reviews
and articles reviews
and articlesReviews: (scroll down, or click on the title below)
jim ridl's door in a field / The Jim Ridl Trio:LIVE /
Blues Liberations / five minutes to madness and joy / your cheatin' heart and other works
Articles:
from AllAboutJazz.com:
"Jim Ridl: Door Openings"
By Victor L. Schermer 2/24/2004"Garden State Improviser:Jim Ridl Tickles the Ivories in South Jersey"
By Laura Zaborowski 12/17/2003
from Trenton Times: Friday, October 31, 2003
"'Door in a Field' a Tribute to Musician's Family"
by Curt Yeske
Reviews:
The Jim
Ridl Quintet
Jim Ridl, piano - Ron Kerber, soprano saxophone, JD Walter, vocals, Jef Lee
Johnson, guitar and mandolin, Steve Varner, bass, Jim Miller, drums
Dreambox Media #DMJ-1080
more info at dreamboxmedia.com (click on Jim Ridl)
Tracks: your cheatin' heart / grazed by light (ridl) / tennessee waltz / caravan / antiphon (tri vulti pacis) (ridl) / "smile" said the drum (ridl)
Reviews:
Jazz
Times/ March 2006
“Ridl’s version of “Your Cheatin’
Heart” is probably the most in-depth and persuasive jazz investigation
of this song on record....What Ridl hears on “Tennessee Waltz” is
poignant, graceful and hip.... Ridl’s take on “Caravan” is fresh,
caterwauling and free.”
Philadelphia
Daily News/ Nov. 2005
“An extraordinary rendering of “Caravan.”
“Jim
Ridl Quintet at the Deerhead Inn” AllAboutJazz.com
By Victor L. Schermer
Live Performance Review: Jim Ridl Quintet at the Deerhead Inn
Delaware Water Gap, PA
September 3, 2005
“The live performance enabled this quintet,
consisting of Jim, J.D. Walter doing vocals, Ron Kerber on soprano sax, Steve
Varner, on bass, and Jim Miller on drums (the same crew as on the CD less Jef
Lee Johnson, who played guitar and mandolin on two tracks of the album) to go
beyond the rigors of a recording session to create a lively and intense jam
session, led by the inspiration of the moment to create a very spontaneous,
driving set of creative inventions that had the crowd at the edge of their seats,
frequently applauding and shouting approval.”
“Jim Ridl is not only a master of jazz piano and a composer/arranger of
great capability. In addition, he has mastered his technique so thoroughly that
he can create ideas, moods, tempos, images almost at will, weaving a rich fabric
of musical experiences with a sense of an evolving whole. “
ALL
ABOUT JAZZ CD Review: your
cheatin’ heart
sept. 2005
“This cd is no less than a small jazz masterpiece....
In addition to being a highly skilled and accomplished jazz pianist, Jim Ridl
is a creative and resourceful musician, composer, and arranger who draws on
a rich legacy of musical and personal resources to develop a wide range of musical
ideas and concepts.”
Cadence Magazine review: your cheatin’ heart
january 11, 2005
“Seemingly unfettered by technical limitations, Ridl
can move from an evocative sonic telling of a scene from his North Dakota childhood
to a ferocious romp in an unconventional meter that would daunt all but the
most adventurous of Jazz pianists... On Your Cheatin’ Heart, as the title
suggests, Ridl controls his digital ferocity so that he can elucidate songs
of simplicity and beauty with tweakings of harmonization and meter or improvisational
delights of minimalism. Like singers who honor the song, Ridl’s group intends
to investigate the feelings such tunes arouse rather than using them as a departure
point for abstraction.”
