Ted Rosenthal

Rosenthal's first recording for Playscape since 2002. This release finds Rosenthal’s two year-old trio, featuring bassist Noriko Ueda and drummer Quincy Davis, reinventing music by Brahms, Chopin, Mozart, Puccini, Schubert, Schumann and Tchaikovsky for the classic jazz piano trio format.

“For the past few years, I have regularly performed my jazz arrangements and improvisations on themes from the classical repertoire, both with my trio and as a soloist,” recalls Rosenthal in the liner notes. “My goal is for the music to sound like a natural, unforced jazz presentation. It feels very natural to craft these pieces into forms like that of the Great American Songbook. I like to play them with the ease and familiarity of a favorite standard, and the harmonic progressions lend themselves to similar harmonic re-workings that I do with the American standards. For me, playing jazz on these classical themes is an exciting coming together of traditions.”

PERSONNEL:

TED ROSENTHEAL, piano
NORIKO UEDA, bass
QUINCY DAVISM drums

TRACKS:

01. Ballade in G minor
02. Nocturne in F minor
03. Impromptu in G flat
04. June
05. Traumerei
06. Presto
07. O Mio Babbino Caro
08. Intermezzo in B flat minor
09. Fantasy in D minor
10. Theme from Symphony No. 5