The Spanish Tinge reminds the listener why it is that the piano trio continues to intrigue audiences in live performances and for recorded jazz. Vanderwaal’s drumming is central to this shifting across time and space. In this, he is served brilliantly by his ex-Perth sidemen, drummer Ben Vanderwaal and double bassist, Sam Anning. However, Winkelman does not stop in New Orleans, but ranges far and wide with Argentinian tangos and Brazilian influences mixed in to a very interesting display of shifting tempos and polyrhythmic currents that incorporates many parts of the jazz world, past and present, and genres that only recently been subjected to jazz influences, such as traditional Jewish music. This new CD continues in this style with its title track, ‘the Spanish Tinge,’ apparently influenced by Jelly Roll Morton’s assertion that an essential element of jazz is a Latin or Spanish influence. A distinguishing feature of Winkelman’s approach is the recognition of the history of the jazz artform and an ability to interpret that history in a very contemporary way, His is not a nostalgic or reverential approach to the early days of jazz, but rather an attempt, and a very successful one at that, to incorporate rags and stomps and the early traditional styles of stride piano into contemporary jazz. Perth was part of that tour, and he and his trio certainly impressed those that heard them at Hyde Park and on the various jazz programs on local and national radio.

Strikingly original, it demonstrated a compositional and performance talent that would gather an appreciative listening audience around the country, both for the CD and for his touring band. Ben Winkelman’s first CD released on Jazzhead in 2005, Stomps Pieces & Variations alerted us to a new force on the jazz scene.

Jelly roll morton spanish tinge