www.denniscavalier.com
Rootsy piano pop.
Dennis Cavalier was the most striking artist on the tribute From The Lone Star To The Gulf Coast with his piano solo Fess It Up and the funking New Orleans Rising, recorded with band and horns. In that first song he paid homage to Professor Longhair in lyrics and style quotes in a humoristic way. He combined that with a rounded melody, just like in his other song and, in doing so, closed the often yawning gap between roots and pop music. He mixes these same elements twelve times on his first solo CD, that was released recently, despite a copyright dated 2000.
Cavalier has a solid left hand and an independently operating, swinging right one, but his virtuosity only dominates in the solos. At the center are his lyrics, that make real songs out of his music once again. That goes for that funny story about how he wanted to play jazz and pop, while the listeners shouted for Fess’s Tipitina and Big Chief. In Troubled Heart he sings with just as much self-evident irony about having success but being unhappy. He also is a man who took revenge for his raped wife and ended up in Angola State Prison for it in hurried Thibodaux. His childhood memories of New Orleans’ Lower Ninth Ward in Taxi Driver become poignant, because particularly this poor area was completely devastated by hurricane Katrina.
This way he turns piano pieces into real songs, a talent not handed out to many piano players. Also because of his efficient yet rich playing in rhythm ‘n’ blues, funk, stride piano and ballads, that results in homesickness, and not just with him.
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Published in Dutch in roots music magazine Heaven no. 44 September-October 2006/no.5