Bob Rodriguez: Corridor (2005)

Jim Santella

Senior Contributor since 1997

Jim Santella has been contributing CD reviews, concert reviews and DVD reviews to AAJ since 1997. His work has also appeared in Southland Blues, The L.A. Jazz Scene, and Cadence Magazine.

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Published: October 4, 2005

On this dreamy trio session, pianist Bob Rodriguez interprets a set of originals and several standards. His cascading keyboard melodies and gently flowing snippets of poetic charm give the listener a quiet storm of relaxed pleasure. The acoustic setting provides a natural texture, while each improvised phrase overlaps like the wind and the rain outside.

Opening the session, "Corridor" gives the impression of a long walkway that leads to mixed pleasures. In the other rooms, we find Ellington, Rodgers & Hart, Coltrane, and others. However, the session proves quite mellow throughout. Ballads give the trio plenty of consonant harmonic material, but the pace remains steady, serene, and slow.

The pianist adores a soft-spoken ballad with lyrical designs and a spare rhythmic foundation. His emphasis remains on the rise and fall and repetitive nature of each cascading melody. His percussive approach to the piano's keyboard direction drives like a cat's paws prancing along the top of a wooden fence. You can feel each stroke, but the result is never forceful.

Bassist Mike Richmond adds several lyrical solo interludes to the session, while drummer Eliot Zigmund colors from a distance. With piano at the forefront in its glimmering façade, the music snuggles gracefully through one leisurely ballad after another. Rodriguez applies notes to music as a tree applies falling leaves to the ground.

Track Listing: Corridor; Prelude to a Kiss; Inside; Naima; It's Not That Dark; Liebesleid; Within the Line; Spring is Here.

Personnel: Bob Rodriguez: piano; Mike Richmond: bass; Eliot Zigmund: drums.

Record Label: CreOp Muse
Style: Straight-ahead/Mainstream