Howard Riley has repeatedly demonstrated that he is one of the finest improvising pianists around, not least on his studio-recorded Short Stories solo albums (re-released as an epic six-disc collection by the Lithuanian label No Business Records in 2010.) But in his sleeve notes to Live With Repertoire, Riley says that he approaches a solo piano gig as being with or without repertoire. He plays some completely without repertoire, some with and without in the same evening, and some — including the one on this recording — completely with repertoire. He plays whatever he feels is appropriate at the time, with the venue and the audience being major influencing factors. On November 11th 2011 (11-11-11, incidentally!) at Embrace Arts in Leicester, England, everything was ideal for a concert with repertoire, as this album demonstrates. At the gig, that repertoire consisted of four of Riley's composition, five by Thelonious Monk and three standards.
The high proportion of Monk pieces is not surprising, as Riley has a long and impressive history as a Monk interpreter, dating back to a 1984 piano duo with Jaki Byard. Here, Riley kick-starts the album with a fluid, flowing reading of "Monk's Mood" before going straight into a percussive version of "Ba-Lue Bolivar Ba-Lues-Are" that is a complete contrast. On neither of them is Riley unduly reverential to Monk's original; he never risks sounding like a copyist or parodist, instead using the pieces as springboards for his own imagination and creativity. Consequently, his playing is highly distinctive, and could not be mistaken for anyone else. The same is true when he moves onto the standard "Darn That Dream" which is a wide-ranging, forensic examination of the piece, and then his own looser "Now One".
For a concert recording, the quality of recorded sound is first rate, and intrusive audience applause has mainly been edited out to ease the flow of the music. Across the twelve tracks, there are enough variations in attack and dynamic level to keep the music fresh, but no very obvious differences in Riley's approach to the three different sources of material. This gives the album a pleasing consistency, with no nasty surprises or shocks along the way. As a whole, it achieves the neat trick of being music that is easy to listen without ever risking becoming "easy listening". There is plenty here to savour again and again, indicating that it will stand up well to the test of time.
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