Live at Maybeck Recital Hall, Vol. 11

by Richard S. GinellLeave it to Roger Kellaway to come up with one of the most strikingly individual editions of the exhaustive Live at Maybeck series. Overall, the disc captures a more reflective side of Kellaway in a typical Maybeck program of mostly standards mixed with a pair of originals. Yet Kellaway's stride-grounded manner still veers off unpredictably and delightfully into the ozone, sometimes invoking Debussy-like whole-tone scales and skirting the lower orbits of bitonality and atonality before neatly extricating himself. His own shuffling stride tune, "I'm Still in Love With You," is a match for any of the standards, and he's not afraid to take it outside with flashes of bitonal color. He also gives "Creole Love Call" a similar treatment -- which fits the rhythm of the tune -- with a rumbling, murky intro deep in the bass. Though this is not one of his more endearingly off-the-wall recordings, it is one of the best listeners have that is still widely available.