Standard Fare

SSC1689 2023-06-16

Track List

All the Things You Are - 3:55
I Love Paris - 6:42
With A Song in My Heart - 5:24
All of You - 6:43
Just One of Those Things - 5:01
East of the Sun - 4:16
Round Midnight - 8:58
The Nearness of You - 6:48
Trinkle Tinkle - 3:09

Musicians

Dahveed Behroozi - piano

Pianist Dahveed Behroozi has long hoped to record a solo album of standards that have been ingrained well in his musical memory over the past two decades. His new recording, Standard Fare, allows Behroozi to showcase his own style through the prism these classics provide.

The music that has been developed into standards by generations of jazz musicians continues to inspire and challenge. A goal of many is to be able to interpret these well-known pieces in a cogent and unique fashion, highlighting an individual style of expression.

The West Coast based Behroozi maintains a wide-angled view of creative piano playing. He grew up listening to an array of classical music as a youngster, then discovered jazz as a teenager. Behroozi went on to study jazz piano with Fred Hersch at the Manhattan School of Music and contemporary classical piano with Ursula Oppens at Brooklyn College.

The breadth of interest and approach can be heard in how Behroozi approaches his music and that of others. His last recording, Echos, a trio recording with bassist Thomas Morgan and drummer Billy Mintz on Sunnyside, captured Behroozi’s sophisticated compositional style, along with his tremendous ability for group interplay. The thought of doing a solo album gestated for many years, as it was a goal that Behroozi hadn’t previously felt he was prepared for.

Behroozi is now ready and has the energy and courage to showcase his individuality on the instrument that is seemingly made for such explorations. For the recording, Behroozi didn’t want to have a preconceived program and approach. His goal was to embody all of his musical influences and range over his lifetime within these standards.

The standards he selected to record on his first solo album are songs that he has absorbed for years. The melodies and structures of these pieces have become entrenched in his musical recollection. With this second nature knowledge of the compositions, Behroozi can utilize and focus on elements of the works where he drifts through musical proximities that haven’t previously been explored, making the music creative, flowing and conversational.

The album was recorded in a prepared living room in San Jose, California on a Bosendorfer piano during the month of January 2023.