ReviewsReviewsHere are some of the many Reviews of Dan Dobek's concerts and CDs.
Times Union Albany, NY Sunday, September 7,1997
CD review: Dan Dobek Live at Berklee(Chrysolite) by David Malachowski
Skidmore College, March 6,1992- Review by Don Porter
A Review By Don Wilcock May 1996
The Coat of Many Colors-review by Rob Fisch, publisher, Jazz Friends Review, JULY 1998
Times Union Albany, NY Sunday, September 7,1997
Jazz Weekend Celebrates Billy Strayhorn
By Greg Haymes staff writer
Pianist, composer and arranger Billy Strayhorn was Duke Ellington's collaborator for nearly 30 years, but it's only now -30 years after his death- that Strayhorn's work is finally beginning to emerge from the shadows cast by Ellington's mastery.
This weekend's 14th annual Lake George Jazz Weekend in Shepard Park is dedicated to Strayhorn, and his ground breaking compositions were among the highlights of all three of the performances on Saturday's bill.
Albany keyboardist Dan Dobek kicked off the five-hour fest in fine fashion with chugging rendition of one of Strayhorn's best-known classics, "Take the A Train". Dobek and his band, the Eden Jazz Quartet, also launched last year's fest with a fusion-heavy performance, but this year, they delivered a much broader spectrum of music with much better results. Switching around on an array of keyboards that included a grand piano, an electric piano and an organ, Dobek not only scored with his own compositions, but also commandingly dipped into the songbooks of Strayhorn and bebop icon Charlie Parker.
THE HOME FRONT: It is often said that music is God's voice. A strong spiritual quality hovers over Dan Dobek's new release. Seasons Within the Heart (Chrysolite), and you can almost feel a higher power guiding his fingers over the keyboard.
For some, the thought of 60 minutes of solo piano could induce narcolepsy, but the album's nonlinear style and Dobek's flawless technique rescue these live recording from snoozeville. Dobek takes the listener on a journey without words and his impressionistic imagery never fails. Beginning gently with the spare "Hearts Cry in the Desert" he modulates slowly and deliberately; on "Still Standing", the left hand offers movement while the right hand brings drama as it climbs skyward. "Sobriety" is stocked with splashy arpeggios, while "Ricardo" reflects a restless urgency. In "Season of Suspension" yearning tones hang in the air, eventually resolving into the familiar strains of "All the Things You Are" and "Autumn Leaves". Finally, Dobek praises his inspiration, closing with a straight forward take on "What a Friend We Have in Jesus".
Though flirting at times with new age moods, this is primarily a jazz recording, Keith Jarrett's influence felt greatly throughout. Themes of pain, struggle, faith, redemption and greater purpose are dealt with simply, in the melodies, the phrasing and Dobek's uncommon sense of dynamics. Seasons Within the Heart is a glorious musical and emotional search. -David Malachowski
-Diane Sirois
Dan Dobek Skidmore College, March 6
Barely two minutes before all 37 people seated in the blondwood expanse of Skidmore's Filene Recital Hall expected Dan Dobek's solo piano concert to begin last Friday night, an abrupt announcement informed them that, thanks to conflicting public information, the start time would be pushed back a half-hour. Normally, all this would mean is an extra 30 minutes of canned tunes, two or three more relentless trips to the bathroom, and plenty of opportunity of an in-depth study of the head in front of yours. This time, it meant the chance for dozens more listeners to slip in under the wire and catch Dobek's gorgeously tortured debut performance of his own Seasons Within the Heart, a three part concerto full of stop-and-go jazz tempos and gut wrenching beautiful music that Dobek, according to an introduction by past producer John Nazarenko, has "lived and experienced." Better he than we. Just listening in secondhand was emotionally exhausting.
