# A jazz musician either gets this distinction or doesn’t: Videos

- Link: https://jazzblues.eu/2018/03/05/a-jazz-musician-either-gets-this-distinction-or-doesnt-videos/
- Published: 2018-03-05T18:28:04+01:00
- Author: https://JazzBlues.EU

**Sophistication is widely admired but little understood. There’s no secret formula
for creating something considered sophisticated nor are there any classes that teach
it. Sophistication is simply a higher level of caring and soulfulness that comes
from the heart, not the mind. **

Complexity is often mistaken for being sophisticated. In truth, complexity is almost
always long-winded, overly rendered, difficult to understand and boring. A jazz 
musician either gets this distinction or doesn’t. Pianist Leslie Pintchik gets it.

[⌊81aFT26U-IL._SL1500_⌉⌊81aFT26U-IL._SL1500_⌉[
 As I wrote when reviewing her last
album, _True North_, Leslie brings depth and thought to everything she plays. On
her new album, _You Eat My Food, You Drink My Wine, You Steal My Girl,_ Leslie plays
with complete engagement. She surfaces melancholy and joy through unusual chord 
voicings, well-placed pedal tones and bell-like tones in her melody lines. There’s
always a mood to Leslie’s approach, a breathy feel that comes from caring and a 
natural understanding of the instrument’s personality. In this regard, she plays
the keyboard as if it’s a harp.

[⌊Summer-evening⌉⌊Summer-evening⌉[
 Six of the eight tracks on her new album are
originals, and all have an elegant sheerness, like the hushed swish of a dress, 
the inward blowing of a thin curtain or the stroke of a hand. For example, the title
track is a feline soul-jazz piece with an easy funky feel. The title comes from 
a line overheard by Leslie when crossing New York’s Canal Street. _Mortal_ is more
urgent and haunting, with a stillness and sadness that reminds me of Jimmy Rowles’s
_The Peacocks_. _Hopperesque_ has a nocturnal tone and can serve as an apt backdrop
to any of painter Edward Hopper’s night scenes illuminated solely by streetlights,
porch lights or the moon. Hopper’s _Summer Evening_ (1947) came to mind when I heard
the song (painting above). Shoko Nagai’s accordion is added to this one, giving 
it a Buenos Aires shading.

_[⌊10007353_1454911294754448_7811615034960273214_o⌉⌊10007353_1454911294754448_7811615034960273214_o⌉[
 Happy Dog

is a perky work that also features light touches of accordion. As with many songs
on the album, Leslie never pounds on the keyboard but always delivers cleans swinging
lines as if whispering the notes in your ear. The two standards—I’m Glad There Is
You and Smoke Gets in Your Eyes—are transformed in Leslie’s hands. She brilliantly
avoids the cliche traps in both. I’m Glad There Is You is a sultry sashay and Smoke
Gets In Your Eyes is taken at a mid-tempo ballad, transforming it’s original intent.[
Leslie Pintchik, above, at New York’s Kitano recently]

[⌊Leslie3⌉⌊Leslie3⌉[
 My favorite song on the album has all the makings of a jazz
standard. Leslie recorded _A Simpler Time_ on her _Quartets_ album in 2008. But 
here, the execution is more cohesive and straightforward. The mood is nostalgic,
but hardly sad or regretful. Instead, it’s a look back to earlier years without 
melodramatic yearning or regrets. It’s simply a recollection in passing. And a sophisticated
one at that.

[⌊Leslie_pintchik⌉⌊Leslie_pintchik⌉[
 The album features Ron Horton on trumpet and
flugelhorn and Steve Wilson on alto saxophone on selected tracks. Plus Michael Sarin
on drums, Satoshi Takeishi on percussion and Leslie’s sensitive soul mate, husband
Scott Hardy, on bass.

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