The Young and the Restless

I just had the opportunity to listen to the first few tracks of an album by a quicksilver young jazz pianist named Gilad Barkan. (Why only the first few tracks? It's a long story -- a New York shaggy-roach story. The short version is that we no longer have a working CD player in the room where Jacques usually is and wants me to be.)

I've never heard anything quite like it. The piano line never stops moving, seeking. It's lyrical, restless, twisting and tumbling in and out of sweetness. There's no repetition in it; it never visits the same place twice. Endless, inquisitive, searching invention. It reminds me of the feeling of being young, able and impatient to try everything, with no deep grooves of habit in the brain yet, no nest of favored patterns to return to again and again. It's also the human equivalent of a mockingbird's song, trying out and weaving together little bits of everything he's ever heard. It's all of music caught in the act of dissolving and re-forming into something new -- the very moment when the DNA changes partners.

He is one fascinating, brilliant pianist. He's been praised as "one of Boston's finest pianistic talents." He is Tamar's son!

- amba

Comments

[Richard Lawrence Cohen]

I'll buy it!

[nappy40]

Me too!

[Tamar]

Dear Amba! Thanks so much for this. I'll let Gilad know to read this post. I am thrilled and proud to have you review this! As Richard taught me the word, I am "kvelling!"

[Stanley]

I am the young pianist's Dad. In my past we used to say "kleib naches" rather than "kvell". Thanks for the oppportunity to do just that. And to discover another interesting blogger (no shmooz intended).