Jones jazzes up autumn dreams
The superlative jazz pianist Mike Jones has deep roots in Western New York, but a few years back, he picked up stakes to go work and live in Las Vegas. Nowadays his visits here are infrequent, which makes them just that much more imperative that jazz piano fans in these environs catch him when they can.
Jones plays in the “tradition,” an ever-evolving phrase that moves with the times. His style reflects those of such creative keyboard wizards as Oscar Peterson and Dave McKenna, who helped shape Jones’ phrasing by their examples. While Jones can and does pay homage to those folks, he wouldn’t be the singularly arresting performer he is without venturing out onto his own musical path.
With his digits rippling over the keyboard, searching out all the intervals in the chords being played, Jones clearly demonstrated impeccable muscle control, whipping between notes with impressive speed while always maintaining control and causing each note, each phrase, to stand out amid its brethren.
Like McKenna, his friend and idol, Jones also has a predilection for creating little suites of tunes based upon titles. That is why Saturday night’s listeners were treated to an autumn songs set — “Autumn Leaves,” “Things We Did Last Summer,” “Autumn Song” — and a selection of songs on dreams — “Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams,” “Dream a Little Dream,” “If Dreams Came True. Each segue was seamless, making the various elements of these minisuites into a unit.
Despite the abundance of complex sounds emanating from the piano, Jones’ performance wasn’t all about velocity. Such midtempo ballads as “Gone With the Wind” and the reflective “What a Difference a Day Makes” had a subtlety that came through the bravura playing and his comedic asides after long stretches of pianism broke up the audience in a sly, genteel manner.
A decent-sized audience awaited Jones’ Saturday night concert, and relatively few seats were empty. For the first program in this, the 11th year of Buffalo’s premier jazz music series, the audience consisted mostly of longtime attendees familiar with the programming’s consistently high quality and diversity.
Based upon the musicians scheduled to appear later in the series, getting your tickets now, rather than waiting on serendipity, would be advisable.
Concert Review
Mike Jones
Opening concert in the Hunt Real Estate Art of Jazz Series, Saturday night in the Albright-Knox Art Gallery.
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