Shades of People     All About Jazz
Tim Lyddon | Essence Jazz

Track Listing: Shades Of People; After You've Gone; I'm Old Fashioned; All The Things You Are; Meditation #1; Somewhere; Wave; I Remember You; Impromptu And Fantasy.
Personnel: Tim Lyddon: Piano; Tom Hubbard: Bass; Scott Latzky: Drums.

CD Review Search Comparisons to Keith Jarrett are certainly not out of order for pianist Tim Lyddon. Comparison to Bill Evans even withstands muster. However, Mr. Lyddon, while introspective in his playing, is not that introspective. The pianist's previous recording, I've Traveled So Far, was well-received in these pages, and with very good reason. Mr. Lyddon is the member of a growing group of pianists who eschew the blues for ballads and perform the latter with an informed and inspired vision. Besides Jarrett, this group includes Fred Hersch, Lynn Arriale, and the late Tommy Flanagan.
Shades of People is the followup to I've Traveled So Far, and in many ways it's an obvious continuation of the previous recording. As before, Mr. Lyddon carefully constructs shimmering ballads at both slow and fast tempi that dance like rain on a lake. This image is further promoted by his regular rhythm section, who, with the lightest hands, gently propel Mr. Lyddon's vision forward. This is no better illustrated than on the disc's original compositions, partiularly "Meditiation Number 1," with Tom Hubbard's arco break and Scott Latzky's understated and accurate percussion.
The Leonard Berstein ballad "Somewhere" is given an exquisite trio treatment with the band members acting in empathic unison. Hubbard solos intelligently with Lyddon providing the harmonic underpinning. The best standard is "All the Things You Are," which is given a bit of a calypso feel by Latzky. Chalk up another superb trio recording from Tim Lyddon. He makes it a pleasure to listen to jazz music.
Visit Tim Lyddon on the web.
~ C. Michael Bailey

  Good to know there's a free spirit out there named Tim Lyddon. He's armed with a slightly irreverent sense of musical humor that is sprinkled throughout Shades of People (Essence). It surfaces without warning, but you can rely on its being an integral part of each intro he plays. It's safe to say Lyddon never met a motif he could'nt weave into the fabric of an intro. He does it on all six standards here and each is a delight. They can be classics as disparate as "Somewhere" or "Wave," but they get the same "hidden Lyddon" treatment: suggestions, hints, Proustian remembrances of melodies past.
   If Lyddon fits Shelly Manne's definition of a jazz player ( "a musician who can't play the same thing once"), no doubt his intros vary from set to set at live gigs. Drummer Scott Latzky and bassist Tom Hubbard reinforce Lyddon's antics on "After You've Gone" and on "I Remember You" the pianist toys with time and briefly lapses into solo stride. His original works show his Jarrett leanings - both as a player and in song titles ("Meditation #1," and "Impromptu and Fantasy").

    -    Harvey Siders   JT  May 2004

SHADES OF PEOPLE     May 8, 2004

JAZZ | At its best, the jazz trio is like a perfect flower, balanced and beautiful. On "Shades of People," pianist Tim Lyddon's second disc as a leader, he works with bassist Tom Hubbard and drummer Scott Latzky, who appeared on Lyddon's first trio CD, "I've Traveled So Far." Together they achieve some intuitive switches and turnarounds, moving the music in skillful, measured ways. Especially intriguing is the trio's gentle deconstuction of Antonio Carlos Jobim's "Wave," which is presented in a way that may make listeners think they know the tune before they finally recognize it. Lyddon offers three originals as well, including the title cut. But like the standards that complete the disc, everything is filtered through the trio's flexible dynamic sensibility. Jazz may have lost a visionary trio component in Tommy Flanagan who died in 2001, but Lyddon is among the current players whose work ensures the Flanagan flame continues to burn.

                                                                                                        Tim Blangger
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