The last time Andre Previn sat down at the piano to cut a jazz record, John F. Kennedy was president, the Beatles hadn`t yet invaded the U. S. and bouffant hairdos were in.
So Previn-who recently announced his resignation as music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic-was a bit shaky at the prospect of cutting his first jazz record in nearly 30 years.
”I only agreed to do it under two conditions,” recalls Previn, whose new Telarc CD, ”After Hours,” is being released nationally today.
”I told the folks at Telarc I`ll only do it if they`ll sign (guitarist)
Joe Pass and (bass player) Ray Brown to make the record with me. That way-it had to come out good: All I had to do was not play, and it would be fantastic. Joe Pass, you know, is like a Jascha Heifetz of the jazz guitar, and Ray Brown-we need say no more.
”But I also insisted on one other condition-that after the first
(recording) session I would ask Ray and Joe what they thought. And if they felt my work was no good, that would be the end of it.”
Pass and Brown evidently approved, for they not only went ahead with the project but have since asked Previn to collaborate as sideman on future club dates.
Because he conducts roughly 120 symphonic concerts a year, Previn probably won`t be able to oblige; but he feels as if he has made a jazz comeback of sorts that has been weighing on his mind for years.
”I`ve been wanting to do it for a long time-I`ve missed it terribly,”
says Previn, who first made his name in show business as a wunderkind composer-arranger at MGM in the `50s. His arrangements for the scores of such classic film musicals as ”Gigi” won him four Oscars and many more nominations; and as an ace jazz pianist, he was accompanist of choice for no less than Frank Sinatra.
Yet as he came of age musically, Previn found his first love to be symphonic music, so he took up the baton under the tutelage of Pierre Monteux, and by the late `60s began landing a series of podium jobs in Houston, London, Pittsburgh and, finally, Los Angeles.
All the while, he never could quite kick the jazz habit.
”If you`ve grown up listening to Dizzy (Gillespie) and the Bird (Charlie Parker), you simply never forget it,” says Previn, 60.
”The Hollywood musicals I didn`t miss a bit-and I haven`t the faintest desire to go back to them.
”But after all the years that went by, after all the years of saying
`maybe next time,` I finally had to just sit down and find time to make a jazz recording,” which Previn and company did-in part-from 10:30 p.m. until 2:30 a.m. one night at the Ambassador Auditorium in Pasadena, Calif.
The wee-hours session surely contributed to the sweet mood of the disc, which is essentially slow, quiet and reflective. Here are three elder statesman of jazz sitting back and musically shooting the breeze.
That easygoing style, however, may earn Previn as many detractors as admirers. If you like your jazz comfortable and subdued, ”After Hours” is a first-rate recording. If you prefer a bolder statement, however, it may seem a few shades too placid.
”Sure the recording is conservative,” protests Previn, ”but it just sort of happened that way. I had no fixed idea whatsoever about what was going to happen when we finally sat down to make this record.
”All we agreed to in advance was that we would take no killer tempos. I wasn`t really ready for it, and Ray and Joe said they had had enough of that kind of thing with Oscar Peterson (the jazz pianist famed for his fleet technique).
”We also decided to do tunes that are standard to the point of screaming,” adds Previn, whose disc includes such chestnuts as Harry Warren`s ”I Only Have Eyes for You,” Jerome Kern`s ”All the Things You Are” and David Raksin`s ”Laura.”
”This album was just supposed to be three old friends sitting around having fun-that`s all-and I hope that`s what comes across.”
But the mellow mood also says something about Previn`s progress as a jazz pianist. If in the `50s he was a young man out to set the world ablaze, today he`s a far more mature musician who has learned how to say more with fewer notes.
”Ray noticed the difference right away,” says Previn. ”He said:
`You`re no longer trying to play every single note on the keyboard.`
”I`ll have to take his word for it, though, because once you`ve let 30 years go by since your last jazz date, you have a hard time remembering exactly what happened last time.
”All we really did this time was just feel our way around until we were ready to turn the tape recorders on.”
Despite the apparent nonchalance of the project, one can`t help but notice that it is being released not long after Previn`s announced resignation from the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
Could it be that Previn is paving a path back to the pop-tinged world from which he came?
”Hardly,” says Previn with a big laugh. ”The fact that the jazz record is coming out at this time is purely coincidental.
”As a matter of fact, I have conducting dates booked well into 1992-I actually could use a little more spare time.
”I stepped down from the Philharmonic quite simply because I had gotten tired of the business of running an American orchestra, which I have been doing in one place or another since the mid-`60s.
”I just want to come in and do my stuff-and not have to do lunch with the ladies` committee.”
As for the future, Previn predicts he`ll probably spend more time in concert halls than jazz dens.
Yet regardless of how one feels about either his conducting or his jazz, he remains one of the few classical artists willing to cross over to pop/jazz territory.
”It`s who I am,” says Previn. ”And I`ll tell you this much-I don`t intend to stay away from jazz for another 30 years.”
