Bill Charlap: The Modern Pianist

Bill Charlap (piano; b. 1966)
Writen In The Stars

Bill Charlap is wonderful and accomplished pianists in the vain of Oscar Peterson and Art Tatum. He has worked with Tony Bennett, Clark Terry and Gerry Mulligan among others. There's nothing technically complicated or cerebral going on here, just a nice dose of jazz with your Sunday morning tea.

I first started listening to Charlap after seeing him at the Village Vanguard in New York many years ago. I thought he was a superb performer and his band consisting of two young veterans, Peter Washington (bass) and Kenny Washington (drums) were excellent compliments to Charlap's mastery of the standards repertoire.

Charlap has an extensive catalog crossing a couple of labels but the one album that I believe is very representative of his style and is most appealing to everyone is Written In The Stars (Blue Note). Written In The Stars features the members listed above and is absolutely perfect throughout. This album is pretty widely available so you should be able to find it fairly easily. Bill Charlap is a modern craftsman of piano and someone you might want to check out if you starting your jazz collection from scratch.