With a quote form Ecclesiastes riding high on the program, a printed thank you to "the Maker of All Seasons (Dobek's caps) and movements bearing noe-Biblical names like "Heart Cry in the Desert" and "Alliyah" (The Ascending Season), it was tough to ignore the higher power at work in Dobek's music and presentation. A disarmingly mild-mannered mensch in a flashy tie and horn-rimmed glasses, the Schenectady pianist prostrated himself before the Steinway, his organ of worship, for nearly an hour. It almost hurt to watch him wring desparte chords and phrases from each of Seasons, nine brief movements in what came across as an intensely personal and private performance.
Thematically, the composition (whose unfortunately hokey title simultaneously recalls a slew of insipid, New Age wunderkinds and every sappy moviemake by Sissy Spacek and Sally Field during the 80s) tells the story of a trial, a test of truth and its renewal. Dobek's spoken preludes to each of its three major parts detracted some from the piece's overall continuity, but his muscular playing more than patched any rough spots. Scant, broken chords delivered with tentative fingerings (he mentions Kieth Jarrett as an influence; this is his landscape, too) worked individual desolation and crisis into almost tangible forms. As I watched Debek plow through eventual catharsis with such beauty and grace while haunched down over his keys in obvious pain, W.E. Henley's lines about thanking "whatever gods may be/For my unconquerable soul kept cropping up."
A 20 minute encore/respite, ripe with boogie-woogie and funk (even a walking bass line), did much to balance the sobriety of Seasons with a little unfiltered light. "If you were touched tonight, Dobeck reminded a worshipful crowd, "it was the power of God working through me." Whether the standing ovation at the end of the show was for the little gut on stage of the Big Guy upstairs was moot.
Keys to Life Christianity saved pianist Dan Dobek's life- and it continues to fuel his music
by Mike Goudreau
Dan Dobek believes his soul has been saved. He does not believe however, that it means his music can,t have any soul.
Dobek has a twinkle in his eye that might be unnerving to some but to born again Christians is simply a by-product of inner peace. Finding a relationship with God in the early 70s not only rescued Dobek from a direction-less life in which he was, in his words, "suicidal;" it also inspired him to reach peaks in his music that he didn't think possible. Today, he is one of the area's best jazz keyboardist- if not the best, as METROLAND dubbed him last year- and a versatile musician at that, proficient at both piano and the vaunted Hammond B-3 organ. The 44 year old Dobek celebrates the release of his fourth album, This Tribute to Emanuel, recorded live at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, with a brunch show at Caffe Lena on Sunday beginning at 11a.m.
Music is considered a spiritual endeavor by many, but Dobek's musical growth and his spiritual journey have been more closely tied together than they are for most musicians.
"When you get born again," says Dobek, "it changes your spirit- and it changes your music."
"Is this the lord?" Dobek asked himself.
He was playing piano in some of Boston's worst dives, strip clubs clustered together in an area know as the "combat zone." Dobek looked at his surroundings, the low-lifes that hung out at the clubs, the undeniable spiritual bankruptcy of it all, and he asked that question.
"It had produced in me a disillusionment with life," he recalls.
Dobek now believes God had put him in such a situation so that he might start wondering what his purpose was. The experience certainly convinced Dobek that he had to do something to turn his life around, or he was bound to end it. He experimented with other outlets, such as psychic power, but it wasn't until he started reading the Bible that Dobek hit a nerve. To him, that was the answer.
Almost immediately, when Dobek walked over to the piano one day, he found out that the revelation has also freed him musically.
"I remember going right over the piano," he says, "starting to improvise extemporaneously, and it was like nothing I had ever played before"
Dobek later moved to his hometown of Springfield, Mass., and then on to the Capitol Region, gut it would be years before his musical potential would begin to be realized. Ironically enough, it was partially the religious life that held him back. He confesses to being "hidden" in the Albany area from about 1979 to 1985. Yes, he was working an his craft, trying to perfect the tone that is so virtual to piano players. But then and even years later Dobek didn't venture far outside his church, for which he played keyboards.
"I didn,t know how to put to use what was brewing inside of me," he says, "how to straddle both worlds and be holy but be in places that maybe are not holy."