Record Label: Dreambox
Media
#DMJ-1065
Musicians: Jim Ridl (piano, Korg x5d); Darryl Hall (bass); Mark Walker (drums);
Diane Monroe (violin); Kathy Ridl (viola, accordion); Jeffrey Solow (cello)
Tracks: Sun on My Hands / Sweet Clover / Caragana / Six Hours Later / Door in a Field / Tenetree / Discin’ / Thirty Foot Ceiling / Green Meadow Waltz
Reviews:
"...I couldn't get past the first song...I listened to it three times before I could go on..." - a listener
"...I am simply blown away by "jim ridl's door in a field". I can't stop listening to it. It has been my companion at work for the last couple of days now. The entire package is a gift and really stirs my emotions." - another listener
"...Ridl... uses the means of music to describe the
feelings that wide open spaces engender. As a result, Door in a Field reflects
the calmer, more evenly paced tenor of life lived closer to nature than some
of Ridl’s other works that involved more jagged themes at a faster tempo
and sometimes unconventional meters, reflecting perhaps an East Coast state
of mind.
So, the first track, “Sun on My Hands,” reminiscent of Ridl’s
deceased father’s work in the fields, glides with rich colors from string
accompaniment as a reassuring waltz. “Discin’” contains the same
amount of imagery in the creation of the music as Ridl simulates the motion
of the plowing of the field, unhurried but unceasing. Even in the slower pace
of the life on the farm, Ridl finds celebration in the fields on “Caragana”
as Darryl Hall’s strong bass lines and Mark Walker’s rocking beat
in the main theme alternate with a straight four in the bridge. Hall takes the
melodic lead on “Sweet Clover” as Ridl fills in with spare chords,
as Hall proves that he’s one of the more under-recognized bassists on the
scene. Ridl concludes this reminiscence about the experiences of his early life
on the plains with “Green Meadow Waltz,” a simple Czech folk song
adapted to a rolling, Country/Western beat.
Hall and Walker, who hadn’t experienced the same sense of quiet farmland
serenity, buy into Ridl’s’ vision and provide a solid, unassuming
sense of motion, like windswept wheat. A unified body of work inspired by Ridl’s
childhood, Door in a Field, gently direct and infused with a combination of
folk and jazz sensibilities, is his most personalized work of restraint, reminiscence
and affection." -
Jazz Review
for the full review: jazzreview.com
"... Working in a trio format with bassist Daryl
Hall and drummer Mark Walker, and aided by a string trio on several tracks,
Ridl has composed and performed a heartfelt tribute to his parents, who raised
him and his siblings on a North Dakota farm. .. deliver(s) real jazz that manages
to evoke the unadorned majesty of the prairie with subtlety and grace. The strings
are sparingly employed in a classic manner, adding harmonic depth without ever
sounding syrupy. Ridl's style is melodic and cleanly delineated, with occasional
excursions into rhythmic vamps and metric quirks to keep things interesting.
“Sun On My Hands”, the lead-off track, is a lovely ballad with some
enigmatic melodic turns. Hall introduces the infectiously bouncy melody of “Sweet
Clover,” which is then picked up and developed with aplomb by Ridl. Walker's
funky backbeat drives Ridl's percolating piano along on the groovy “Six
Hours Later”, which is followed by the desolately beautiful title track
in a stately 6. “Discin'” evokes the tractor's ever decreasing circles
as the farmer harrows a field. A propulsive 10-beat phrase powers “Thirty
Foot Ceiling”, inspiring Ridl's best solo work; he's really cookin' here.
An arrangement of the Czech folk song ”Green Meadow Waltz” provides
the album with a poignant, but good-humored conclusion. Door In A Field was
clearly a labor of love for Ridl, and his collaborators seem to have understood
his vision. Together, the musicians have made a gorgeous album of great emotional
and musical power. Concept or no, it is a special achievement. - All About
Jazz
for the full review: allaboutjazz.com
Record Label: Dreambox
Media
#DMJ-1055
Musicians: Jim Ridl, piano; Steve Varner, bass; Jim Miller, drums
Documenting a late 1999 concert near Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania, this release features the Jim Ridl Trio in extended performances of three Ridl originals and two standards, plus a characteristic piano solo.
Tracks: Prelude to First Rose / First Rose / Only Half a Cup? / Get After It Boogie / Caravan / Song of The Green River / Cherokee
Reviews:
"Ridl shows his capacity to mix abstraction and romanticism. 'First Rose' develops this mixture, supporting a harmonic work more than melody, but with a certain tenderness. He does this by working the harmonic dissonances and abstractions, while generally keeping a bop spirit, which makes of Ridl a musician a little left of center (on the left of the medium), as they say in the United States....Jim Miller and Steve Varner supplement perfectly the shifted approach of the pianist and also deliver solos of quality.
