Avenue strut: American Pianists Association launches 2023 awards in jazz piano with Walker Theatre showcase

Finalists for 2023 awards take curtain call at Walker.

 

Jazz in Indianapolis sends shafts of recognition further into the world each time the American Pianists Association focuses its attention on jazz piano as played by five young people seeking special distinction here.

So it's appropriate to remember that the hub from which Indianapolis jazz has radiated light and heat for decades was the fabled nightlife along Indiana Avenue in the post-war era. Based at the center of black life here and a lone surviving monument of the neighborhood's prosperity and cultural identity is the Madame C.J. Walker Legacy Center, where the finalists for the 2023 American Pianist Awards were introduced to the community Sunday in a free concert.

It remains to find out how much the tantalizing snippets of the five young men's talents will be fruitfully expanded in performances in  the Premiere Series, which  opens Saturday at the Jazz Kitchen.

Esteban Castro, the youngest finalist at just 20, will appear with the support of two prominent local musicians: bassist Nick Tucker and drummer Kenny Phelps. The others will follow in appearances according to a season-long schedule through February. The competition culminates in the Club Finals (April 21 at the Cabaret) and the Gala Finals (April 22 at Hilbert Circle Theatre); one of the men will emerge as the Cole Porter Fellow in Jazz. The other four are Caelan Cardello, 32; Paul Cornish, 25; Thomas Linger, 29, and Isaiah J. Thompson, 25.

None happens to have Midwestern roots or training, so it was understandable that co-emcees Matthew Socey and Katasha S. Butler asked the bicoastal musicians in brief interviews how they liked this part of the country and Indianapolis in particular. Unsurprisingly, and perhaps genuinely, they all expressed their approval as well as gratitude. That went for the Yamaha grand piano, the APA, and the Madame Walker Theatre setting, but mostly for their selection as aspirants for a fellowship the APA says amounts to $200,000 in cash and career development.

I'm looking forward especially to the start of the Premiere Series, because I thought Castro's renditions Sunday afternoon of "Stablemates," a jazz standard by Benny Golson, and an original composition titled "Light Shines Through" were the most exciting of the five brief performances. I hasten to add that my responses Sunday, summed up here, don't set in stone what I might conclude about any of the candidates in the months to come.

Except for fitful passages among the others, I wasn't convinced that anyone more than Castro was thoroughly committed to swinging -- which he did robustly in "Stablemates." And I heard original ideas informing his determination to be all about the rhythm. His command of bebop phrasing was unfailingly acute and lively. His original tune had both a rhapsodic bloom and some sharper edges as well, all of it well-integrated. 

Taking the others in order: Thompson showed off a catchy "walking bass" underneath "Straighten Up and Fly Right." It thumped from time to time in a captivating way. His original tune, "I Am Not Alone," made a nice transition from its ballad opening into a gospel shout. The right hand frequently launched off an assertive bass pattern, and some dynamic variety gave extra life to the performance.

Linger treated the two parts of "Stardust" in a reverie style, with lots of filigree. His original, "A Lovely Encounter," had a bright, blues-inflected medium-tempo pace as the tune, steeped in Great American Songbook style, unfolded. I hope to find more explicit indications of a musical personality in his Premiere Series outing.

Cornish sounded tentative as he moved into a popular ballad beloved of jazz musicians, "Alone Together." (It's no fault of his that my ears' memory can't get beyond the first jazz version I ever heard, recorded long ago by Eric Dolphy.)  I liked that he launched into the Arthur Schwartz melody right off, and I found his comfort in softer dynamics and his light touch attractive in the manner of Ahmad Jamal. In Geri Allen's "Unconditional Love," his love of staccato articulation used accents pungently, and his episodic slowing of the tempo helped hold the large audience spellbound.

Cole Porter's "Easy to Love" was predictably easy to take in the way Cardello played it. The laid-back enunciation of the melody, flecked with figuration, suited the pianist's feeling for the piece. I'm glad he reversed the printed order of his two pieces, allowing a work by his mentor, the late Harold Mabern, to constitute the program finale. "John Neely, Beautiful People" was in his hands a romp characteristic of Mabern's Memphis-hewn style, a happy, upbeat piece calculated to send this special "Jazz on the Avenue" crowd buoyantly out into the warm September afternoon.

Ramsey Lewis, whom we also lost this year, isn't the most obvious role model for young jazz pianists, but he was a supreme groovemeister of well-schooled facility who knew how to "play pretty," too. I was thinking of how even young exponents of keyboard jazz, no matter the sources of their influence and inspiration, can benefit from training their personalities to incorporate a wide range of stylistic options into how they play and connect with audiences. Yet they have to resist sounding like everyone, and thus like no one in particular. These five have a good start toward exemplifying variety and appeal, then growing into how best to personalize their art.

[Photo by Rob Ambrose]