Born in Israel and now living in New York, pianist Ehud Asherie learned to play jazz by watching and listening in the city’s clubs. His buoyant melodicism belongs to an earlier time and his repertoire stays on the far side of 1940. Asherie’s latest album begins with the title track’s salute to Louis Armstrong and chases Charlie Parker on a couple of numbers. He also gives the Gershwins a hearing on “Oh, Lady Be Good.” Asherie’s quiet virtuosity fits easily into small club settings. The music heard on Wild Man Blues is everyone’s idea of a sophisticated night on the town—if the town is Manhattan in an earlier age.
