Broadway

Steak and lobster, peanut butter and jam, bacon and eggs. These are foods that belong together. They compliment each other and although they are great on their own, when they are together it is simply magnificent. There are many musical combinations like that. A few that come to mind for me are Miles Davis and John Coltrane, Lee Morgan and Hank Mobley, Paul Chambers and Jimmy Cobb and Bill Evans and Jim Hall. Add to that list pianist Miles Black and guitarist Oliver Gannon. These two musicians have logged hundreds of hours together both on the bandstand and in the studio. Black has been a part of Gannon’s quartet for the better part of 23 years and they have recorded three CDS for the label: Live @ The Cellar, That’s What and most recently Easy Sailing. Black has been more than just a dependable sideman on Gannon’s recordings. In addition to wonderful comping and accompaniment for Gannon and fiery improvisations he has lent his composition and arrangement talents to band. One listen to Broadway recorded live at Cory Weeds’ Cellar Jazz Club 6 weeks before it closed and its apparent how much these two musicians enjoy playing with one another. I wouldn’t go so far as to suggest that they complete each other’s musical sentences but it’s very clear that there is a large familiarity there that makes for a wonderfully interactive and conversational musical journey. The material they’ve chosen to play is not ground-breaking by any stretch of the imagination but it doesn’t have to be. They’ve chosen classic tunes from the Great American Songbook and play those songs with a youthful exuberance almost as if they’re playing them for the first time. They’re not heavily arranged or re-harmonized and I doubt that there was much chatter about tunes before they hit the stage. That’s the way Oliver and Miles are. Their collective repertoires are massive and they have no shortage of tune choices. They’re both such musical people that they can sit down and make it sound as if they’ve rehearsed for hours when in reality they have not. "It's a breeze playing with Olly! We both love swinging jazz, and love the interplay between our respective instruments” says Black.