...Other facets of Ridl appear during the three following personal compositions.
'Only Half a Cup?' begins with a topic whose dry humour points out Monk. It
is followed by a blues-tinted improvisation, played initially with a very short
touch (I am tempted to say transitory) and a variety of attractive abstraction,
before Ridl goes up in intensity. 'Get After It Boogie,' a solo, continues in
this vein, its interest being in the fact that Ridl manages to play a recognizable
boogie-woogie, without being neither a passeist, nor simply ironic.
...The last composition of Ridl's, 'Song of the Green River,' is perhaps most
interesting mélodically. While alternating between a slow and dark vamp
in three and a lighter passage in four, Ridl creates a fertile material to imagine
the life of this river. Varner and Miller deliver here two splendid solos, that
of Miller over the initial vamp being particularly dramatic.
... On the standards 'Caravan' and 'Cherokee,' Ridl gives up a little the most
abstracted elements from his style to play dynamic bebop. In spite of that,
he approaches these pieces in a rather original way: His solo introduction on
'Cherokee' imagines a ballad, while 'Caravan' becomes much lighter than usual.
Steve Varner delivers on this last an attractive solo mixing double stops, hesitations,
melodies, blues and a little Mingus, before a more funky trio coda. Miller's
solo on 'Cherokee' contains a splendid passage during which he plays the melody
of the piece on his toms."
- Mwanji Ezana, Citizen Jazz
"...an hour-plus of stimulating trio music...The
sharing of ideas, the development of individual themes, and the ensuing collective
improvisations are what lift the set preserved here far above the ordinary...the
wide berth given the mixture of standards and originals shows the Trio in highly
empathic form.
...Ridl displays strong, perhaps classically-based, technique. But the ensuing
group interplay is near-selfless, valuing silence as much as activity, repose
as much as sweat. Ridl expands, in 'First Rose,' on his opening prelude statements,
turning clipped phrases into a platform for Varner and Miller to alternately
walk alongside him and engage in a dance. 'Only Half A Cup?' has the three cooking
along Ridl's sly blues connotations for a performance that would do any denizen
of the Vanguard or Blue Note proud.
...The classic 'Caravan' suits Ridl's thoughtful playing to a T, and it's great
to hear Steve Varner's dark, woody bass tone decorate the Ducal writing. Miller,
it should be mentioned, has a masterful grasp of dynamics, enhancing the often
muted quality of the proceedings with close listening, and heating things up
most appropriately when needed, almost casually tossing out the melody of 'Cherokee'
(so nice to hear this tune approached in non-traditional ways), after Ridl and
company unfurl its parameters, and ride it out for nearly 14 minutes of thrilling
invention. Great album." - Cadence
"...those who came out two years ago heard a very hard-working trio deliver
a satisfying performance. Ridl's style isn't easy to categorize: he can play
vertical games, even as he sets up a well-articulated, fine line through some
of the challenging harmonic courses he crafts for himself. 'First Rose' is a
thorny structure whose progression seems to wring whole-tone scalar figures
out of the piano. Ridl reworks both 'Caravan' and 'Cherokee' into wide-open
frameworks that give him, bassist Steve Varner and drummer Jim Miller plenty
of stretching room. This is a trio that takes lots of chances, and delivers
handsomely..." - JazzTimes
"Pianist Jim Ridl dares a listener to take this journey.
This live set...is daunting, high-minded stuff...Ridl takes some mind-blowing
excursions with bassist Steve Varner and drummer Jim Miller. A live connection
flows among the players on this straight-ahead but questing set. The pianist
creates some shimmering runs on 'First Rose,' while the standard 'Caravan' gets
worked over until it's fresh and utterly reinvented....The explorations can
be exhausting...this set is powerful."
