Details
Track Listing
1. In a Southern Sense
2. Just a Closer Walk With Thee
3. Maple Leaf Rag
4. Arkansas Blues
5. Carolina Shout
6. Embraceable You
7. Moonlight in Vermont
8. Keep Off the Grass
9. Rippling Waters
10. Sweet Repose
11. Country Blues
12. If I Could Be With You (One Hour Tonight)
13. Let's Call This
14. Every Time We Say Goodbye
15. What Is This Thing Called Love
16. Mood Indigo
17. Preach, Reverend Preach
18. Snowy Morning Blues
19. Fascination
20. In a Southern Sense
| Details | | Producer: | Delfeayo Marsalis | | Distributor: | BMG (distributor) | | Recording Type: | Studio | | Recording Mode: | Stereo | | SPAR Code: | n/a |
Album Notes
Solo performer: Marcus Roberts (piano).
Engineers: Delfeayo Marsalis, Les Stevenson.
Recorded at Opperman Hall at Florida State University and Dooley's Down Under, Tallahassee, Florida. Includes liner notes by Stanley Crouch.
IF I COULD BE WITH YOU is a beautifully recorded, lovingly detailed solo piano recital, full of personal melodic details and warm, humorous asides. Marcus Roberts has a crystalline, refined touch, a sure sense of swing, and an uncanny ability to juxtapose post-modernist harmonies and rhythmic contrasts with traditional spirituals ("A Closer Walk With Thee," "Sweet Repose," "In A Southern Sense"), ragtime ("Maple Leaf Rag," "Keep Off The Grass"), boogie blues ("Arkansas Blues," "Country Blues") and stride ("Carolina Shout").
Like his hero Thelonious Monk (here represented by "Let's Call This"), Marcus Roberts demonstrates equal parts affection and irreverence when confronting standards and traditional materials (a rollicking "What Is This Thing Called Love"), and like his other hero, Duke Ellington, he can project an elegant sense of grandeur with each little phrase. This latter quality is particularly moving on Ellington's own "Mood Indigo," where Roberts creates a magnificent series of variations, punctuated by a firm stride feeling, a delicate bluesiness and an angelic harp-like touch.
Industry Reviews
...this solo recital of jazz and pop standards is attractive simply due to the way Roberts wedges his idiosyncracies--usually rhythmic, sometimes melodic--into the tunes...
Musician (03/01/1993)
...Playing solo piano is a very naked thing to do, but Mr. Robert's musical wardrobe is mesmerizing....he is an advocate of the less is more school, playing fewer notes but each conveying the emotion and utility to both soothe and revitalize...
JazzTimes (05/01/1995)
|
)
)
)
)
)
All rights reserved.
