Tate Sheridan
CD Released December 2014
Reviewed by Clinton White
.bmp)
At just 21 years of age, jazz pianist Tate Sheridan shows an advanced
maturity in his playing and his composing.
For one so young he has achieved much in his career already, including
appearances at a range of concerts and festivals and on recordings and studying
with the likes of Matt Baker and Mike Nock.
Even Elton John has noticed him and has promoted his talent
globally. In 2014 he was given a
Canberra Critics Circle music award.
Sheridan wrote and arranged all eight tunes on his self-titled CD. In the liner notes he says drummer Aidan Lowe
and bassist James Luke helped him “to bring these tunes to life”. Quite so.
The disc opens with its longest track, at 10:38, “Please, No Questions”. It’s full of energy but with an easy swing
underlay, very much in the classic jazz style.
“Run, Don’t Walk” is more impressionistic but no less energetic with a
long rather abstract but engaging piano solo opening. When the rhythm section finally does come in
it drives the piece solidly to the end. Mike
Nock himself would love to play it.
Throughout the album, in a thoughtful program structure, Sheridan &
Co take us through many moods and music styles.
One minute he challenges us with abstract highs and lows, next taking us
back to more familiar ground, swinging free and easy. Then there’ll be something to make the
listener think and reflect. In “Lone
Gunman” he traps the listener in a false sense of security waiting for just the
right moment to reveal the horrible dramatic truth of the tale, but then with a
reassuring, “don’t worry; it’ll be alright”.
The penultimate track on the album, “Grace”, is the second-longest, at
10:14. At the CD launch concert at Smith’s
Alternative Bookshop in Canberra, he said it has great personal meaning and significance. That significance came through at the concert
and does so equally on the CD. It is a
quiet, reflective, almost introspective piece with some very nice, kind of
comforting, chord structures and melody lines supported by fabulous bass
playing from Luke. It makes the listener
want to lay back, close their eyes, and just let the music wash over and soak
through. It’s an exceptionally beautiful
piece.
Unusually the album finishes on another, even quieter and more pensive
note with “My Stranger”. It gives a
strong focus to the piano with beautifully understated support from Lowe and
Luke. A very long, sustained single note
fades away to conclude this very entertaining album of highly intelligent music
composition and playing.
In his liner notes, Sheridan says he is “truly proud of this album”. And deservedly so, too.