{"id":15740,"date":"2023-08-10T11:33:55","date_gmt":"2023-08-10T16:33:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/?p=15740"},"modified":"2023-08-10T11:36:15","modified_gmt":"2023-08-10T16:36:15","slug":"barry-velleman-album-spurs-milwaukee-jazz-memories-in-delightful-and-surprising-ways","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/?p=15740","title":{"rendered":"Barry Velleman album spurs Milwaukee jazz memories in delightful and surprising ways"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"\"Album review: Barry Velleman\/Harvie S. — Something Wonderful<\/em> (RVS Records)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Barry Velleman should ring a bell, oh man\u2014if you\u2019re a Milwaukee jazz fan of a certain age.<\/p>\n

The pianist credibly served as one of the house pianists at the legendary Milwaukee Jazz Gallery in the late \u201870s- early \u201880s. His performance and recording credits include Brian Lynch (who considers him a primary influence), Jerry Bergonzi, Phil Grenadier, Charles Davis, Gerald Cannon, Chuck Hedges, Jamie Breiwick, Eric Jacobson, Jerry Grillo and renowned bassist Harvie S, whom he\u2019s known since high school. He\u2019s one of my personal favorite interpreters of Thelonious Monk. After retiring as a Spanish professor at Marquette U., Velleman moved back to his home area near Boston.<\/p>\n

Something Wonderful<\/em>\u00a0lives up to its title. As an appreciator of the pianist\u2019s acerbic wit with Monk, the revelation for me was (perhaps I\u2019d forgotten) his seeming effortlessness at lyrical playing. So, there\u2019s plenty of musical meat, yet the album is a natural mood brightener.<\/p>\n

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Grammy-winning trumpeter Brian Lynch (left) considers pianist Barry Velleman (far right) a primary influence on him. This quartet photo includes Lynch, Velleman, bassist Chuck Ledvina and saxophonist David Bixler.<\/em><\/p>\n

In his new biography, piano master Brad Mehldau speaks of the \u201cunapproachable yet inviting\u201d quality of certain great jazz pianists. You get that sense with Velleman, at times wondering at his wizardry, and its off-handedness. \u201cI Didn\u2019t Know What Time It Was\u201d bristles with characteristically pungent chords without overdoing it. He uses his chords like a painter adding depth and texture to his aural landscapes. There I go again, about his harmonies. Maybe there\u2019s a song in his heart, or he understands harmony so well he can turn improvs into lovely melody by mining the structural essence.<\/p>\n

A surprise is the seemingly cornball \u201cLollipops and Roses,\u201d which he transforms with a cool intro and a medium-slow tempo, allowing the melody space to breathe, a very hip story of \u201cWhat if? What about this?\u201d Bassist Harvie S is superb throughout, but really shines by taking the arco melodic lead on the closer \u201cRemind Me,\u201d an underplayed Jerome Kern song.<\/p>\n

____________<\/p>\n

This review was originally published in The Shepherd Express<\/em>, here:<\/strong> https:\/\/shepherdexpress.com\/music\/album-reviews\/something-wonderful-by-barry-velleman-and-harvie-s\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Album review: Barry Velleman\/Harvie S. — Something Wonderful (RVS Records) Barry Velleman should ring a bell, oh man\u2014if you\u2019re a Milwaukee jazz fan of a certain age. The pianist credibly served as one of the house pianists at the legendary … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[2117,990,139,2121,1229,2125,308,2120,2118,2060,2122,2124,2119,1153,134,2123,105],"class_list":["post-15740","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-www-kevernacular-com","tag-barry-velleman","tag-brad-mehldau","tag-brian-lynch","tag-chuck-hedges","tag-chuck-ledvina","tag-david-bixler","tag-eric-jacobson","tag-gerald-casnnon","tag-harvie-s","tag-i-didnt-know-what-time-it-was","tag-jamie-briewick","tag-jerome-kern","tag-jerry-bergonzi","tag-jerry-grillo","tag-milwaukee-jazz-gallery","tag-something-wonderful","tag-thelonious-monk"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2hJWE-45S","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15740","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15740"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15740\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15747,"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15740\/revisions\/15747"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}