crafted her most ambitious and beautiful outing to date.

 ~ Dan McClenaghan  http://www.allaboutjazz.com/in-the-nature-of-things-leslie-pintchik-pintch-hard-records-review-by-dan-mcclenaghan.php#.VF5YrcmHmth

Personnel: Leslie Pintchik: piano; Steve Wilson: alto and soprano saxophones (1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7); Ron Horton: trumpet and flugelhorn (1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7); Scott Hardy: bass; Michael Sarin: drums; Satoshi Takeishi: percussion

In The Nature Of Things

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