Jeff Barnhart makes everything look so effortless. Like his idol Fats Waller, Barnhart not only finds it easy to take a vocal while playing heated stride piano, but he can crack jokes or have a conversation with listeners without missing a beat or hitting a clinker, smiling all of the time.
Always a busy entertainer, Barnhart has performed and recorded frequently during the past couple of decades, constantly working in the U.S. and England. He has been featured on over 100 albums, whether for Arbors, his own Jazz Alive label, or Lake. Yet, with all of the work and travels, his enthusiasm for classic jazz has never wavered and he has certainly never run short of energy.
Doorways and Windows are a pair of equally rewarding instrumental solo piano CDs from Barnhart’s Jazz Alive label. The idea behind both projects was to perform the repertoire of a “Sporting House” pianist from a century ago. It is a reminder that around 1920, the songs on these recordings were new, fresh and somewhat revolutionary.
Doorways starts off with Jeff Barnhart racing his way back and forth between “In The Good Old Summer Time” and “Take Me Out To The Ballgame.” His set includes a surprising low-down version of Scott Joplin’s “The Entertainer,” “Chopin’s Nocturnal Stride,” “Waiting For the Robert E. Lee,” Gershwin’s “Rialto Ripples,” “Black And White Rag,” “Yel
