Roberta Piket Solo - The Extreme Challenge

“I’m always looking for new challenges,” jazz pianist Roberta Piket says about her latest release, which she decided to record solo.  

Is there a greater challenge for a pianist? A classical pianist must execute the music flawlessly, no question, but the notes are written there in the score to interpret. A jazz pianist doesn't just interpret, but must conduct, arrange, orchestrate, and play every instrument in the symphony.

Playing solo is an Emersonian endeavor… Extreme self reliance. There is nobody to catch you if you fall, no anchoring bass groove or drums to interplay with.  You have no horns to double the melody, add voices, or provide call and response phrases.   

Freedom is the extreme challenge, and it's what makes Roberta Piket’s new solo recording so intriguing. Though she isn’t constrained by other musicians, she must satisfy the demands posed by the material itself.  How does a solo artist make the music fly?  How does she embody the orchestra with just two hands?

I asked Roberta about the challenges a solo recording posed.  Here is what she said:

“Solo piano isn’t something I had focused much on. So I had to work on it conceptually and maybe a little technically, too. I think I had the physical chops for it, but the mental chops are another story. I have always felt that one of the things I need[ed] to work hardest at as a player is my focus, or concentration. Playing solo really forced me to hone in on that."

  

Roberta Piket is the real deal.  It isn’t her impressive resume, which includes playing as a sideman with Dave Liebman, Rufus Reid, Lionel Hampton, and a veritable “who’s who” of other top jazz musicians too numerous to mention, nor the fact that she has been featured twice on Piano Jazz with Marian McPartland.  It isn't even that she studied with bop pianist Walter Bishop Jr., Fred Hersh, Richie Beirach, and briefly with Sophia Rosoff (founder of the Abby Whiteside Foundation, instructor of many fine pianists).  She proves her mettle where it counts - in her playing.

I asked Roberta about technique, because to me, the purpose of being technically skilled is to express yourself, unimpeded. You want technique to be the puppet master behind the scenes.  When the marionettes dance and come to life to enchant, the string wielder should be invisible. This is what separates artists from technicians. Chops get you up the steps to the door. But without heart, vision, and artistry, you won’t get through that door to the inside. Roberta said:

“Chops and skills are tools, although some musicians don’t seem to know that. But all the great ones did. You need to have tools to have control over the expression you are trying to create.  Solo presents another challenge in that, because you’re one player playing one instrument, it can all end up sounding the same. I wanted the program to be interesting and varied. So I was very conscious, when choosing the material, of programming a set that would have variety of tempo, feel, mood, etc.”

  

Different moods inhabit each track, beginning with I See Your Face Before Me, a romantic standard by Schwartz and Dietz. Roberta exercises restraint and control.  She doesn’t guild the melody with sentimentality. She harnesses the emotion through her phrasing and in her articulation of the melody, simply, but without over-playing. Her pedal work and use of space recall Satie’s Gymnopedie.

 

Another challenge Roberta faced was how to say something new with standard songs:

“I have always played and loved standards, so it wasn’t a matter of getting comfortable with them. I just wasn’t sure I had anything new or interesting to say on these tunes, most of which have been played over and over again. So coming up with a creative and personal interpretation that was not gimmicky [like, hey, we’re going to add an accordion player to this version of Monk’ Dream!] was a challenge.“

Take Roberta’s interpretation of two Thelonious Monk pieces.  Her treatment couldn’t be more diverse. The first, Variations on a Dream, is abstract and interpretive, a zigzag of tonal and linear  meanderings that build into a free jazz soundscape, vaguely Scriabin-esque.

The second, Monk’s Dream, reverently showcases Monk’s playful and angular style. Monk is inimitable, but Roberta manages to capture his essence rhythmically without exaggerating his inflections or trying to capture his nuances.

Roberta navigates Thelonious Monk by using both solid straight-ahead bop language and deft modern and inventive linear and chordal explosions. Her free improvisational torrents, which sound borrowed from Stravinsky, Scriabin, and Ravel are thrilling to hear.

I asked Roberta how her exceptional piano skills helped serve this project:

“When I started practicing for this project, I wasn’t sure I had all of the tools I would need. I found out that I had the technical skills more than I’d thought, but the mental chops less than I would have liked. So I worked on that and continue to work on that every day.  Once a reviewer wrote that I had chops to spare, and I really like that. “

One of the highlights for me is Billy Strayhorn’s Something To Live For.  It’s a stunning choice, and Roberta plays it only one time through.  It leaves you wanting. Her darkly sophisticated harmonies make you feel there’s something lurking beneath the surface of the music. I envisioned a murky onyx-colored pond bordering an old mysterious forest just around sunset.

When I told Roberta that I loved the darkness and asked why she only played it just once:

“I don’t think of it as a “dark“ interpretation really. For me both the music and the lyrics have a very wistful and dreamy quality which led me to a dreamy interpretation.  I didn’t launch into a solo after playing the melody because I felt that I had said all I really had to say on it. It felt like a complete statement.”

I inquired as to what led her to "free jazz" exploration and how it helped to open her ears:

“I have been exploring free jazz for at least 20 years. In general I think the best free jazz players have some foundation in straight-ahead jazz, although there are certainly exceptions. And these days many straight-ahead players, especially younger players, grow up playing free as well. It’s just another genre that they learn. I think it makes you a better straight-ahead player because it opens up your ears and your conception.

When I was on Marian McPartland’s Piano Jazz, both times that Marian hosted the show we played a free piece together. So you can see that those genre boundaries are really breaking down, which is a good thing. I wish it would happen a little faster, because it’s frustrating when one magazine publisher stupidly decides out of hand that my previous CD, Sides, Colors,  is not worth his time  without even listening to it because there are two standards on it, and another writer won’t put it in his top ten because he happens to only like jazz that “swings”, and there are two free pieces out of twelve on the CD. I think the average listener is way more open minded than these “jazz professionals”. But unfortunately they are the gate keepers, although with the internet of course that’s changed a lot.”

