Beginning in the late '90s, pianist
Walt Wagner held sway as the house pianist at Seattle's Canlis restaurant. A gifted jazz performer,
Wagner began his tenure at Canlis playing American popular song standards, but eventually developed his own brand of jazz and classical-influenced covers of modern pop and rock songs. Those maverick cover songs or reworkings are the focus of his superb 2017 album and Sub Pop debut,
Reworks. A live album,
Reworks documents
Wagner's final solo performance at Canlis; 73 years old at the time of recording, he announced his retirement from the restaurant in 2016. Not only are the actual performances compelling, but also his choice of material. Much like fellow jazz mavericks
Brad Mehldau and
the Bad Plus'
Ethan Iverson,
Wagner takes contemporary rock songs and turns them into atmospheric instrumentals rife with harmonic and lyrical nuance. However, rather than pick popular mainstream hits, he instead focuses on lesser-covered indie rock songs by such well-respected acts as
Phoenix,
Fleet Foxes, and
DJ Shadow. In fact, the only song that really counts as a contemporary pop standard is
Prince's "Purple Rain," which
Wagner does here in his own urbane style. What's particularly fascinating is to hear how
Wagner transforms what are historically enigmatic and ambient songs into modern-day standards, in the case of
My Bloody Valentine's "I Only Said" bringing the song's wave-like structure into crisp, melodic focus. It's an approach that brings to mind the similarly genre-bending '60s work of pianist
Dave Brubeck. Similarly, his cheery take on
the Buzzcocks' propulsive '70s punk anthem "Ever Fallen in Love (With Someone You Shouldn't've)" recalls
Vince Guaraldi's work on the Peanuts soundtracks. Elsewhere, songs like
the Left Banke's poignant 1967 single "Desiree" require less heavy lifting and fit nicely into
Wagner's sparkling, dinner party-friendly style. ~ Matt Collar