By Michael Ullman

Pianist Noah Haidu’s impeccably performed and recorded Standards II is a winner.

Noah Haidu, Standards II with Buster Williams and Billy Hart (Sunnyside)

Pianist Noah Haidu opens Standards II with his version of the exquisitely sentimental song we have all become accustomed to from The Wizard of Oz. Haidu’s arrangement of “Over the Rainbow” is different from the thousand or so jazz recordings of the Harold Arlen masterpiece. As if to declare his independence from tradition(s), including vocal renditions by the likes of Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, or the much lesser known Eva Cassidy, big band renditions going back to Glenn Miller and Larry Clinton, instrumental versions by Art Tatum or Errol Garner, or alto saxophonist Art Pepper, Haidu opens his “Over the Rainbow” with a chattering, upbeat drum solo by the now 83-year-old master drummer, Billy Hart. (Haidu was born in 1972, when Hart was in his 30s.) One notices immediately that this Sunnyside disc is beautifully recorded. (It turns out it was made in Rudy Van Gelder’s famous studio.) The band feels close, the instruments sound clear, distinct, and perfectly balanced. Hart begins with sticks on his hi-hat, and then expands to the drums. His kit spreads across the whole sound stage, something I usually dislike: here, though, it lays bare the conversational quality of Hart’s tactful, precise drumming.

81-year-old Buster Williams is the bassist: his large, rich tone exudes a distinctive presence here, whether he plays pizzicato or with a bow. He also is closely recorded, but his tact makes his contributions fit snugly into and around Haidu’s improvisations. On “Over the Rainbow,” Haidu seems to stroll into the scene purposefully but also subtly, as if he didn’t want to interrupt. Indeed, Hart continues his active drumming even as the pianist seems to soar over the rhythm section in the bridge to this familiar tune. For a long time, Haidu doesn’t play the melody directly: this indirection seems to be a habit with him. His opening lines delicately wander around about Hart’s solo. Then, after a slight pause, he hints at the Arlen tune, which he continues to play in fragments. Williams starts bowing and that sound triggers Haidu to play more expansively. His sound is pearly, even when playing locked hand chords à la Brubeck His playing is subtle and varied in attack. At the beginning of one chorus here he hesitates, and then plays some grandiose chords as if to call the congregation to order. Subsequently he brings in frilly arpeggios and locked hand chords to great effect. His solo builds to a last rendition of the bridge in which he plucks out one note at a time as if he were picking up marbles. The performance ends grandly, with hymn-like solemnity.

Pianist Noah Haidu. Photo: Jimmy Katz

Previously, the 51-year-old pianist released Standards with Buster Williams and other drummers. Last year he recorded, with Williams and Hart, Slowly: Song for Keith Jarrett (Sunnyside). The trio knows each other’s playing intimately, and Haidu feels comfortable varying his approach to standards. For example, he is much more direct with “Someone to Watch Over Me,” a less obviously sentimental tune. At one moment, while Haidu is playing the melody, Williams bursts in over him — the bassist knows just how to create drama. He solos for a chorus, pizzicato, in what sounds like an effortless flow of melody.

As played by the tune’s composer, Freddie Hubbard, on Art Blakey’s Three Blind Mice and then on his own Atlantic album, Backlash, “Up Jumped Spring” is a cheerful waltz. Haidu doesn’t quite buy it. His version begins with an out of tempo solo. When Williams and Hart enter, Haidu still seems to be working on inventing his own piece, a slow, perhaps even dreamy, melody that becomes more charged as he goes into two-fisted chords as Hart solos behind him. All the time, the pianist hints at the melody. Still, four minutes go by before he states it directly; after that, he is content to sing Hubbard’s catchy phrases. A more traditional piano solo follows. The trio continues with Pedro Flores’s dramatic Latin hit, composed in 1935, “Obsesión.” Julio Iglesias is among many singers who recorded it: in the jazz world, trumpeter Jerry Gonzalez recorded it several times, also for Sunnyside.

Haidu continues with Henry Mancini’s familiar tune from the early ’60s, “Days of Wine and Roses.” (The theme song was better than the movie for which it was written: Frank Sinatra had a hit with it.) Then a surprise: “After You’ve Gone,” which Bessie Smith recorded in 1927, the same year Red Nichols recorded it with the Charleston Chasers. Benny Goodman played the tune every night I heard him live. Haidu performs “After You’ve Gone” as a straight-ahead swinger: he’s an impressively articulate player who, when he chooses, can become the kind of dynamic player who’ll make you tap your feet. Billy Hart takes an extended solo on “After You’ve Gone.” Drummers should take note. A jazz ballad set must include something by Duke Ellington. This trio of masters plays a smoky, subdued version of our preeminent composer’s slightly odd tune, “I’ve Got It Bad and That Ain’t Good.” Again, I am drawn to the way oft-recorded veterans Williams and Hart fit their carefully chosen sounds into the opening chorus.  The drummer’s releases go back to his work with Wes Montgomery and Jimmy Smith in 1962; Williams debuted a year earlier, with tenor saxophonist Gene Ammons. To borrow an expression of Jimmy Heath’s, they’ve walked with giants. At this point, to my ears, they have never sounded better. Haidu’s Standards II is a winner.

Michael Ullman studied classical clarinet and was educated at Harvard, from which he received a PhD in English. The author or co-author of two books on jazz, he has written on jazz and classical music for the Atlantic Monthly, New Republic, High Fidelity, Stereophile, Boston Phoenix, Boston Globe, and other venues. His articles on Dickens, Joyce, Kipling, and others have appeared in academic journals. For over 20 years, he has written a bimonthly jazz column for Fanfare Magazine, for which he also reviews classical music. At Tufts University, he teaches mostly modernist writers in the English Department and jazz and blues history in the Music Department. He plays piano badly.