Bill Charlap & Renee Rosnes

Bill Charlap & Renee Rosnes Live in the Green Sanderson Hall at Hugh's Room, 296 Broadview Avenue
Show at 730pm, Doors at 630pm
$60+ in advance, $67+at the door

It is with no small dosage of irony that highly acclaimed jazz pianists Bill Charlap and Renee
Rosnes close their dynamic new duo piano album with the timeless standard “Never Will I
Marry.” Marry, they have, and happily marry, they do, in musical terms on Double Portrait,
a high point in their respective careers, and the first recorded example of what must be
considered one of the finest and most empathetic piano duos in jazz history. Double Portrait is a
work of significance and depth, but also flows with the casual and organic quality of musicians
with an uncommon simpatico, in life as well as in art.

Double Portrait is the latest, and another proud entry, in a series of stellar projects on Blue Note
for Charlap in the past decade, including readings of music by Leonard Bernstein and George
Gershwin, and another special family project, with his mother, singer Sandy Stewart. In another
musical family tree link, the pianist’s father was famed Broadway composer Moose Charlap.
Charlap the Younger has earned the respect of critics and discerning listeners, and the praise of
musicians such as Tony Bennett, whom the pianist has also worked with.

Rosnes, who originally hails from Vancouver, has been a prominent figure in NYC and the
international jazz scene for many years. She has recorded fourteen fine albums as a leader,
nine of them for Blue Note, and has been the pianist of choice for such artists as Joe
Henderson, Wayne Shorter, JJ Johnson and Bobby Hutcherson. Rosnes is also a founding
member of the dynamic SFJAZZ Collective, with whom she performed and recorded for six
years. Both pianists have been praised for representing the upper echelon of contemporary jazz
piano aesthetics.

Fittingly, TIME magazine once noted in a review that Charlap “approaches a song the
way a lover approaches his beloved. He wants to view it from every angle – melody, harmony,
lyrics, verse.” Rosnes was cited by the New York Times as “a virtuoso,” also noting that, in a
concert, “no rhythmic inflection went unexplored.”

After marrying in 2007, the couple has subsequently performed live in duo format, and with
Double Portrait, says Charlap, “finally, the time came that we were able to set it down for
posterity. Itʼs a natural for us, both being admirers of each otherʼs work. The chemistry we have
as husband and wife is naturally reflected in our music, and likewise, the chemistry we have as
musicians is a part of our lives together.”

Double Portrait winds up being a unique expression of the artistry of each player, and an
added third persona rises out of the interactive blend of the two players. For repertoire, the
couple selected a diverse yet perfectly coherent range of material to explore and find mutual
expression on. While both musicians continue to tend to their personal musical lives and
projects, the Charlap Rosnes piano duo persona is now officially an ongoing venture,
documented for the first time and for the ages. 

296 Broadview is not yet a fully wheelchair accessible venue, with stairs between all levels. Our goal is to fix that, and we need your support to do so - please consider making a donation towards our goals to make HRL the best listening room in Toronto!