1998 · Album
Plays the Music of Harold Arlen
Recorded 1998 · Telarc · Produced by Not specified in available documentation
Three Voices in the Arlen Songbook
Flanagan swings through Arlen's catalog with the ease of someone who knows these songs inside out, never rushing.
Connie Kay was the drummer who made the Modern Jazz Quartet sound like a conversation between equals, and here he does something similar — he doesn't accompany Flanagan so much as dialogue with him. Kay's touch is light but precise, never overplaying, never dropping out. He's the reason this trio doesn't feel like a piano album with rhythm section attached. George Mraz on bass knows the game too; he's played with everyone from Miles to McCoy Tyner, and he understands that a Harold Arlen tune can swing hard without becoming a display of virtuosity. Together they give Flanagan the space to do what he does best: play piano like someone who spent decades getting to know every corner of the American songbook.
Arlen wrote some of the most elegant melodies in jazz standards — "Stormy Weather," "Ill Wind," "Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea" — and Flanagan treats them with respect without reverence. He doesn't deconstruct them or hide inside them; he inhabits them. The trio moves through the material with the ease of musicians who trust each other completely, which matters more than technical flash on a record like this. Kay's brushwork on ballads and his crisp snare on uptempo pieces anchor everything without getting in the way.
This is a straightforward piano trio date, recorded late in Flanagan's career, and that's exactly what it should be. No gimmicks, no overdubs, just three musicians playing tunes they respect. It won't surprise anyone who knows Flanagan's work, but it shouldn't — this is a musician who defined consistency and taste over decades.
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