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| Cocktail
Jazz - Audio Clips (Mp3's) |
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| 1
CD - $10.00 |
2
CD's - $15.00 |
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If
you would like to sample select songs, please go to
CD
Baby HERE
or
| Download Leo's music
at Napster too! |
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or
| Download
Leo's music at iTunes! |
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| Reviews |
THE NASHVILLE
SCENE
September 29, 2005 Volume 22, Issue 35
JAZZ Leo John Finn. On his debut CD, Cocktail Jazz, Finn tickles the ivories
on standards present and past, nostalgically evoking the stately,
deliberate qualities of Erroll Garner.
Robert L. Doerschuk
Author, 88: The Giants of Jazz Piano
Leo Finn was a revelation the first time I heard him: big technique, deep knowledge
of jazz harmony and phrasing, and above all a real feel for
the American Songbook repertoire. That’s how I felt that first night at Café 123 here in Nashville and I feel that way today as well – only more so. What I didn’t grasp at the time is precisely what every track on his Cocktail Jazz album makes clear: Leo also knows how to play the room.
Let me explain. It was a quiet night at 123 when Leo, who I didn’t know at the time, sat in for a few tunes – a pianist myself, I always enjoy hearing a fellow tickler show his stuff. What he played was perfect for that moment: intimate, a little bluesy, elegant without being stuffy. To be honest, he sounds completely different on Cocktail
Jazz, but what he’s playing is entirely right for this disc. His sound is big but never insensitive, his chords are full and expressive, his rhythm swings in an understated way, all of which serves to discover and showcase what makes each of these songs a classic.
Most impressive is Leo’s fidelity to the melody. Too many pianists – I’m guilty of this myself – stray too far from the tune as they stretch through their improvisations. Leo takes a more compositional approach: He plays the way the great writers write, with insight into how to shade the rise and fall of each passage. Maybe that comes from knowing his way around the real classics, as his rendition of Barber’s “Dreamboat” suggests. More likely it’s just something he was born with and has had the good judgment to nurture.
I’ve heard Leo in other settings since that night at Café 123, from elegant and intimate to boisterous, even rowdy. No matter where he plays, he sounds right at home. And on Cocktail Jazz he plays for your home too, wherever that may be. From ragtime to the contemporary romanticism of Cats, he handles it all throughout this disc with class and style.
He plays the room, in other words. And no matter the time, place, or occasion, there’s room for Cocktail Jazz.
T. Graham Brown Lives!
Relentless/Nashville M2N2 3738
On his first release since 1998, "T. Graham Brown Lives!," Brown is backed up
by an expert six-piece roadhouse ensemble called The Mighty Rack of Spam (the
very name alone could cause severe psychological trauma to any mainstream Nashvegas
executive) that can hang with anything the mainstream has to offer. Spam features
two guitarists, Jeff Jordan and Rick Kurtz, Leo John Finn on keys, Ian Wallace
on drums, co-producer Dwight McConnell on bass and a monster soul sax player
named Jeffrey Scot Wills. Bekka Bramlett (daughter of Delaney and Bonnie) handles
the back up singing as this band takes no prisoners as it ranges from smoldering
ballads to the sounds of big time blues orchestras like B.B. King's or Bobby
Bland's. They handle the ballads like a seasoned soul band and completely without
saccharine, and on the roadhouse rockers they just simply torch the building
and burn it to the ground.
William Michael Smith
(wms@rockzilla.net)
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Missing Liner Notes
In 1998 I decided to start
a solo project that would get me back in touch with why I started
playing music in the first place. I began simply, by getting
one "chestnut" under
my fingers, and then another, on and on. By focusing on my favorite
tunes and pianists, and keeping one eye on the request list,
I kept myself honest, not straying from my objective; to make
a successful distinction between being merely a "keyboard
player", as my friends and peers knew me, but also an effective
and convincing "pianist" as well. Through careful listening,
practice and persistence, I've noticed my own style emerging.
Picking the tunes is the easy part. One needs to look no further
than our great American songbook. The work of Ellington, Gershwin,
Porter, Rogers and Hart, Bacharach, etc., has already passed
the test of time, and still provides a viable vehicle for the
musician to explore and the sensitive layman to appreciate and
enjoy. Not to mention the fun I have digging into the wealth
of piano styles invented by Morton, Tatum, Monk and Evans, to
name a few.
Over the past few years I have been very fortunate and grateful
to be afforded the opportunity to perform in some of Nashville's
finest restaurants and Jazz clubs. I enjoy playing real pianos,
taking requests, building my repertoire and crooning one or two.
Solo piano jazz can be, and has been, described as "background
music at best", but I don't intend to stop enjoying the
obvious benefits of putting into practice what most of us take
for granted. That is; our own American musical heritage. I revel
in it. In a world where physical attributes and slick production
seem to win out over talent and experience, I am forced to return
to the inspiration from which my journey began. To make a statement,
musically, through my voice, the piano, contributing, for the
public muse, a valuable, positive energy, that emanates from
love and respect, for the material, and the tradition with which
it is best expressed. More simply put, to play jazz.
It doesn't usually pay as much as the rock or country tours I've
done, or will do, but at the end of the day, my throat isn't
thrashed, my ears aren't ringing, and the food is usually better.
I also enjoy taking the responsibility for both the credits and
the criticisms. It's freedom. It's strength. It's life. It's
the last piece of the puzzle. Or is it the first? |
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