JAZZ REVIEW : A Roberts-Marsalis Pianorama

Two perspectives on contemporary jazz piano came into sharp focus at the Ambassador Auditorium on Sunday afternoon. Seated at opposite ends of a pair of large Steinways, Marcus Roberts and Ellis Marsalis performed a program of solo and duo piano improvisations whose source material was the rich library of American jazz and pop songs, and whose style ranged from stride piano to free floating bebop.

The interaction between the two players--separated in age by more than three decades--was surprisingly facile. Roberts spent a few years as the piano mainstay in the rhythm section of Wynton Marsalis’ band, and the indirect linkage seems to have resulted in a genuine musical empathy between the elder Marsalis and the younger pianist.

The two piano combination peaked with a set of lean, angular readings of Thelonious Monk’s “Epistrophy” and “In Walked Bud.” Almost as good were the duo’s lushly harmonic exchanges on the ballads, “You Don’t Know What Love Is” and “What’s New.”

Marsalis’ solo numbers were highlighted by his intensely dramatic view of John Lewis’ “Django” and an off-beat, mercurial setting of “Sweet Georgia Brown.” A first-rate rhythm section player, he demonstrated that he can be a full-voiced, almost rhapsodic solo pianist, as well.

The highlights of the program, however, were mostly provided by Roberts, with a program that drew heavily on the Jelly Roll Morton, Duke Ellington and Thelonious Monk numbers included in his new RCA Novus recording.

There were times, most notably in pieces like “There Will Never Be Another You” and Monk’s “Misterioso,” when Roberts seemed to be impetuously rushing to fill every second of music with as many notes as possible. But when he hit his stride with a superb “Black and Tan Fantasy,” his emerging ability to cast a new, contemporary light on the classic repertoire became dazzlingly clear. Roberts’ playing amply illustrated--as Marsalis would probably be the first to acknowledge--that he is rapidly becoming one of the most gifted young players in jazz.