JLCO With Yuja Wang music review: Confident, commanding compositions
Transitioning from classical to jazz, Yuja Wang’s pianism knows no limits as she plays in seamless harmony with a cohesive ensemble
Is there anything that pianist Yuja Wang can’t play brilliantly? Usually heard at the Edinburgh International Festival in phenomenal classical performances, this year she’s turned her virtuosity to jazz. Appearing with Wynton Marsalis and his Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra she was very much the brightest light in a show not without its own glittering stars, including the trumpet maestro himself. In an hour’s collection of different pieces, all introduced by Marsalis, standouts were Joseph Kosma’s ceaselessly enduring ‘Autumn Leaves’, Wang playing the piano part scored by Erroll Garner ten years after the song’s original composition; and Art Tatum’s ‘Tiger Rag’, a fiendishly complex piece where every detail was clean and clear.
Starting the night with Dave Brubeck, Wang’s stylistic approach was percussive, establishing her command within this top-notch ensemble from the outset. The Lincoln members are not only players (saxophones, trombones, trumpets, piano, drums and double bass), they are also skilled arrangers and composers. Confident in their combined fulsome sound, whatever they turn to, while Joe Block’s arrangement of Duke Ellington’s ‘Reflections In D’ and Leroy Carr’s ‘How Long Blues’ were slower and moody, Ernesto Lecuona’s ‘Danza Afro-Cubanas’ was a no-holds barred riotous carnival.
JLCO With Yuja Wang, reviewed at Usher Hall; picture: Andrew Perry.