Lulu’s Back In Town – 2011
Jason Moran
An adventurous solo piano exploration
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A major jazz pianist and improviser since the late 1990s, Jason Moran sometimes plays vintage standards and takes the music into unexpected areas.
“Lulu’s Back In Town” was a swing standard that Thelonious Monk occasionally played with his distinctive striding, but Moran’s solo exploration is quite a bit different.
He starts with some joyful swing playing that owes more to Teddy Wilson than to Monk, but then stretches the song which becomes quite dark.
After taking the song outside with a lot of low-register rumbling, the melody appears briefly at the performance’s conclusion, making one wonder what type of adventures Lulu experienced after she got back in town.
-Scott Yanow
Ella Fitzgerald