Celebrating a life that has included stints with as wide a palate as Art Pepper, Bobby Darin, Don Ellis and even the theme song for the TV show All In The Family, piano legend Roger Kellaway packed the house and popped out of the cake with his swinging trio of bassist John Clayton and guitarist Bruce Forman for a 90 minute party that blew out every swinging birthday candle.
“If we’re going to have a good time with each other, let’s show it!” beamed the birthday boy as he displayed his patented rich pulsations on hip grooves as on the finger snapping “Killer Joe” and buoyant “Have You Met Miss Jones” that mixed his richly spacious chords with Forman’s clean lines on guitar and Clayton’s sonorous bass.
Sharing stories from his early days (“Don Ellis was so out there that we would do “Take 5” in 4!”), Kellaway showed a clever display of arranging , bringing in “Take the ‘A’ Train” to a slow and slinky “Lil’ Darlin’” pace and sparing his 8th notes like he was paying commission for each one, slowly building up a rubato with Lisztian cascades that eventually erupted into a glorious volcanic close.
His solo aria of “All My Life” was a collection of soft pastoral lilly pads with dashes of Asian harmonics, wondrous in range of emotion and contemplations whereas his own “Walking On Air” was a joyful trio bounce.
Deep grooves were never far away, with the three digging in with rich ripples on “All Blues” and sublimely swinging to the relaxed “I Was Doing All Right.”
The show stopper was when Clayton pulled out his bow and produced a gorgeous impressionistic theme that melded with Kellaway’s ivories and Forman’s thoughtful strums. Only afterwards did the leader let us in on the joke that the melodic theme was actually “Happy Birthday” played backwards! “And you can check it out if you want” he laughingly boasted.
Before the band closed out with a bopping and ricocheting take of the classic “52nd Street Theme” , Kellaway stated his only political message, “I don’t play Democratic: I don’t play Republican; I play Independent.” It has been that musical spirit that has made Mr. Kellaway such an important musical asset all of these decades, and the birthday celebration had the music as the ultimate party favor.
Upcoming shows at Feinstein’s at Vitellos include Spencer Day 12/05-06, Billy Vera 12/28 and Jane Monheit 01/03-04