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Cliff Korman: Bossas and Ballads

By Katchie Cartwright
March 21, 2024
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Pianist-composer

Cliff Korman

piano

" data-original-title="" title="">Cliff Korman lives and works in Rio de Janeiro, where he serves on the faculty of the Instituto Villa Lobos at the Federal University. A New Yorker with a jazz degree from City College of New York, he trained under

Roland Hanna

piano
1932 - 2002

" data-original-title="" title="">Roland Hanna,

Ron Carter

bass
b.1937

" data-original-title="" title="">Ron Carter and

Kenny Barron

piano
b.1943

" data-original-title="" title="">Kenny Barron. His "musical journey," as he put it, began years earlier at the innovative Creative Music Studio in Woodstock founded by

Karl Berger

vibraphone
1935 - 2023

" data-original-title="" title="">Karl Berger,

Ingrid Sertso

vocals

" data-original-title="" title="">Ingrid Sertso and

Ornette Coleman

saxophone, alto
1930 - 2015

" data-original-title="" title="">Ornette Coleman. There, he encountered Brazilian clarinetist

Paulo Moura

clarinet
1929 - 2010

" data-original-title="" title="">Paulo Moura, with whom he began a musical partnership that lasted until Moura's death in 2010 and led him to relocate to Brazil.

Bossas and Ballads is Korman's pensive solo piano follow-up to Brasilified (Tiger Turn, 2022), an exuberant trio offering featuring drummer

Rafael Barata

drums

" data-original-title="" title="">Rafael Barata and bassist Augusto Mattoso. Bossas and Ballads presents a mix of introspective compositions by

Hermeto Pascoal

flute
b.1936

" data-original-title="" title="">Hermeto Pascoal ("Montreux"),

Antonio Carlos Jobim

piano
1927 - 1994

" data-original-title="" title="">Antonio Carlos Jobim ("Fotografia"),

John Lennon

guitar and vocals
1940 - 1980

" data-original-title="" title="">John Lennon and

Paul McCartney

bass, electric
b.1942

" data-original-title="" title="">Paul McCartney ("Michelle"),

Toninho Horta

guitar

" data-original-title="" title="">Toninho Horta ("Beijo Partido"),

Leonard Bernstein

composer / conductor
1918 - 1990

" data-original-title="" title="">Leonard Bernstein ("Some Other Time") and

Milton Nascimento

guitar and vocals
b.1942

" data-original-title="" title="">Milton Nascimento ("Encontros e Despedidas"). Two haunting choro-can??es complete the program: "Ternura" (Tenderness) by clarinetist, composer and arranger K-Ximbinho (1917-1980) and the exquisite "Choro pro Z��" by guitarist-composer

Guinga

guitar

" data-original-title="" title="">Guinga.

Korman's delicate interpretation of "Some Other Time" bows to

Bill Evans

piano
1929 - 1980

" data-original-title="" title="">Bill Evans. It is one of those pieces whose lyrics are so wedded to the melody that they seem to emerge as strongly in an instrumental performance as when sung, particularly the wistful intonations of the hook, "Oh well, we'll catch up some other time." A Bernstein composition with a lyric by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, it emanates from the musical On the Town (1944), which brought us such tunes as "Lonely Town" and "New York, New York." Among many instrumental renditions, Evans' stands out, due in part to its memorable introduction, a quiet ostinato reminiscent—as

Chuck Israels

bass, acoustic
b.1936

" data-original-title="" title="">Chuck Israels has suggested—of Eric Satie's Gymnop��dies (1888). The little vamp developed into the improvised composition "Peace Piece" (Everybody Digs Bill Evans, Riverside, 1958) and later appeared in "Flamenco Sketches" (

Miles Davis

trumpet
1926 - 1991

" data-original-title="" title="">Miles Davis, Kind of Blue, Columbia, 1959). Evans created the figure as an intro to "Some Other Time" for the Riverside session (

Sam Jones

bass, acoustic
1924 - 1981

" data-original-title="" title="">Sam Jones on bass,

Philly Joe Jones

drums
1923 - 1985

" data-original-title="" title="">Philly Joe Jones at the drums). The cut did not make it onto the 1958 release but was appended later as a bonus track. In Korman's rendering, the poignancy of the Bernstein-Comden-Green is imbued with the ethos of the Gymnop��dies and Evans' "Peace Piece" (plus "Flamenco Sketches") in a serenely powerful way. (Check the YouTube below.)

References to Evans (and Davis) appear in Korman's own lovely "Almonds and Roses," released as an album single, which is based on the harmonic scheme of "Blue in Green" (Kind of Blue). Korman wrote it in the 1990s, when he was first finding his way into Brazilian jazz. Decades later, it appears as a centerpiece of Bossas and Ballads, his first solo piano album recorded in Brazil, an intimate reflection of a continuing musical voyage.

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Track Listing

Ternura; Montreux; Michelle; Fotografia; Almonds and Roses; Beijo Partido; Some Other Time; Choro Para Z��; Encontros e Despedidas.

Personnel

Cliff Korman

piano

Album information

Title: Bossas and Ballads | Year Released: 2024 | Record Label: Tiger Turn

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