Photo by Gianina Ferreyra
At the start of the second set at Greenwich Village’s Jazz Gallery last week, pianist Kris Bowers played for a packed and eager house. A packed, eager, young, and particularly diverse house, to be more exact, with a look, vibe and mood much closer to a college music festival than what the typical jazz audience tends to resemble. For a brief moment, I thought I was having auditory hallucinations with the amount of hoots and hollers being emitted from young, female voices. It is a rare occurrence within the jazz club setting. In Bowers’ performance debut as a leader, that would not be the last series of eyebrow-raising observations.
Bowers’ band for the evening was an assemblage of up-and-coming fresh faces in jazz with saxophonists Kenneth Whalum III and Godwin Louis, trumpeter Mike Cottone, bassist Earl Travis, and drummer Joe Saylor. The band of twenty-somethings played with a fire and focus beyond their years, performing an impressive amount of original material. Bowers, who is an orchestrator, founder of a music company, and appears on the most significant hip hop album of the 2011, closed the moving set with a song from Bon Iver, the cutting edge indie folk band, which has been riddled recently with Grammy nominations. At twenty-two years old, it would be impossible to prognosticate a journey which is just beginning, but it is clear that Kris Bowers is setting a precedent of individuality, pushing the jazz envelope with a fierce, yet understated momentum.
If I’ve misled you to believe that his musical boundlessness and vast experience compromises his significance as a bonafide jazz musician, let me set that record straight nice and early. He is a tremendous pianist, with a world of history underneath his fingers and a wise restraint balanced by a conspicuously original sound. He’s a bad cat. He convinced a panel of pianistic paramountcy (which included Herbie Hancock, Ellis Marsalis, Danilo Pérez, Jason Moran and Renee Rosnes) of just that, taking first place at the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition earlier this year, beating out some of the best undiscovered pianists in the world. An experience Bowers described as nothing short of nerve-racking, “I was nervous, definitely. Because you know, those were like all of my favorites [on the judging panel]. I hadn’t really met any of them…I knew Jason [Moran] but other than that I hadn’t met any of them, so to be playing all this stuff that I pretty much got from most of them [laughs] I was trying to…play the best that I could.”
Bowers’ New York state of mind has proven to be a wise one many times over. If you’re going to be in the right place at the right time, New York is always a good place to start. Twists of fate work their magic best in The Big Apple, as Bowers explains how a chance subbing gig landed him on the Kanye/Jay-Z magnum opus, Watch the Throne. “Casey [Benjamin] plays with Q-Tip and he was on tour with [Robert] Glasper, and he recommended me to do this gig at the Brooklyn Hip Hop Festival, and it just so happened that at that gig, there were special guests like Busta Rhymes, Black Thought, Monie Love, and Kanye, and at the time they were finishing up a couple tracks from Watch The Throne that Tip was working on, and they wanted me to play some string parts on one song, and to write some piano parts on this other song, so it kind of all happened in a matter of days.”
Writing string parts was likely no tough task, as you can add budding film scorer to Bowers’ resume. “That’s something I definitely want to get into, honestly more than playing…especially eventually,” admits Bowers. “I’d love to be able to dig into that. I’ve always admired the role that music plays in a film and how it helps tell the story and how great music can enhance a film and bad music can ruin a film…just how much power the music has. And also that it’s a literal translation of emotion; trying to compose and trying to write music that sounds scary, or sounds like this person is falling in love, or this person is angry…”
Photo by Gianina Ferreyra
With so many facets to Bowers’ career, and his vast musical inclinations, it’s exciting to think about what is in store in terms of his debut album, scheduled for an early 2013 release on Concord. “I have a couple of ideas, a couple of special guests brewing who are pretty awesome,” says Bowers who is currently forming his band, something about which he is particular. “The main thing I’m going for with the band is that I want to feature a band full of guys in our generation. Just because I feel like a lot of these guys with their first albums, it’s just [about] names and they have these veterans, and that’s understandable…but I feel like playing with the people I’m friends with and who I know are going to put as much energy [into the record] as possible. They’re not just doing it for a paycheck.”
He elaborates further taking a cue from a master with whom he shared recent company. “Like Herbie’s debut album Takin’ Off. He had Dexter Gordon — he was a veteran — but everybody else on the record was around Herbie’s age. Even though now they’re jazz legends, at the time they were just like one of Herbie’s contemporaries, so I feel like what I want to do is play with people who are my contemporaries.”
There is certainly no shortage of worthy peers from which Bowers can choose. The well of young talent in jazz today is startling; most notably on Bowers’ own instrument, particularly as it pertains to African Americans. Not in the last fifteen years (at least) has there been such a surge of rising Black pianists, all making their mark in the same generation. Bowers is in great company with the brilliant likes of Sullivan Fortner, Christian Sands, David Bryant, Joshua White and Johnathan Batiste, to name a few. “It’s pretty great,” says Bowers of the strong representation. “I remember even being in high school and kind of realizing that there were like three black kids in the jazz department…in an arts high school…in LA. And when you think about the fact that this is our music…so yeah, it’s pretty great to see some young, Black piano players and all be kind of on the rise.”
And climbing fast.
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Getting To Know You…
AT: Who are your favorite pianists of now?
KB: Well, of people closer to my age, I would say Sullivan Fornter is one of my favorites, and also John Batiste. Also, Lawrence Fields, Gerald Clayton, [Robert] Glasper, Aaron Parks…
AT: Do you have any favorite albums that came out this year?
KB: That new Thundercat album. (Incidentally, that’s one of my favorites of this year also…but you’ll have to wait for the Alternate Takes Best of 2011 post for more details!)
AT: What are your favorite Hip Hop albums?
KB: The Low End Theory by A Tribe Called Quest. That’s definitely one of my favorites.
AT: The last thing you listened to on your iPod?
KB: Bon Iver
AT: Name one person you would love work with?
KB: Quincy Jones
Kris Bowers performs Saturday, January 28th at the TriBeCa Performing Arts Center at 199 Chambers Street; (212) 220-1460, tribecapac.org.
ALTERNATE TAKES 