Pianist-composer Burnett Thompson, is quite the busy man – someone who describes his life as splitting time between New York, DC, and Shanghai, China. On November 7th he’ll play “American Rhapsody” in trio with bassist Alex Blake and tabla player Hamid Habib Zada as part of his ongoing Bach to Bebop concert series at intimate confines of the Decatur House Museum in DC (located at 748 Jackson Pl. NW in downtown DC a block from the White House). Bach to Bebop is a lovely series that in overall feeling harkens back to the days of parlor concerts. A man with a wealth of musical ideas and broad cultural perspectives, season 12 of his Bach to Bebop series is part of his ongoing Piano Jazz DC presentations, which was preceded by his Piano Jazz at the Arts Club series in DC.
In New York on December 1 Burnett will lead a band at Mezzrow Jazz Club that includes saxophonist Jon Irabagon, bassist Alex Blake, and clarinetist Kiera Thompson. Clearly it was time for some Independent Ear questions for Burnett Thompson.
GIve us some background on Burnett Thompson
My parents were both pianists. My mother could only read musical scores, my father, a
pastor, could only play by ear. My father played anything he heard in any key, whether
Ellington, Frankie Carle. or Charles WesleyEllington. He travelled around the country as pianist with a
camp meeting evangelist in the 1940’s for that very reason. My mother was very fastidious with
her music, playing in church services two or three times per week, as one did in those days. My
mother was my first teacher, while I inherited my concept of extemporaneous playing from my
dad. I went to music conservatories in Vienna and Boston, then in London.
When I returned to the U.S., like many of my colleagues, I got a job playing nightly in a
restaurant in D.C, and continued this activity five nights per week for 20 years. There were
easily 30 other pianists at that time, in all of the major hotels and many restaurants. We were all
playing five nights per week, often solo, but often with the many bassists who hopped from
venue to venue. The bassists included Keter Betts, James King, Steve Novosel, Paul Langosh,
Ephraim Wolfolk, and numerous other fine players.
Many of us wound up at the One Step Down after hours, and that is where I heard some of the
greats. I took my training seriously, and practiced as much as 10 hours per day, and just 6 hours
during the day when I was working at night. Hence, I was drawn to a certain kind of pianist, and
that most notably included Cedar Walton, McCoy Tyner, Ahmad Jamal, and Sir Roland Hanna.
These artists had great command of the instrument, and I was inspired to absorb their musical
languages as well. When it came to pure art, there was Shirley Horn, yet another master.
What is the guiding mission behind your PianoJazz DC series?
I went into some depth when describing my own background as a preface to my personal mission
with the PianoJazz DC series. The picture that I drew of D.C. as the home of dozens of working
pianists no longer exists. That environment existed for Duke Ellington, who played for high
society in D.C. as a teenager and continued in his early twenties. He was among many in D.C.,
but was among the few who took his ensemble to New York, and we know what happened there.
The piano played an enormous role in D.C. society and culture in 19th and 20th centuries, going
back to George Washington’s Mount Vernon, where the Austrian composer Alexander Reinagle
was hired to teach piano to Martha Washington’s daughter. It is well documented that there was
a “piano in every home”, used for popular song, hymns, and for training. Printed songs and
collections comprised an enormous industry in the 19th and early 20th centuries, with the
assumption that the buyer could play the piano parts. Thus, you could say that my mission is to
sustain the piano, in our case fine Steinways, as a vehicle of artistic and musical expression.
Keyboards and amplified pianos convey a fraction of the natural sound of a great instrument.
How did you connect the Decatur House Museum as your venue for this series?
The Decatur House Museum is the home of the White House Historical Association.
The original series in 2013-2014 was called The Piano in the White House, with assistance from
WHHA music historian Dr. Elise Kirk. Four pianists were featured, performing music related to
the appearances of major artists who performed in the White House, including Duke Ellington,
Dave Brubeck, Marian McPartland, Mary Lou Williams, Hazel Scott, Aaron Copland, William Bolcom, William Schumann, Virgil Thomson, and Elliott Carter. The video archive of that
series is at www.tinyurl.com/pianojazzwh
Now that you’re in your 12th season of PianoJazz DC, what have been some of your highlights?
There are two principle highlights. The first is the astonishing assembly of forty-four different
pianists over the last eleven years. The second feature is the faithful audience that has developed
in that time, to where every concert sells out. Rusty Hassan has interviewed each pianist on air at
WPFW, and we have archived both the concert videos and the interviews. The overview can be
viewed at www.tinyurl.com/historypj.
We have interspersed the jazz concerts with the Goldberg Variations of J.S. Bach, the Etudes of
Phillip Glass, the pop tunes of Radiohead, and music of the Viennese classical era. We also
presented a Palestinian pianist who focused on the music of the Armenian composer Aram Khachaturian. Other artists have included saxophonists Jon Irabagon and Roxy Coss, as well as
the eminent bassist Alex Blake.
The jazz pianists who have appeared on the series are regularly heard at Jazz at Lincoln Center,
the Village Vanguard, the Jazz Standard, Jazz Gallery, Smalls, Mezzrow, and Smoke in
Manhattan. They regularly travel the world as headliners or in support of other major artists.
Who do you find is the core audience for PianoJazz DC?
What we have found is that most of the pianists that we have presented are unknown among the
musicians and concert directors in Washington, DC. These pianists anchor the NYC and
international scenes, but are nonetheless new to our audiences. Hence, we rely on the reputation
of the series itself, where audiences have grown to expect brilliant performance in an intimate
environment. The audience is a generous cross section of people who attend other DC jazz
venues, and those who attended Jason Moran’s series at the Kennedy Center over the years.
What do you look for in determining the stylistic fit and blend of your series?
We aim for the most creative, the most inventive, and the most accomplished pianists in the
world today. It is of consequence to note that a full one third of the pianists have been women, in
great contrast to most of the venues in New York and Washington that almost exclusively feature
men as instrumental headliners. The women have often offered performances that are more
compelling than their male counterparts. Many of our performers are Monk Competition
winners, Grammy winners, and Grammy nominees, with extensive coverage in international media, whereas others have successfully drawn no attention to themselves. It is important to add
that they have been from Panama, Argentina, China, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, Jordan, and Austria,
albeit working in New York.
For further information: www.pianojazz.com