| The title song to
pianist Roberta Piket's new recording, "I'm Back in Therapy and It's
All Your Fault," has a neurotic, even crazed quality to it. The way the
guitar and Wurlitzer electric piano solo together, then against each
other, is like listening to a discussion degenerate into an
argument.
But when you hear the artist describe the
music, you'll quickly find that nirvana -- not neurosis -- is at play.
"I'm always looking for good tune titles
because when you write instrumental music you have to think that way,"
said the affable pianist from her home in New York. "Sometimes when I
write tunes, I have a title in mind from something that inspired me.
Sometimes you have to come up with things that are abstract because you
can't think of anything that specifically inspired you, so I always
keep good titles around."
Piket, who has performed with everyone from
Dave Liebman to the late Lionel Hampton, said the title was intended to
be ironic, in part because she didn't want to alienate her hard-core
fans.
"People who know me, know me for my acoustic
records, and I wanted to send a message to my fans that this was
something different," she continued. "'I'm Back in Therapy and It's All
Your Fault' isn't the kind of title you would traditionally find on an
acoustic record. Jazz musicians have a reputation for taking themselves
a little more seriously than that. I wanted this recording to be more
irreverent and adventuresome."
Piket, a gifted composer who has absorbed the
language of Bill Evans, Keith Jarrett and others, will be bringing her
quartet, Alternating Current, to Dowe's on 9th tomorrow. The group also
features guitarist Bruce Arnold, bassist Yoshi Waki and drummer Kirk
Driscoll.
"The band has really grown a lot," said Piket,
who is the principal writer for the group. "I really like the different
textures the Wurlitzer piano brings to the group. After I got the
Wurlitzer, something clicked in my brain -- it brought back all of the
sounds I had heard
when I was beginning to play this music."
Piket said one of the things she does when
writing music is to begin with the bass line. She writes specific parts
for the bass, guitar and keyboard. Each player plays different lines
simultaneously.
That's something you don't hear a lot of in
mainstream jazz," she said. "The role of the bass player traditionally
is to support the rhythm section. The role of the piano is to play
chords. In this
band I think more as a composer, writing parts for the players. There's
a lot of improvisation and opportunity for interaction, but there are
also sections where the music is very composed and specific."
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Piket, who grew up in Flushing, N.Y., started
taking piano lessons at age 6 from her father, Frederick, a
conservatory-trained composer and conductor. But after he died two
years later, she didn't
take music too seriously until high school, when her brother introduced
her to the music of Walter Bishop Jr.
"When I got serious about becoming a jazz
pianist, I started studying the lineage of the piano," she said. "And
for a long time that's where my priorities and loyalty were."
Later, she began to meet musicians who
introduced her to fusion groups like Weather Report and Chick Corea's
Return to Forever band.
After graduating from Tufts and the New
England Conservatory with degrees in computer science and jazz piano,
she landed a job as a computer engineer in the Boston area. But after a
year, she returned to New York to pursue her passion.
"It was a great job. I was making great money
with a great deal of responsibility, but I had to pursue this. I have
never regretted leaving my job, and I don't think I would ever explore
that again. There are other things that interest me besides music. But
I think I got into computer science because of my mother. She wanted me
to have a fallback position."
Back in New York, she eventually landed a job
in Diva, an all-woman big band, and performed in other groups around
the city.
In 1993, she was one of three finalists out of
more than 250 contestants in the prestigious Thelonious Monk composer
competition.
A year later, she appeared on "Piano Jazz"
with Marian McPartland on National Public Radio.
In 1997, she recorded "Unbroken Line" and
followed that with "Live at the Blue," which was rated a Top Five
recording of 1999 by Jazz Times magazine.
Earlier this year, she endeared herself to
local fans when she performed at Dowe's. And tomorrow, she expects a
repeat performance.
While she promises to perform music from her
vast range, much of the evening will focus on "Therapy," which combines
lyricism and groove-altering chord structures. (Nate Guidry)
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