The Capitol Sessions

Album review

Mike Melvoin is a renowned session musician, which is one meaning implied in giving the title The Capitol Sessions to one of his rare recordings under his own name. Another is that the album, on which Melvoin plays acoustic piano accompanied by acoustic bass player Charlie Haden and, on three cuts, singer Bill Henderson, is more of a session that happens to have been recorded and put on disc than a tightly organized collection of music. That's perhaps appropriate, not only because this is jazz, but also because Melvoin has spent his career coming up with things at the spur of the moment. Certainly, he sounds assured here, revealing a flowing style full of ideas he has no trouble executing. He is a traditional player who takes melody as his basis for working out variations. The use of only two instruments, with Haden's bass supporting most of the time, allows space for those variations to flower, making this an immediately enjoyable listen. Of course, at more than 72 minutes, it's a lot of piano playing, and Melvoin is wise to bring in his long-time partner Bill Henderson for three vocals spaced out along the way. Henderson's voice is reminiscent of Joe Williams in his higher register, and he works well with his accompanists. Occasionally, the pace picks up, notably on the bopish "52nd Street" near the end of the disc, but for the most part this is a low-key effort that demonstrates the quiet brilliance of a player who has rarely put himself in the forefront and does so here in a suitably introspective manner.

© William Ruhlmann /TiVo