---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 22 Jun 95 10:57 WET DST
From: eye WEEKLY <eye@interlog.com>
To: eye-music@bronze.interlog.com, eye-l@bronze.interlog.com
Newgroups: eye.news, rec.music.bluenote, tor.arts
Subject: JAZZFEST: Jacky Terrasson Trio
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eye WEEKLY June 22 1995
Toronto's arts newspaper .....free every Thursday
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JAZZ FEST JAZZ FEST
JACKY TERRASSON TRIO with JAVON JACKSON
Thursday, June 29, 4:30 p.m.
The Toronto Star Stage, Nathan Phillips Square.
Free.
THE WORLD AT HIS FINGERS
by
TIM POWIS
In a recent round-up of jazz musicians he dubs "neo-hard-boppers," The
New Yorker's venerable jazz critic Whitney Balliett reserved his
greatest praise for the 29-year-old piano player Jacky Terrasson.
Writes Balliett: "Terrasson is not walking into the future backward;
he's an original."
Needless to say, Terrasson has read the article. "Yeah, it was a good
piece," he says on the phone from his home in Manhattan. With a
chuckle, he adds, "He called me `an ingratiating showoff.' "
Besides showing off his prodigious technique on Jacky Terrasson (Blue
Note/EMI), his sole album to date as a leader, the pianist evinces a
welcome knack for breathing new life into tired old standards. This is
particularly evident in the opening number, "I Love Paris" -- usually,
it's done slow and sentimental, but with the exuberant support of
bassist Ugonna Okegwo and drummer Leon Parker, Terrasson transmogrifies
the song into a funky soul-jazz thang.
"We were thinking of a way to do the tune," explains Terrasson,
"because the only version I had of it was a ballad and it was very ...
uh, kind of corny. We wanted to treat it differently and that was the
beat."
What Terrasson plays on top of (and behind and beside) that beat is
often striking and never predictable. He says that his distinctive
style may have something to do with having studied classical piano for
over 10 years. "And then I studied Bud Powell for a few years," he
recalls. "I guess I kind of got really influenced for a while by Bud
Powell, Bill Evans and Monk. Actually, I was listening to these guys
for four-and-a-half or five years and I was only listening to them. And
then I tried to forget everything -- not forget, but I was very aware I
didn't want to sound like them."
For his Downtown Jazz show, Terrasson's trio will be augmented on some
numbers by the underrated tenor saxophonist Javon Jackson, who has
recorded two Blue Note albums with Terrasson as a sideman. This may
also be the only chance many Torontonians get to hear the trio -- in
its current form anyway. At the end of the summer, Leon Parker, who
recently brought out his own album, is leaving to pursue his own muse.
"I'm probably gonna do something else," says Terrasson about what's
likely to happen after Parker's departure. "Maybe not do a trio, maybe
go to a bigger thing. I'm still kinda thinking about what's gonna
happen next."
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