Eventually, Dobek saw some potential in teaching and composing. (Today, he teaches at his own keyboard studio in Rotterdam, where he lives.) But it wasn,t until 1990 that he released his first album, Jazz For My Father. In some ways, the connection between music and spirituality is one Dobek has struggled with for years. He's come to believe that a lot of Christian music misses the point- or, more specifically, the passion.
"That's one of my beefs with most Christian music" Dobek explains. "If we're not gonna be able to do it with more passion than so called worldly music, then what are we doing?"
"Unless you walk into a black church and really hear someone singing to God, there's that lacking in Christian music. They're singing, but I'm saying: You've filled the pot half up. Turn it all the way up."
Dobek tries professing his faith-and he's not really. There is a sense of reality, of compromise, in his voice that can earn him credibility even with a jaded ex-Catholic. Perhaps in part that's because you can hear and see the passion he has for music, period-not just for a vehicle he can use to spread a religious message. Welcoming me into his studio on a recent afternoon, he sits down at the B-3 for a scintillating primer on the classic instrument. As soon as his fingers hit the keyboards, Dobek is practically writing on the bench, his head swaying low almost as if it, too, is drawn to the keys.
"We,re in a crisis creatively" he says later, sounding like a lot of his musicians of his generation who shake their heads at Kids These Days. "They're going back to things from 20 years ago. It's because of that unwillingness to dedicate yourself to a higher level."
Dobek is not exactly playing music purely for the love of it, either. It is a living, and he has goals, one being to gain national attention by writing and performing the music for an upcoming documentary on a group of monks based in Cambridge, N.Y. The Material will be recorded live at the Troy Music Hall. Another goal is to secure a deal with a major label.
As Dobek pursues these things, he'll keep three simple ideas in mind.
"The discipline, the excellence, he says, "with the passion"
Record Review
by Don Porter
"Jazz for my Father"
Dan Dobek with Chris Garabedian and the Eden Jazz Ensemble (E. Green, b., J. Dubois, trp., D. Lovely, a.sax., D. Cabra, trom., J. Carter, voc.) Chrysolite CR001 355-5759 to order cassette or CD.
I first heard Dan Dobek at the APFJ Picnic last August, when he and Ed Green sparkled. He and Ed and their friends did more than sparkle in this recording made at Troy Savings Bank Music Hall in a live performance presented last March. After listening to this recording, I'm sorry I missed it.
The fun begins with a smoky organ intro on "Blues for Dads". The first two cuts combine horns with bass, drums and organ for a full, bright sound. In the third, "Out of Egypt/Coming Home", the organ contributes throbbing, driving comps to a thick minor lament, bridged by some snappy brushwork on tomtoms to the piano entrance that starts us toward home. The organ is heard no more, as Dan's piano style builds more and more energy and subtlety. "Coming Home" features a sweet trumpet solo by John Dubois, followed by a driving piano/bass/drums exhibition.
The high point of the album is the linked pair "The Redeemed Blues" and "You don't have to strive anymore" -- both Dan Dobek/Ed Green duets. The classic blues opening gives way to inventive improvisions, subtle rhythmic shifts and intricate piano/bass dialog. This wonderful jazz: relaxed, blissful, technically brilliant. The recording is wrapped by "New Beginnings". In the closing version, Dan's piano is wonderful: percussive chords, rumbling thunder and sparkling arpeggios.
There are times in this live recording when the fun the audience is having intrudes on the sound. My only other complaint is that the drum set seemed unnaturally spread clear across the stereo mix.
Dan Dobek composed every piece, What a talent.
Dobek's "Seasons".. Greeted Enthusiastically
Seasons Within the Heart
A Review by Don Porter
the premiere performance of Dan Dobek's jazz suite, "Seasons Within the Heart" delighted a large and enthusiastic crowd at Skidmore College's Filene Music Hall.
