Referring to Terry Klinefelter as a pianist, be it classical or jazz, is easy, but an oversimplification. She talks about music more than piano, and about projects rather than genre.
On Saturday night, for instance, she’s leading a small group for a Jazz Night at the Michener appearance in Doylestown. It comes a few days after her performance with the Harrisburg Symphony Orchestra of Stravinsky’s Petrushka.
It’s still common for many musicians to pick a discipline, like jazz or classical, and stick to it. That Klinefelter does both is not unheard of, but still a little daunting — which is how she likes it.
“There are people who delve into one thing and mine it for a
lifetime, and that’s great. But then there are players who thrive on having a lot going on,” she explained. “I enjoy the challenge of being involved in different projects.”
Even in a well-defined setting like a night of jazz at a museum, Klinefelter won’t quite play it straight. The audience at the Michener will hear some standards, but also a handful of cuts from her own diverse, if relatively small, catalogue.
“I’m not a super-prolific composer. There are people who put out an album a year, 10 originals every few months” she admits. “Even just recording standards can be a valid project, if there’s something new or fresh that helps people hear them anew. Unless you can do that, it’s probably best to go another direction.”
Accordingly, Klinefelter’s two releases as a bandleader, 1997’s Simple Gifts and Zingaro from 2013, sound like jazz but use the style more or less as a baseline. Her first release finds her recasting some classical pieces the title track, a traditional Shaker folk song, in a jazz idiom. They’re mostly written out, with some room for improvisation, and delicately balance the sounds of jazz with the nuanced approaches of classical music.
Meanwhile, Zingaro, on which Klinefelter expects to focus on more at the Michener, finds the pianist setting music to the poems of renowned poet Dana Gioia. They’re cast in a somewhat bluesy vibe along with a handful of new pieces and a few standards including the title track by Antonio Carlos Jobim.
“I was trying to think of things that spoke to me personally. There’s no other reason to record otherwise,” said Klinefelter. She points to the poem “Majority,” which made it to the album and explores Gioia’s own experiences having a child die in infancy.
“As a mother, that poem spoke to me very deeply, and [the music] got written pretty quickly,” said Klinefelter.
There’ll be no vocalist at the Michener, but many of the players from that album will be on hand to recreate those pieces. But, since this is jazz, don’t expect note-for-note renditions.
“When it’s your project and album, you want to be a little bit of a bandleader but you want people to bring their own musicality to the situation,” said Klinefelter. “Every situation is different, even with the same people.”
At the Michener, she said, “Hopefully, new things will happen.”
Terry Klinefelter will perform at the Michener Museum, 138 S. Pine St. in Doylestown, on Feb. 27 at 8 p.m. For information, visit www.terryklinefelter.com or www.michenerartmuseum.org.
