Annual keyboard concert this Sunday

Key limelight
By MATT ELLIOTT World Scene Writer
2/16/2007

Annual jazz concert salutes improvisational skills of pianists

Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame will kick off its Spring Jazz Concert Series with its annual keyboard concert this Sunday.

The concert, presented by the hall of fame and the Tulsa Jazz Society, will feature local jazz pianists Sonny Gray, Charles Gardner, Pat Moore, Spencer Sutton, Jon Glazer and Donald Ryan. The concert will take place at the hall of fame inside the Greenwood Cultural Center, at 322 N. Greenwood Ave.

Gardner, 71, said each of the performers will perform about three or four songs. Gardner's selections will include improvisations on George Gershwin's "S'Wonderful," and the traditional jazz standard "Cherry."

"I think what appeals with jazz is you know it comes from the heart," said Gardner, a former U.S. Air Force band musician. "The fact that you're using standard songs that you're playing and improvising on those songs . . . It makes each one of us a composer in our own right in that we never play the same song the same way twice."

The night's pianists will be backed by drummer Tony Yohe and bassist Bill Crosby.

The night also will mark a CD re-release for pianist Gayle Williamson, who founded the keyboard concert series.

Williamson will be re-releasing an album of jazz originals and standards he recorded in the mid-1980s, this time calling it "Statement: 2nd Edition."

He remastered the album after getting the music digitized, which he wrote around the time he saw his brother die from a heart attack, he said.

"The whole business has changed into CDs and DVDs and everything, so I just wanted to review it, so to speak, so it would be more current and reach out to more people," Williamson said.

The CD will be available for purchase at the show Sunday and will also be available at Borders and Barnes & Noble locations. It features Bill Crosby on bass, Pam Crosby singing and Russell Grant on drums.

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JAZZ KEYBOARD CONCERT

When:
5 p.m., Sunday

Where:
Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame in the Greenwood Cultural Center, 322 N. Greenwood Ave.

Admission:
$3-$10, for information 596-1001.