Brief comments introduced each of three parts, which were inspired by periods in Dobek's life: desolation, introspection, joy and release. The dark colors of "Heart Cry in the Desert", the prelude, sculpted a palpable loneliness. The mood varied in part II that was concluded by a meteoric finish called "Season of Release- Season of Praise." Part III closed the concert with a spacious reading of such standards as "All the Things You Are," "Dearly Beloved, and "Autumn Leaves.
The pianist's style has the acknowledged influence of Kieth Jarrett, but the spirit, conception and brilliant licks were uniquely Dobek.
Responding to shouts for "MORE", he gave encores of "Redeemed Blues", "MY Song of Hope", and "What a Friend We Have in Jesus". The concert, recorded for future distribution, will make a wonderful CD of the "live jazz genre."
Dan Dobek Live at Berklee(Chrysolite)
by David Malachowski
Over the past few years area key boardist Dan Dobek has consistently churned out moving, extremely proficient recordings, most of them live, all of them with strong spiritual overtones. This latest a tribute to his former instructor, follows that pattern and may be his best yet.
Dobek has an uncanny knack for making his wordless instrumental work speak volumes, by way of his delicate touch, his commanding force and his descriptive technique. From the searching, turbulent journey of "Prelude to a Tribute to the sheer beauty of "Days of Wine and Roses to a yearning sweep through "When You Wish Upon a Star,he paints within the frame of the tunes but brings his own colors. "There Will Never Be Another You is delivered with thoughtfulness and purpose, but the highlight has to be one of his own songs, "Years. Its haunting melody line is perfectly supported by a series of chord changes that intensifies and changes its color. It sounds like a traditional, so maybe is will become one.
What is remarkable (and easy to forget) is that this is a live recording and that all the lengthy pieces, the cascading flourishes of the right hand are just one pass, one time through. All executed flawlessly, of course; you,d be hard-pressed to find a clam in this one. Dobek's styles full of focus and clarity and passion (attributes that often don,t come together), and as always, there's the hint of something else, something bigger. Near the end, he lays his cards on the table with "I Have Decided to Follow Jesus in a devastating, uplifting turn. With character and depth, it is far beyond the normal showoff instrumental record. And it has more to say than most tunes with lyrics. Dan Dobek has hit the mark this time.
Seasons Within the Heart Dan Dobek Solo Piano Concert, Skidmore College, March 6,1992
Review by Don Porter
Dan Dobek has poured his spiritual passion into the composition of a jazz suite, "Seasons Within the Heart". The premiere performance delighted a large crowd at Skidmore College's luxuriant Filene Music Hall. Brief comments introduced each of the three parts, which were inspired by periods in Dan's life-- periods of desolation, the introspection, and finally joy and release. The dark colors of "Heart Cry in the Desert," the prelude, sculpted a palpable loneliness. The mood varied, until playfulness began to get the upper hand in the "Ricardo" section of Part II. Before a meteoric finish called "Season of Release-- Season of Praise", Part III included spacious readings of "All the Things You Are", "Dearly Beloved", and "Autumn Leaves" in "Seasons of Standards". Dan acknowledged Keith Jarrett's influence on his music, but the spirit, conception and brilliant licks were uniquely Dobek. Overcoming his self effacing manner momentarily, he responded to demands for MORE with performances of "Redeemed Blues" and "My Song of Hope "from his CD "Jazz for My Father", and wound up with a climactic rendition of the old hymn "What a Friend We Have in Jesus". We can hope for another CD, since the concert was recorded by John Nazarenko.
The gold sticker on his CDs and press release pops out above all else. "Best Jazz Artist(keyboardist)" Dan Dobek Metroland 95.
As fine as that distinctions, ther's something sad about a jazz talent as awesome as Dobek counting on a local weekly's acknowledgement as the most important single criterion to market his talents.
