Search - Dave McKenna :: Easy Street

Very nice

Bomojaz | South Central PA, USA | 08/22/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"If you've ever heard Dave McKenna play in a live setting, chances are you've heard him string together, in medley fashion, a number of songs similar in title. He does the same thing here - twice: first a number of tunes with "Street" in their titles and then a bunch more with "Gone" as part of their names, and they're not performed as medleys but as individual tunes. It's a clever approach and gives the impression that Dave must know a thousand songs, which he probably does. It's also true that McKenna is definitely a two-handed piano player with his left hand often being the dominant one. On medium-up and up-tempo performances his pounding left hand pushes the playing along briskly, with each chorus coming across more dramatically than the last. BROADWAY, DON'T FORGET 127th STREET, and MY HONEY'S LOVIN' ARMS all get this powerful treatment. On the slower tunes we get two different approaches, one tender and very restrained (EASY STREET, GONE WITH THE WIND), the other not at all tender but robust and even wrenching in its extraction of the tunes' beauty (WHEN YOUR LOVER HAS GONE, AFTER YOU'VE GONE). This dichotomy in his ballad playing is most interesting and appealing. Dave McKenna is a wonderful piano player; fans of his playing will be happy with this CD."