I was reminded of a story the jazz singer Sheila Jordan tells about two reviewers in the audience at the same performance.  One said something to the effect that she was "a great singer but had no look”.  The other reviewer said that she “looked great but had no sound,” [or so the story went].  Jazz publications are barraged with music and to get someone to really listen can be hard, let alone someone without an agenda – but I have to have faith that great music somehow does get through.

There’s a striking version of Estate, on this album.  My quintessential version is by pianist/singer Shirley Horn. Roberta plays Estate in 7/4 and it really fits the song.  About three-quarters through the track, Roberta goes into an inspired vamp that doesn't end the tune.  Instead, the montunos and changes climb and build and turn-around... And climb, and build, and turn-around... Muy caliente! It’s a crescendo of musical energy that gets the crowd on its feet in a live performance – and it works the same way on CD.

Nefertiti, by Wayne Shorter, is an interesting choice for a solo piano project. The winding almost hypnotic drone of the melody over Shorter's complex harmonies sounds fluid when a saxophone plays it, but a pianist has to find ways to sculpt the lines over and through the harmonies to make them sound cohesive without losing them in the form. It’s daunting enough for a duo, but Roberta demonstrates how to use existing harmonic language- and create her own- to make the song full and complete, and new, without losing its essence.

Litha, by Chick Corea, is a supreme challenge for a soloist.  The melody line is busy and the harmony is never static, which would be hard for even a trio to master. It’s a serious orchestration challenge on one instrument. Not to mention that when a pianist takes on material by Chick Corea, it’s risky. Putting one's own stamp on another pianist's composition- in this case Chick Corea- while trying to keep its integrity and say something fresh, is definitely tightrope walking without a net. Roberta makes daring pay off.

I asked Roberta about her composition Claude’s Clawed, her inspiration and solo treatment of it.  I was curious about how she used a particular intervallic bass line against the right hand:

“When I had a trio with Ratso Harris on bass, I wanted to write something really challenging and different because he is such a virtuoso. The bass part is open fifths moving around in thirds and half steps, which are strong intervals that project a certain stability even while the harmony moves around. (It’s the same reason Giant Steps works so well harmonically. Not that I’m comparing!)  The musical DNA for Claude’s Clawed comes from Chick Corea’s The Brain, as well other things I was studying with Richie Beirach including some modern classical influences. 

I first recorded Claude’s Clawed on my 2006 trio CD, Love and Beauty.  It was challenging to play this particular tune solo. It’s such a burner. But I wanted variety on the CD and this tune is very different!”

In the Days of Our Love, a ballad composed by Marian McPartland, is a gorgeous tribute to McPartland. 

Beatrice, by the late saxophonist/composer Sam Rivers, is a song that was brought to my attention quite a few years ago by a baritone saxophonist friend, who was a real Rivers fan.  Sam Rivers, who passed on in 2011, was a brilliant musician with an extensive knowledge of music theory, composition, and orchestration. He exemplifies the fully realized musical soul, one who has the mastery to stay within and extend beyond the limitations of traditional musical boundaries, with intention. Roberta had an opportunity to meet Rivers during an artist residency, where they played Beatrice as a duo. 

The album closes with a piece composed by Roberta’s father Frederick, a well known classical and liturgical composer.   According to the liner notes, Roberta found the sheet music for Improvisation Blue among her father's original scores. Piket wrote and published a few popular tunes, which came to light when Roberta found the music. If she hadn't been a musician, one wonders what would have happened to this piece.

I asked Roberta to share how she found the process.  I wondered if it felt lonely to prepare and record a solo project, like a one-sided conversation:

“I don’t think it’s lonelier working on a solo project than any other recording. When you are preparing for a CD a lot of that preparation is solitary – practicing, writing tunes, choosing tunes…and then after the recording, choosing takes, post-production. People see you on the bandstand with a band and they may think jazz musicians have an amazing social life. And there is a great community of musicians if you find your niche. But being an artist is essentially a solitary pursuit, at least if you want to be any good at it.

When I was a student I attended a clinic given by Paul Bley and he said something to the effect that he liked playing solo because there was no one to mess you up. Of course I still love playing with other musicians, but the freedom of playing solo is really rewarding. And you really are out there alone, like one of those gymnasts on the balance beam. At one point I was actually thinking of calling the CD “No One Else to Blame.”  The more I do it the more I feel it can grow and develop. I really feel that as far as playing solo goes, I’ve just begun to explore the possibilities.”

I then asked if Roberta wanted people to get something particular out of her music:

“I don’t really think about it in these terms. I give the best I can, and different people will take different things away from it. If they are moved in some way then that is pleasing.”

  

Consider the following quote:  

“Simplicity is the final achievement.  After one has played a vast quantity of notes and more notes, it is simplicity that emerges as the crowning reward of art.”

 -Frederic Chopin

Through wide-ranging exploration, experimentation, traditional methodologies and approaches, problem solving, discovery, and invention – the artist’s true vision emerges.  Roberta plays a “vast quantity of notes and more notes,” but not just any notes.  In jazz, a lot of care, thought, and preparation goes into what sounds like spontaneous genius.  There is spontaneity, and genius, but unless it's grounded in a strong foundation, it won't last. It's too random. Simplicity can only happen after the exploration, when each piece stands on its own. If we look through Chopin's lens, Roberta Piket's Solo recording has reached this level of achievement. The question is- where does she go from here?

To find out more about Roberta Piket, check out her schedule and discography at:    

www.robertajazz.com