Dobek celebrates the release of his fourth live recording, "Tribute to Emmanuel", Sunday night with an appearance at the Caffe Lena, one of the country's most prestigious coffee houses. The album, recorded in 1993 at Berklee College of Music, illustrates absolute mastery of three disparate musical qualities: technique, emotion and creativity.
Dobek is a born again Christian whose "Tribute to Emmanuel," another name for Jesus, flows through this concert with a flair that reminds the listener of Kieth Jarrett's simial recorded concerts.
When asked why all his albums have been recorded live, Dobek sats "To be frank with you, it's the most reasonable way to produce music."
While that may be true, it's also the trickiest way to produce music, and it separates the men from the boys in two ways.
First, without the advantage of overdubs used in expensive major label recordings, live recording gives the artist no second chance to go back and re-record over mistakes or rough spots.
Second, it captures the truth about haw an artist goes over with his audience. So the risks are greater, but the potential rewards for a truly talented artist are higher. Dobek is the only artist I can think of whose entire recorded output of four CDs is all live.
He says recording live is also the reason WHRL-FM gives for not putting his music on the air.
That Dobek should even be considered for airplay on a station that programs Kenny G homogeneous "jazz is an illustration of the problem that contemporary jazz artists with real creative ability have.
Ther's no market for it, at least not in an area the size of the Capitol District."
Ther's a reason why an artist the caliber of Nick Brignola still lives in our area, and it's not because we're the center of jazz. Just the opposite. He can return here and be treated like an average Joe.
Like Brignola, Dobek is far above average. After studying with both jazz improvisional teachers and classical teachers for three years at the Berklee School of Music, Dobek went on to play with John Bishop, former guitarist for Ray Charles and George Brown, drummer for the late West Montgomery and George Benson.
I recently saw Dobek in action twice, once at a special Tuesday night performance at Leesa's Restaurant, where he packed the place for a performance with his band, the New Eden Jazz Quartet.
At ear-splitting volume, the group sailed through a combination of contemporary jazz standards by progressive jazz artists and originals.
To someone like myself who listens to little of this kind of music, the two sounded comparable. IN other words, Dobek's music was on par with the best.
Backing gospel and spiritual singer Rev. Bethenia Rouse at Peggy's Restaurant the night Joan Osborne sat in was more problematic.
Rev. Rouse responds directly to God's inspiration and had no formal musical training. As marvelous as Dobek is following his own muse, he was unable to get into a groove that is primal,instinctual and impossible to predict.
WHRL should play "Tribute to Emmanuel", and Metroland made the right decision in naming Dobek as keyboard artist of the year.
Still he deserves being a much larger fish in a far bigger pond.
The Coat of
Many Colors
-review by Rob Fisch, publisher
Jazz Friends Review, JULY 1998
The title of this CD recording is quite telling. It is indeed an eclectic mix of jazz colors and styles. From bebeop to swing to fusion/jazz/rock. Dan is quite accomplished at the keyboard. The mix of jazz standards and original music by Dan Dobek is complimentary and contrasting. His interpretation of autumn leaves is classic and stunning.
Dan presents this CD featuring different combinations of instrumentations and group members. Like Chick Corea, Dan excels both in th electric format with The New Eden Jazz Quartet and in acoustic formations with acoustic string bass and drums. The New Eden Jazz Quartet features Dan on electric piano, Rich Lamanna, Paul Othon, and Chris Garabedian. This sizzling group performs Dan's original pieces My Song of Hope, Life Line, and Birthright. All group members are outstanding collaborators. This group is not to be missed if you enjoy electric jazz.
Dan's performances throughout the CD are impeccable, his musicality can only be outdone by his terrific choice of supporting musicians. Most notably is bassist Otto Gardner. Dan and Otto team up on several duo selections that are exquisite in both beauty and technique. Swingin' too!
Ted MacKenzie joins Dan on drums as they team up for a drums-Hammond B3 session on Miles Davis's classic "Milestones". This burning rendition is another classic not to be missed!
Dan hits the mark with this sizzling CD available on Chrysolite Records.