Changing Standards - Adjustable & Versatile Products for Home, Office & Outdoor Use

Laszlo Gardony is a skilled and frequently tricky improvisor, in the best way when at his best. One of the more interesting jazz musicians to come out of Hungary (note, too, figures like Gabor Gado, or digging back, players like Gabor Szabo, or really, an impressive array), Gardony has struck a balance between classical phrasing and post-bop, veering between meditative and propulsive in ways that can evoke Jarrett, which may be the best reference on this, arguably his best solo album. Every jazz musician plays standards, around which the form exists, and this set runs from the American songbook to the classics from greats like Coltrane, all of which are now part of what we call “standards.” Yet as the title says, Gardony wants to do what everyone demands, and play them differently. Yet how? Jarrett is the obvious touchstone, playing solo, and striking a balance between thundering and whispering as only Jarrett could, but this is where one hears the best of Gardony as he filters these classics through his own training. Gardony takes, as he should, a background in classical, having trained in an Eastern European conservatory, and infuses these pieces with subtleties that hint at his roots, in ways that his music did not always do. His playing is the stronger for it, putting a truly Hungarian spin on Duke, Coltrane, Monk, and letting his fascination with Monk over all run through all of that to create something altogether different. Monk, of course, is the quintessential iconoclast from the history of jazz piano, so leaning on Monk for such a project gives intellectual as well as thematic consistency. It is hard to play Well You Needn’t without just evoking Thelonious, himself, but to take that through line and use it on a range of tunes from Duke and others, with hints of classical, creates a very different project. This is Laszlo Gardony at his best. He has recorded many fine albums, but this is him at his best.