Mulgrew Miller
TRIO TRANSITION

LA RECENSIONE

MILLER, DIGNIFIED CRAFTSMAN OF HARD BOP PIANISM, between Oscar Peterson and McCoy Tyner

In the galaxy of jazz craftsmen, there is also Mulgrew Miller, about whom I will summarize a few lines of biography just to get us on the same page. So: an American pianist born in Mississippi in 1955; he trained as a sideman in the school of two important post-bop drummers like Art Blakey and Tony Williams, and he also held a dignified position as a band leader, especially from 1985 to 1995. Of his various and often ephemeral formations, Trio Transition refers to a Japanese tour in 1987, of which this eponymous album provides us with a record.

It's not an album that one would say: wow, I need to find it! And yet, if you happen to come across it while browsing a catalog, I believe it is still worth a listen today. In fact, we are at the best of Mulgrew's expressive maturity, who remains within the framework of a hard-bop mainstream but skillfully combines the reworking of standards like the relaxed «Like Someone I Love» or the engaging «I Hear A Rhapsody», and his own compositions like «No Sidestepping», «Second Thoughts», and «Whisper», also including a classic of Freddie Hubbard like «Up Jumped Spring».

The overall pleasantness of his style, however, does not shine for originality: it always hovers between the elegance of Oscar Peterson and the expressionist emphasis of McCoy Tyner, but without particular emotional peaks. Nor do his two partners help: Reggie Workman on double bass and Fredrick Waits on drums, both from a generation preceding Miller's, are two honest companions who do their job and little more, in the sense that - aside from the effectiveness of the rhythm - their specific contribution is limited to each signing a piece: the lively samba «Shades Of Angola» for Workman and «Two Faces Of Nasheet» for Waits. Of the two, the latter is more interesting, revealing itself to be a skewed ballad scented with exoticism and well interpreted by Miller with a Tyner-like attitude.

Essential - even though complete with information - is the graphics of the Japanese DIW Record, while the cover photos - deliberately eccentric black and white on the front and annotated colored ones on the back - are minimal.