Outer Banks Onstage

Dennis Reaser is the Assistant Principal of the First Flight High School in Kill Devil Hills, N.C. He has been in education since the sixties, and besides being a music teacher, he is a composer, arranger and a fine musician.

His compact disc Now I'm Sixty Four showcases his piano playing, covering a range of composers from Duke Ellington to Dennis Reaser, and including such as Ned Washington, Rodgers and Hart, the Gershwin brothers, Lennon and McCartney, and Johnny Mercer.

The piano, descended from the fortepiano and the 1709 Cristofori Pianoforte with four octaves, or scales, has 88 keys covering seven and a half octaves; if music is written in any clef, or range, the piano can play it.

The piano takes full advantage of a musician's ten fingers, too, and so becomes a little orchestra in itself, a way to completely realize written music. Indeed, much music is written on the piano before being broken down into high and low parts for band arrangements.

So one musician at one piano can deal with all music, even when the original piano versions are not available -- Franz Liszt transcribed Beethoven's symphonies for solo piano, for example.

Reaser begins this CD with Duke Ellington, Mitchell Parish and Irving Mill's "Sophisticated Lady," a piece of music that is often called on to indicate sophistication in film scores, and for good reason. Here it is given a flexible timing at a leisurely pace, allowing its harmonic richness to be savored. An inviting introduction to an eclectic collection.

A similar approach informs Ned Washington and Leigh Harline's "When You Wish Upon a Star," which listeners of a certain age will always link with Disney's 1940 movie Pinocchio and Jiminy Cricket. Begun without introduction, like "Sophisticated Lady," "Star" adopts a loose bridge and chorus and goes on to a syncopated rhythm for the final verses.

Then it's back to Duke Ellington, for his "Satin Doll" -- no contemporary collection of standards can stray too far from Ellington -- or Gershwin, Mancini and Mercer, for that matter.

On "Satin Doll," Reaser plays with the melody to good effect, taking different approaches to subsequent choruses. The piano, by the way is recorded very nicely, with a lot of presence, and not much echo. The effect is of a piano actually playing in the space where the CD is played back.

A few medleys are taken, where the individual songs are not truncated overly and the traits of the chosen songs complement each other well. The first medley is Victor Young and Ned Washington's "My Foolish Heart" and Rodgers and Hart's "My Romance." These parts of the medley don't draw attention to their joining, rather the songs work well together seamlessly.

Country music piano pioneer Floyd Cramer is added to this mix with "Last Date." The simple verse-verse-chorus structure and the unpretentious playing make it a good fit with the uptown music on the disc. Cramer's slip-notes are used, the verses are played in different octaves, and the components of the song take their place in the overall scheme of things.

Erroll Garner and Johnny Burke's incomparable "Misty" brings the music smoothly back to the city, and the next medley, Henry Mancini's "Breakfast at Tiffany's" and Mancini and Johnny Mercer's "Moon River" from the 1961 movie Breakfast at Tiffany's bridges the city-country divide.

Reaser reminds us that Hoagy Carmichael wrote more than "Stardust"; here he includes Carmichael and Ned Washington's thoughtful "The Nearness of You."

Teacher Reaser surveys a master class of interacting composers with a medley comprising Duke Ellington, Irving Gordon and Irving Mills' "Prelude to a Kiss," Jimmy Van Heusen and Johnny Burke's "Like Someone in Love" and "But Beautiful" and Carmichael and Mercer's "Skylark."

And despite the collection's title, John Lennon and Paul McCartney are represented only with "Yesterday," at the end of a medley of Vernon Duke's "Autumn in New York," the Gershwin brothers' "Embraceable You" and "Body and Soul" from Edward Heyman, Robert Sour, Frank Eyton and John Green.

The medley works well musically as well as programmatically, a mini-soundtrack to a finished and nostalgically remembered romance.

The last of the 17 tracks (which include four medleys) is Reaser's own peaceful, reflective "Emily." The first notes of the melody are E-G-E, repeated, which sound like someone calling the name. The tune will stay with you. The tempo is loose and unhurried, as in the first cut, wrapping a CD that's easy to hear, and which will also reward closer listening.

For a copy of "Now I'm Sixty Four," email dreaser@charter.net.





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