Rob Schneiderman - Standards (1992)

Rob Schneiderman has made a series of recordings for Reservoir in addition to being a jazz educator and math professor (the latter career well after this 1992 session). With bassist Rufus Reid and drummer Ben Riley providing a veteran rhythm section, the pianist focuses on standards, including more than a few that had fallen by the wayside by the 1990s. Schneiderman's exuberant take of Vincent Young's showcases both Reid and Riley's tasty brushwork. The pianist opens "So in Love" unaccompanied then switches gears into a breezy post-bop setting suggestive of the late James Williams, who like Reid and Schneiderman both taught at William Patterson University. The leader's deliberate setting of "I Should Care" emphasizes its melancholy mood, seasoned with his rich chord voicings. The leader adds a playful bop vamp in his waltzing treatment of "Fly Me to the Moon." The South American ballad "Disritmia" may not yet be a standard in North America, but Schneiderman's sensuous arrangement help it fit right in with the bevy of decades-old standards on this fine date. © Ken Dryden