- Philadelphia Inquirer
"The Jim Ridl Trio LIVE proceeds as an organically
arranged set, starting with a solo performance of 'Prelude To First Rose,' its
minor-tinged theme hinting at mystery and meditation developed over an Impressionistic
set of tones rather than setting-the-mind-at-ease chord changes. As the sustain
of the prelude's final chord fades, bassist Steve Varner in a mood-setting solo
creates the forward movement for the connected tune, 'First Rose.' Ridl stretches
time and inserts his own quirky thoughts after referring to the lines Varner
introduced and upon which the piece is built. As the tune intensifies, we find
that Ridl, after a full keyboard descent, crafts rising and falling coruscations
of notes, which, although not Pullenesque in their sweep and drama, assume a
delicacy and deliberateness that characterize Ridl's style.
...After performing 'Only Half A Cup?' an off-kilter blues that appeared on
previous recordings, Ridl starts 'Get After It Boogie' with a tentative rumble
until the left hand develops the repetitive, but thrillingly dynamic pattern.
While the 'Caravan' intro consists of quarter notes stitched seamlessly together
by use of the sustain pedal, the audience at the Café found that it led
into a pleasing and energetic version of the tune involving successive choruses
of trio improvisation, allowing Varner to stretch out into a two-minute interpretation
of his own.
...'Song Of The Green River' is consistent with Ridl's interest in evoking images
of Americana, and specifically of his homeland in the upper Midwest, in some
of his performances. Involving the depiction of, one assumes, the river that
flows from the Grand Tetons into northeast Utah, 'Song Of The Green River' nonetheless
moves along a prodding 6-note figure that combines scenic depiction with soft
rippling and eddying without the drama of rapids or falls.
Ending the concert with the familiar 'Cherokee,' Ridl plays the song as a straight
trio version of head and improvisations, similar in may respects to 'Caravan.'
Too often gems of instantaneous improvised composition go unrecorded, and thus
unknown, beyond the appreciation of the immediate audience; fortunately Jim
Ridl's trio was, for once, recorded live to allow his growing fan base to enjoy
his talent in a situation previously unavailable on CD." - jazzreview.com
Record Label: Dreambox
Media
#EAR-1049
Musicians: Jim Ridl, solo piano
A collection of improvised piano solos - each titled after the fact - exploring
and stretching the boundaries of the blues.
Tracks: Blue Azzara / Just Left of the Delta / Battle of the Bands / Play, My
Heart, In Blue / Aisle Five / La Dee, La Daa / Prelude and More / Get After
It Boogie / Clusters Last Stand / Pass It On / Snake Dance / You Know How It
Is / Rushzin' Berz Bluz / Uh Huh, That's Right / Blue Corn / Slinky / Descending
on Io / A Lovely Impression / Blue Dot
Reviews:
"...a set of 19 piano
improvisations that show him to be an imaginative and insightful player. He
has a lot of technique at his command but he also has the confidence to not
be showing it off at every turn of the phrase....Although largely a melodic
player, he doesn't shy away from dissonance...He's also a player who's not afraid
to show he has a sense of humor.
...enjoyable..." - Cadence
"Jim Ridl is quite an interesting player...Ridl certainly
comes up with original ways to build on ideas that can be traced to blues playing,
albeit usually in a pretty abstract way...Ridl doesn't sound like anyone that
comes to mind, which is a good sign, but it makes his playing hard to describe.
The harmonic sense is advanced and probably owes something to Europeans like
Bartok, but I am also reminded of Abdullah Ibrahim's more adventurous work in
places." - JazzTimes
"Pianist Jim Ridl demonstrates impressive technical
skills, finding cool colors in his madcap dashes through the keys... 'Battle
of the Bands' is a chordal slugfest that reaches reasonable heights, and 'Get
After It Boogie' exudes a nice running vibe...impressive..." - Philadelphia
Inquirer
"Ridl has done it again...The interesting aspect
of all of the pieces on 'Blues Liberations' is that they are based upon blues
changes, either by implication or by a W.C. Handy type of moving-tenth left-hand
stroll. The result is pure improvisation, quirky, explorative, ruminative or
admiring of the genre....'Blues Liberations' is unlike any other blues album
in its combination of intellectual fascination for the art form with unplanned
approaches of elucidation. Not only does 'Blues Liberations' suggest the infinite
possibilities of the blues, but it adds one more unpredictable approach from
Ridl, who certainly deserves recognition..." - Jazz News
"Taking something old, something new, something borrowed and something
blue, Jim Ridl accomplishes something uncommon on 'Blues Liberations' that seems
painfully obvious: He investigates the multitudinous forms of the blues...Ridl's
avenues of approach involve discrepant and sometimes contradictory routes as
they converge at the ultimate source of the music.
