Bobby Few - Lights and Shadows

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Though pianist Bobby Few came to notoriety as part of the Frank Wright Quartet and Steve Lacy’s ensembles in the 1970s and 80s, respectively, and worked with saxophonists as diverse as Booker Ervin, Albert Ayler and Marzette Watts, his work as a lead instrumental voice is less-regularly documented and not very well known. But his solo and duo recordings (with tenorman Avram Feffer) in recent years are not to be missed, much less the kaleidoscopic trio sides on Center of the World, Vogue and Black Lion. Lights and Shadows is Few’s second solo disc for Boxholder, and fifth overall for the label. He’s featured here on six original compositions and a cover of Lacy’s “Flakes.”

Few was the linchpin for a number of powerful, freewheeling ensembles precisely because of his diverse approach to the keyboard, bringing in heavy gospel chords alongside Wright and Noah Howard or rhapsodic classicism in Lacy’s band. Indeed, Few was trained as a classical pianist early on in his Cleveland childhood and led a locally-respected trio with bassist Cevera Jeffries. A solo Few recital is therefore not unlike entering the sound-worlds of Jaki Byard, Ran Blake, Howard Riley or Mal Waldron.

The session starts with the aptly-titled incantation “Bells,” with shakers, finger cymbals and other devices rattling and fleshing out the motivic roiling in Few’s fingers (it’s safe to assume the other instruments are overdubbed). Few’s left hand is paced by the surrealist waltzes of his tenure with Lacy, his right in deft filigree. “Flakes” is an apt follow-up, a whimsical sashay at the upper end of the keyboard, telescoping outward into glassy arpeggios and expanded circular motifs, the flakes themselves caught in a series of whirlpools. “Enomis” is a new take on “Simone,” Few’s dedication to his wife that first appeared on More or Less Few (COTW, 1975), a steady and simple extrapolation on the feeling of a popular tune. Indeed, Few was at one time a vocalist, and it’s easy to imagine the theme with a set of his characteristically whimsical lyrics. His ringing right hand clusters, dissonant and tart, are the weighty opening for “Lights and Shadows,” chugging ahead and arcing into the synapses you never knew you had (one doesn’t miss bass and drums, Few’s pulse is so strong). Churchy chords and crisp upper-register explorations intertwine in this swirling and dense, nearly twenty-minute improvisation. There’s even a heady modal-jazz anthem or two surreptitiously creeping in before the tune’s end. Forget the languidness that imbues the “average” solo piano date – here, the piano has more than just “guts.”

- Clifford Allen

Posted by clifford on January 30, 2008 2:51 PM