
His solo albums include Personal Notes and State of Mind, both critically acclaimed and well worth the listening.
Now Gershovsky has released Transitions and it features some of the best players in Jazz. Joining Yaron on piano are bassists Will Lee and Boris Kozlov, Alex Sipiagin on trumpet, drummers Cliff Almond, Clint de Gannon, and Ross Pederson, David Mann on alto flute, and the wonderful vocalist Aubrey Johnson.
Gershovsky is a remarkable pianist and an extraordinary composer. Both of those talents are highlighted on Transitions in addition to a lovely mixture of covers and featured artists.
In the original ballad Show Me the Way, for example, Yaron provides beautiful piano along with Alex Sipiagin’s wonderful muted trumpet. He is equally adept and at home with Simon & Garfunkel’s Scarborough Fair wherein he is joined with the amazing Aubrey Johnson. I’ll confess: I am not a fan of Paul Simon but Yaron and Aubrey won me over to this tune. In fact, I was so taken with Aubrey’s talent that I immediately downloaded her album Unraveled.
Aubrey also appears on the cover track of Jobim’s So Danco Samba and the Gershwin tune I Got Plenty O’ Nuttin’. On all three of those tracks, the great Boris Kozlov joins in on bass and Ross Pederson sits the drums for two of those. Put Kozlov and Pederson in the rhythm section and you can’t go wrong. And when it’s not Pederson it is Cliff Almond or Clint de Gannon on drums. And if not Kozlov, it is Will Lee at the bass. Nobody misses.
With all the attention to the supporting artists, the listener is never distracted from the brilliance of Gershovsky on the piano and keyboards. He is a marvel and worthy of all the attention and his compositions deserve the greater portion of the praise.
The album opens with Northern Lights, a trio number that swings tightly. Transitions is a cool number with a more modern feel, proving that Yaron can compose and play anything from Bop to Swing to Cool and Pop. What She Said is a gorgeous number dedicated to Ruth Bader Ginsberg. It is also a trio with Kozlov and Almond. It seems clear that—for this album at least—Yaron prefers the trio. And so do we.
Seven of the 13 tracks are Gershovsky originals with the remaining numbers by Sammy Fain (I’ll Be Seeing You and Secret Love), Simon & Garfunkel, Gershwin, Jobim, and a folk traditional tune (The Lonely Tree). However, Gershovsky masterfully makes each song his own. Everyone is familiar with I’ll Be Seeing You but Yaron puts his own indelible stamp on it.
Transitions is Yaron Gershovsky’s flag-planting of his territory in the Jazz world. As performer and as composer, Gershovsky belongs among the hallowed rolls of modern Jazz top-tier composers and arrangers.
Make room on your CD shelf for this man.
~Travis Rogers, Jr. is The Jazz Owl