1 I'm Old Fashioned (Kern) 5:10
2 I Can't Get Started (Duke) 　4:08
3 Stella By Starlight (Young) 3:01		play
4 Ghost Of A Chance (Young) 5:00
5 All The Things You Are (Kern) 4:24
6 Easy Living (Rainger) 　4:17
7 Darn That Dream (Van Heusen) 4:18
8 Angel Eyes (Dennis) 4:08
9 What Is This Thing Called Love (Porter) 4:22
10 Body And Soul (Green) 4:11
11 Gone With The Wind (Wrubel) 3:37	play
12 Everything Happens To Me (Dennis) 4:46
13 These Foolish Things (Strachey, Link) 3:56

Musicians:
Bill Charlap (Piano) 
Peter Bernstein (Guitar) 
Peter Washington (Bass)

Nobody would argue that Bill Charlap is one of the most preeminent jazz pianists of his generation. His encyclopedic knowledge of the American Songbook is second to none, and his beautiful touch, amazing skills and imagination make it a pleasure to listen to him at all times.

As some of you already know, Charlap has recorded a number of great albums for Venus Records of Japan with his great New York Trio (with Jay Leonhart and Bill Stewart). For this, latest release, he decided to take a slightly different direction with a drum-less trio with guitarist Peter Bernstein and bassist Peter Washington.

Having a guitarist instead of a drummer softenes the texture of the trio sound and make it more intimate. It also makes the sound of the bass come forward so one can appreciate, in this case, the virtuosity of Washington. Charlap's tone is pristine and his solos are sigh-inducingly beautiful. The group's style may seem "old fashioned" on surface, but their interpretations of standards are modern, sophisticated and urban. This CD is a must-have item for fans of Bill Charlap! Enthusiastically recommended! ---eastwindimport.com

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01. Somebody Loves Me
02. S' Wonderful
03. A Foggy Day
04. I Was So Young (You Were So Beautiful)

Bill Charlap  - piano

Bill Charlap is one of the strongest mainstream jazz pianists on the scene and one of the most gifted interpreters of standards. He grew up in a musical household, as the son of Broadway songwriter Moose Charlap and singer Sandy Stewart. Taking to the piano at a young age, he went on to study at New York's High School of Performing Arts. He then entered college, but rather than finishing, opted to practice and gig on his own. Pianist Bill Mays soon took up Charlap's cause, recommending the young man as his replacement in the Gerry Mulligan Quartet. During this time, Charlap also worked with Benny Carter, Clark Terry, and Frank Wess, and was sought after as an accompanist for singers such as Tony Bennett, Carol Sloane, and Sheila Jordan. In 1995, he secured one of the most coveted piano chairs in jazz, with the Phil Woods Quintet.

All the while, Charlap showed steady development as a leader. His debut came in 1994 with Along with Me, followed by Souvenir in 1995 and Distant Star in 1996. His 1997 release, All Through the Night, was the first to feature his current trio, with the redoubtable (and unrelated) Washingtons, Peter and Kenny, on bass and drums respectively. In 2000, this lineup had its major-label breakthrough with the highly acclaimed Blue Note disc Written in the Stars. Two albums appeared in 2001: 2Gether with Warren Vaché and Contrasts with Jon Gordon. 'S Wonderful hit the shelves in 2002, as did Stardust, which began a series of albums that focused on a single composer. Stardust featured the music of Hoagy Carmichael, 2004's Somewhere was an all-Leonard Bernstein affair, while 2005's Plays George Gershwin featured ten songs by the man Charlap considers "the American soul." 2005 saw the release of an album with Sandy Stewart, Love Is Here to Stay. Two years later, Charlap released Live at the Village Vanguard. ---David R. Adler, Rovi

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1. I'll Remember April [04:55]
2. Make Me Rainbows [07:04]
3. Not A Care In The World [05:59]
4. There Is No Music [06:08]
5. A Sleeping Bee [04:52]
6. Little Rascal On A Rock [05:07]
7. Too Late Now [08:54]
8. Tiny's Tempo [05:59]
9. On The Sunny Side Of The Street [05:03]

Bill Charlap – Piano
Peter Washington – Bass
Kenny Washington – Drums

It’s worth remembering that no artist is constantly obligated to reinvent the wheel. Sometimes, just making a really great wheel can be an accomplishment in itself. And while no one would say Notes From New York, the new outing from the Bill Charlap Trio, represents a paradigm shift in the piano-trio canon, it’s an album of such instrumental invention and brio that it easily stands as the year’s most purely delightful recording thus far.

