Cyrus Chestnut - Cyrus Plays Elvis (2007)

You've got to give Cyrus Chestnut credit for not playing by the rules. Although he had little familiarity with the music of Elvis Presley, 15 years into his recording career the gifted jazz pianist decided -- virtually on a whim -- to record an album of Elvis songs. Chestnut did some homework, and working with his trio members bassist Dezron Douglas and drummer Neal Smith, set out to explore. It's a great idea -- in theory, but not always in practice. Like any standards -- and Elvis' catalog certainly falls into that category at this point in time -- the Presley canon is ripe for interpretation. Presley never wrote his own material, but he had the best in the business at his disposal, and the more substantial songs he chose to record (that would mean no "Do the Clam") certainly boasted memorable melodies -- the key component to an artist seeking to offer his own interpretive non-vocal take on a song. But Chestnut doesn't always make the most of those melodies here. Cyrus Plays Elvis is most satisfying when the pianist breaks loose from the original setting and leaves it way behind. On the album's opening track, "Hound Dog," he sticks cautiously close to the root melody and tempo until it's solo time, at which point Chestnut turns out a thrilling cascade of tuneful keyboarding. Like a number of other tracks on the album, it's reminiscent of the Ramsey Lewis Trio's approach to interpreting pop in the mid-'60s, not a bad thing by any means, but not very challenging jazz.