Jeff Fuller
P.O. Box 120717
East Haven, CT
06512-0717
USA

Email:
jefffuller@snet.net

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Home | On record | Symphony CD

Here’s the story of how this CD came to be...

Ed Cercone and I first played together on a rainy night in October, 1973, at the Casa Marra Restaurant in New Haven, Connecticut. When I was called to substitute for another bassist, little did I know that it would be the start of a musical association and friendship that would endure more than 27 years! Eddie has become like a second father to me, musically and otherwise. It was not surprising when we eventually found out that we shared the same birthdate because we had become musically compatible so quickly and effortlessly. (By the way, my father shares the same birthday too!)

Eddie’s music explores the legacy of such artists as Lennie Tristano, with whom he was associated in the 50’s and 60’s. Others with whom he has played include Coleman Hawkins, Roy Eldridge, Bucky Pizzarelli, John Carisi and Willie Ruff. Around New Haven Eddie is known as “The Baron” mostly because of his elegant style and cool demeanor, but also because there already was a “Duke” and a “Count.” Few people know that he is an excellent dancer who instructed for many years at the Arthur Murray Studio. Perhaps this explains his impeccable sense of rhythm and time! Also his love of Latin rhythms – the mambo, samba and bossa nova – shows up in several selections here.

And his touch! Eddie’s hands don’t just “play the piano,” they caress the keyboard, drawing out tone and feeling whether on up-tempo tunes or ballads. For me his music is a lesson in knowing what to leave out. His phrasing gives the listener all the essentials without wasting energy. Sounding deceptively relaxed, his melodic improvisations can be quite acrobatic. His sense of harmony and chord voicing is more sophisticated than it sounds: no one knows more than Eddie how to adopt that Shearing locked-hands style, use surprising substitute harmonies, or just say it all with one well-placed chord. For a bass player like me, Eddie is a dream to work with – he leaves so much space for the bass sometimes it’s scary!

On this – Eddie’s first full length album – we were very fortunate to hook up with drummer Joe Cocuzzo for this recording session. Joe and Eddie are cut from the same mold: elegant simplicity and understatement, a sense of keeping the old world values alive, total professionalism in every playing situation. Joe, who currently tours with Rosemary Clooney and Michael Feinstein, has credits which include Woody Herman, Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett and Errol Garner, just to name a few. Though Joe and I had played together many times, he and Eddie had never met before this recording. It was as though they had played together for years. Joe was extremely comfortable with the usual loose arrangements of a jazz session, but also anticipated subtle dynamic and even metric changes as the day wore on! And I tell you honestly: we did not rehearse one number, and almost everything was a first take!

So here is “Symphony” – Ed Cercone’s musical legacy to those loving fans who have been fortunate enough to hear him play throughout his more than 50-year performing career, and let it be an introduction to all others who will be hearing him for the first time. For me it has been a privilege working with and learning from Eddie all these years, and in a real sense “Symphony” is a labor of love.

Ed Cercone - Piano
Jeff Fuller - Bass
Joe Cocuzzo - Drums

Symphony

Produced by Ed Cercone and Jeff Fuller
Recorded August 8, 2000 at Acoustic Recording, Brooklyn, NY
Engineer: Michael Brorby
Mixed and mastered by Norman Johnson
Manor Recording, Middletown, CT
Photos: Harold Shapiro, Michael Brorby, Tony Lombardozzi, Jeff Fuller

Copyright ©2007 Jeff Fuller. All rights reserved.

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