Charlap’s piano technique is singular and stunning in the way it weds a chiming, almost dainty touch to a leaping, top-to-bottom keyboard attack. If “muscular elegance” is not too much of an oxymoron, it’s the perfect phrase to describe the pianist’s approach. His album-opening rendition of “I’ll Remember April” is a master class in fast-paced swing, drummer Kenny Washington’s staccato rhythms driving Charlap to ever-rising single-note explosions. “Tiny’s Tempo” bustles along with effortless flair, showcasing a bouncy solo from bassist Peter Washington, and Charlap lightly trips his way through “A Sleepin’ Bee”; there, Kenny Washington’s shuffling brushes provide an unwavering companion on the journey.

But Charlap’s trio also brings considerable vitality and élan to Notes From New York’s moodier material. The pianist’s low-register block chords give “Make Me Rainbows” an admirable sense of ardor, with Peter Washington’s walking strings adding just enough blues to the mix. “There Is No Music” blends polished refinement with a somber, minor-keyed tenderness and darkly shimmering Charlap glissandos. The whole affair closes with “On the Sunny Side of the Street,” which Charlap, playing unaccompanied, reinvents as a bittersweet ballad full of longing and echoey empty spaces. But even when it’s tugging at your heartstrings, Notes From New York is a luxurious, exquisitely pleasurable experience. Charlap and his trio have given us a “wheel” that rolls on straight and true. --- Matt R. Lohr, jazztimes.com

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1 	Curtains 	
2 	Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most 	
3 	Uptown, Downtown 	
4 	The One I Love Belongs To Someone Else 	
5 	I'm All Smiles 	
6 	There's A Small Hotel 	
7 	Satellite 	
8 	Bon Ami 	
9 	Sophisticated Lady

Bass – Peter Washington
Drums – Kenny Washington
Piano – Bill Charlap 

Bill Charlap brings a sometimes energetic sometimes lissom touch to standards from the Great American Songbook on his new album, Uptown Downtown, recorded in New York with his regular sidemen, bassist Peter Washington and drummer Kenny Washington.

There is such an air of American song artistry about this very fine album that even the things that are not songs per se morph into songs without words, as it were, under the expert hands of Bill Charlap, surely one of the most expressive jazz pianists at large today.

Take the decidedly melodic opener Curtains, a Gerry Mulligan composition new to this writer. Bill recorded it with Mulligan on the baritone saxophonist's album Lonesome Boulevard in 1989 and the pianist also recorded the song with Ted Rosenthal on the Gerry Mulligan Songbook album in the 90s. The tune fits in with all that suggestion of vocal heritage that characterises Uptown Downtown.

You also get Jim Hall's charming saunter Bon Ami, which is also spirited or sneaked into this warm chamber of song celebration that is Charlap's metier, known for years for his treatments of Gershwin and Sondheim material. His take on the Wolf/Landesman classic, Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most is replete with feeling, properly pitching the melancholy, yet dedicated to playing the tune with no frills. The title track, Sondheim's Uptown, Downtown stomps its way blithely, while the Jones/Kahn standard The One I love Belongs to Someone Else trots along the bouelvard, somehow belying the love-weary tendency which the title suggests. Isham Jones and Gus Kahn wrote it in 1924 for Al Jolson, but Frank Sinatra's rendition, recorded in 1940 with Tommy Dorsey, made it famous.

The Leonard-Martin song, I'm all Smiles is wry and rueful autumnal, one of the richer exercises on the record, being kind of opaque, foraging in a different patch of ground.

Just put Uptown Downtown on in the background and let the music grow around your room, your car, your head and heart-space.There is a kind of wholesome therapy at the hands of the Bill Charlap Trio that results in musical balm. ---Paddy Kehoe, rte.ie/entertainment/music-reviews

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