Review by Des Cowley.
John Harkins – The Cord (Independent, digital release)
Pianist John Harkins hails from Chicago, but the for the past twenty-five years he has made Sydney his home. For this, his eighth album, he has opted to return to the source, laying down The Cord’s nine tracks in the Windy City, featuring a trio made up of fellow Chicagoan George Fludas on drums, and St. Louis-born John Webber on bass.
Let’s be clear at the outset, Harkins is an unabashedly old-school player, specialising in bop and swing, relishing the musical space and interplay provided by the classic piano trio. And while it is easy to dismiss such stance as backward-looking, there is plenty to commend in this music, drawing as it does from the well-spring of Bud Powell, Hampton Hawes, Bill Evans, and others.
Harkins kicks off the album with ‘Newest Blues’, a mid-temp blues that shows off his light and elegant touch. Blithely working the upper register, his piano literally dances across Webber’s busy basslines. ‘Down a Notch’ is a groove-laden piece featuring sparse, delicate piano that skitters across Webber’s cool and stylish bass, evoking the stripped-back dynamics of legendary pianist Ahmed Jamal.
The Thad Jones’s standard ‘Bird Song’ comes in for a thorough-going workout that sees Harkins unleashing flurries of notes, chasing down the tune’s rapid-fire tempo. Ellington’s ‘Prelude to Kiss’ is given an unreservedly romantic treatment, its tempo slowed, intent on teasing out the song’s innate sentimentality.
Throughout, Fludas and Webber prove a solid team, meshing in tightly with Harkins’s piano, generating complex figures and shifting rhythms. The album ends with Ellington’s upbeat ‘Jump for Joy’, here given a poignant bluesy treatment. With The Cord, Harkins combines his pianistic flair with an overriding passion for keeping the spirit of this music alive.