Born in 1956 in Budapest, pianist Laszlo Gardony studied at the Béla Bartók Conservatory, graduating in 1979. His distinguished CV includes a 1983 scholarship to Boston’s Berklee College of Music and subsequent playing partners such as, e.g., Tommy Smith, Miroslav Vitous, Dave Holland, Mick Goodrick and Bob Moses.
Professor of piano at Berklee for the past 20 or so years, Gardony is well-versed in the sort of central and eastern European folk forms which fascinated Bartók. Blessed with great touch and both rhythmic power and sensitivity, he has a raft of well-received recordings to his credit, including a good many with fellow trio members here, the excellent John Lockwood (b) and Yoron Israel (d).
Half of the well-wrought and diversely characterful compositions are from Gardony while All That Remains, Walking In Silence, Everybody Needs A Home, Hopeful Vision, Night Run and Cold Earth are three-way improvisations, recorded in sequence at the end of the second day in the studio.
My only quibble with this compelling release is that I wish All That Remains had not been placed earlier in the programme, so that we could have heard these splendid improvisations – now Zen-like and probing (Remains), now torrential and bop-soaked (Night Run) – exactly as they were recorded.
Those looking for a Bartókian note here could turn to Irrepressible and Times Of Discord, high energy but also intellectually measured and stimulating pieces characterised by sleeve-writer Bill Milkowski as synthesising “dissonance and discipline”. Milkowski also discerns a Bartókian flavour in the waltz-time figures and polyrhythms of Sweet Thoughts.
The lyrical or tender side to Gardony can conjure thoughts of both Abdullah Ibrahim (Savanna Sunrise, Walking In Silence) and Keith Jarrett (Hopeful Vision). At the other end of things is Strong Minds, which reflects the early enthusiasm Gardony felt for progressive rock bands such as ELP, Soft Machine and Can. With its consistently strong and soulful contributions from Lockwood (arco and pizzicato) and Israel, Close Connection is one absolute cracker of an album.
Discography
Irrepressible; Strong Minds; Sweet Thoughts; Cedar Tree Dance; All That Remain; Times Of Discord; Savanna Sunrise; Walking In Silence; Everybody Needs A Home; Hopeful Vision; Night Rub; Cold Earth (69.50)
Gardony (p, melodica); John Lockwood (b); Yoron Israel (d, kalimba). Boston, 14 & 15 January 2022.
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