Time Café
Mike Wofford (Azica Records)

By Dave Nathan  

While Mike Wofford has a very respectable discography as a leader going back to 1966, it's his work as the consummate accompanist that many remember. He has backed some of the great vocalists of our time including Mel Tormé, Sarah Vaughan, Ella Fitzgerald and Lorez Alexandria. His presence has also been a stabilizing effect for newer vocalists including Mary Ann Douglas, Jackie Ryan and Madeline Eastman. But on this album he shows he is pianist of considerable skill in his own right.

  Time Cafe presents a balanced play list of standards, originals and less familiar material played either with his trio or in solo. Irrespective of its origins, each song gets a thorough workout from the imaginative mind and skilled hands of Mr. Wofford. He's a deep thinker on "Cyprus" where he first converses with drummer Duncan Moore and then with Darek "Oles" Oleszkiewicz's bass. He then becomes quite energized on an almost seven minute excursion with his own "H²" which includes a scintillating, fast hands solo by Moore. On the standards, Wofford tends to embellish more than on the other material. One reason, of course, is that standards attract good jazz musicians because their structure opens the door for the player to be challenged and creative more so than on lesser compositions. Ironically, it's the fact that such standards are structured that allows jazz players to create extended improvisations. "My Heart Stood Still" goes on for more than seven minutes and nothing is repeated.

  There's nothing like a good piano trio CD to liven up one's day and Mike Wofford's latest will brighten things up considerably. Recommended. Visit Mike's highly informative web site at www.mikewofford.com.

  Track Listing: My Heart Stood Still; A Little 3/4; Just One of Those Things; You Go to My Head; Precious Moments; Take the Coltrane; Time on My Hands; Time Café; The Cost of Living; H²; Cyrpus; You and the Night and the Music

Personnel: Mike Wofford - Piano; Darek "Oles" Oleszkiewicz - Bass; Duncan Moore - Drums
 

Jazz Improv Magazine 2002
By Bill Donaldson

“one of the contemporary masters of jazz piano”

Mike Wofford gives a hint of his musical aesthetic in his short statement printed in the liner notes for Time Café: “The sound of the piano is contextual and contingent; its moods and textures vary greatly, depending on its role and surroundings. Time Café, I hope, mirrors these facets of the piano, the instrument of endless possibilities.” He should know.

With a resume that stretches back to the legendary Lighthouse All-Stars sessions, Wofford has positioned himself in every type of musical situation a pianist may be a part of. And the fact that he finds the piano’s sounds to be contingent implies not only that he understands the pianos variable roles, but also that he is dedicated to the broader perspective of the music he serves. Perhaps that modesty and respect for the art have kept him on the sidelines, for the most part, as a highly recorded accompanist with some of the greatest names in jazz, including Sarah Vaughan, Benny Carter and Ella Fitzgerald. His solo Live At Maybeck Recital Hall (#18 in the Concord Jazz series) recording provides evidence of his technical and emotional strengths that allowed him to fade into supporting roles, even as he has embellished hundreds of well- known sessions, like the multi-hued background of a complex painting.

Now, it seems, Wofford is more interested in recording as a leader and forsaking the contingencies involved in accompaniment, or working in the context of an ensemble. On Time Cafe, Wofford is leading his own trio, and while he shares musical ideas and solos with bassist Oleszkiewicz and drummer Moore, make no mistake about it: Wofford is in the lead. His ideas, and actually his moods, are the ones that dominate the CD.

Wofford is a forceful pianist, with a confident attack on the notes. On “Time On My Hand,” he employs block chords, shifting with complex internal movement even as they ascend to accomplish the melody, while the left hand roots the tune with jabbing pedal points or hop- like angular commentary.

“Just One Of Those Things” adopts the same deliberate technique, both tracks being solo presentations of Wofford’s talent. Perhaps his aggressiveness in the midst of insightful improvisations derives from years of projecting from stages to audiences on the take-whatever- you-get pianos he played on tours.

But Wofford reveals a more sensitive side with the movement of phrases of the bar lines on tunes like Don Grolnick’s “The Cost Of Living,” its sonata-like quality and minor-keyed mystery drawing in the listener with a high degree of delicacy. On bassist Darek Oleszkiewicz’s tune, “Time Café,” Wofford quietly sets up his own counterpoint on the piano, one phrase repeated immediately by the other hand, as he glides through a graceful chorus that sets up the bass solo, which forms the core-like center of the song. On “H2,” the trio sets up an irresistible swing that allows for several choruses of effort less improvisations before, two-thirds of the way through the tune, Moore turns up the fire with a solo consisting of a controlled burn. On Les McCann’s “A Little 3/4,” Wofford has chosen a like-minded pianist for the tribute: they both overflow with unbridled joy and spirit when they perform.

By stepping into the spotlight with his own trio, Mike Wofford is making up for years of making other musicians and vocalists sound good. Now we can appreciate the talent that contributed to memorable recordings as Wofford proves that he is one of the contemporary masters of jazz piano.

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