SPECIAL EXTENDED EDITION FOR LABOR DAY. GOING ON VACATION WITH WIFE FOR 26TH WEDDING ANNIVERSARY!!!

Lisa Hilton Quartet @Catalina’s 08.31.10
By George W. Harris

In this testosterone-dominated genre of music, it seems that the highest praise that one can give to a female musician (such as Mary Lou Williams, Toshiko Akiyoshi or Hiromi) is that “she plays like a man.” Pianist Lisa Hilton, leading a stellar band (JD Allen/ts, Gregg August/b, Rudy Royston/dr) will have none of that. Celebrating the female perspective in jazz, Hilton’s performance of her compositions have a refreshing use of the entire range of the piano. On tunes like “Early Morning Impressions” and “Midnight in Manhattan” her crystalline touch goes from the dark and foreboding deep to the celebrative high notes, delivering shadowy reflections along with vivacious joy. Her performance of “So This Is Love” is like a musical travelogue, taking you to scenes of rest, adventure and reflection, with the whole quartet treating each song as a compositional whole, instead of just a vehicle for mindless soloing.

Her trio performance of “Twilight” was complex and graceful, as her duet with Allen on “Moon River” flowed like a delicate sonata. Even the duet with Royston on Green Day’s “Wake me Up When September Ends” exuded longing and lyricism. Fingers touched the ivories with the swagger of a saloon singer on the solo take of “Seduction” before the band delivered an torrid “Heat Wave” with a Coltrane groove, but with feline intensity. Emotive, gentle, expressive and playful, Hilton displayed all of the female contributions to jazz as well as to earth this warm last day of summer.