Rather than extended themes, Ridl's blues variations establish a mood and then
go on to the next assumption. That is, we can assume the blues to suggest languor
and sadness. We can assume the blues to depict frenzy. We can assume the blues
to attain majesty. We can assume the blues to sort out complexity for a resulting
simplicity of result.
...So, 'Aisle Five' is all frantic stop-and-start motion referring by indirection
and arpeggios to the blues chord structure as the full-keyboarded scamper refers
perhaps to discount store chaos. We've heard this mastery of the instrument
before on Ridl's previous CD, 'Five Minutes To Madness & Joy,' wherein his
percussive and expansive approach proves a personalized technique. In contrast
to 'Aisle Five,' Ridl refers to the more often heard piano blues approach of
walking tenths and bent dissonances on 'Play, My Heart, In Blue' or 'You Know
How It Is.' 'Get After It Boogie' relies upon an irresistible, flowing left-hand
phrase somewhat akin to the 3Ú4 of 'I Feel Pretty,' but still off kilter with
a less-predictable meter. 'Clusters Last Stand' indeed wittily develops a blues
through tonal clusters, sounding sometimes like Brubeck's broad chords that
defy final resolution through suspended intervals.
'Blues Liberations' arose from Ridl's pure improvisations on the blues as he
considered alternative approaches to a century-old form. Often without title,
but rather involving concept, Ridl's tracks didn't assume titles until after
they were recorded. The naming was less important than the musical curiosity
revealed through the performance." - All About Jazz
Record Label: Synergy Music #SMCD-80008-2
Musicians: Jim Ridl, piano; Darryl Hall, bass; Jim Miller, drums
Reviews:
“...[this recording offers] the special, interactive satisfaction
that comes from hearing fresh, creative talent in the process of discovering
its voice.” - DownBeat Magazine
"It’s easy to understand why guitar great Pat
Martino chose Jim Ridl as his current pianistic foil and right-hand man. Few
other pianists have the kind of surging energy and harmonic ingenuity it takes
to hang with Pat. A major talent who is gradually gaining recognition, Ridl
has a strong penchant for reharmonization, as he demonstrates here o a modal
adaptation of Sunny Rollin’s “Oleo” (or as he recently demonstrated
n Denis DiBlasio’s Rhino on Encounter Music). He so thoroughly investigates
John Coltrane’s “moment’s Notice,” slowing the tempo down
and reforming it into a dark, introspective ballad, that he is wholly within
his rights to claim arranger credit and rename the piece “Adagio of John
Coltrane.” Likewise with his brilliant, radically recast solo rendition
of Trane’s “A Love Supreme.”
Ridl is ably accompanied here (as he was on DiBlasio’s CD) by his very
flexible rhythm section mates, Darryl Hall on bass and Jim Miller on drums.
Together they strike a swinging accord on Ridl’s bristling “Paint
Your Rhythm” and organically meld into one gentle voice on his moving,
hymn-like “Carry Me Home,” which carries illusions to “Swing
Low, Sweet Chariot.” The title track, inspired by Walt Whitman’s poem
“One Hour to Madness and Joy” from Leaves of Grass, is done as a bravado
solo piece at the outset and is reprised at the close as an aggressively swinging
trio offering. And Ridl’s jaunty original, “Sylvester’s Rag”
is heavily indebted to Thelonious Monk’s “Ba-Lue Bolivar Ba-Lues Are.”
If Ridl, a mild-mannered product of North Dakota who currently resides somewhere
in suburban New Jersey, was hanging regularly on the New York City scene, he’d
be dripping with critical acclaim by now. Talent this rich, deep, and focused
simply cannot be denied, whether it comes from the outer regions of Jersey or
the Outback of Australia. Remember that name." - Bill Milkowski, JazzTimes
Magazine