The holiday theme for Jazz Piano Christmas this year was definitely for the adventurous among us.
Our three performers placed familiar holiday songs inside masterfully crafted clusters of sound and rhythm that still felt both celebratory and reverential, just like the holidays themselves.
Newcomer Jahari Stampley was the first to offer a cascade of notes that slowly revealed the seasonal staples "Silent Night," "Amazing Grace" and "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing," then Kris Davis explored the full range of the piano's tonalities while recasting "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy" for the sold-out audience at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
And finally Cuban pianist/composer Roberto Fonseca cloaked the holiday spirit within a great Cuban piano tradition that includes both classical and Afro-Cuban influences on his five tunes.
Tradition meets modernity this year on Jazz Piano Christmas — and we are all that much better for it.
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