Tap dancer Melinda Sullivan and pianist and composer Larry Goldings started collaborating in 2019—they met when they were both working on a musical about Margaret Sanger. Sullivan asked Goldings to help her record a retirement video for her father-in-law (who’s a fan of Goldings), of “Somewhere,” from “West Side Story,” and it was during this session that they bonded over a common love of musical theater. They enjoyed this first collaboration so much—Goldings on piano and Sullivan tap dancing on a little wooden square—that they kept doing it. Through the pandemic they would meet up and record new covers and improvisations and post them to Instagram and elsewhere, and, when venues opened back up, they started to play out live. They recorded their debut album, “Big Foot,” with Pete Min for Colorfield Records, and brought in guests like Steve Gadd, Sam Gendel, and CJ Camerieri, among others.
“Big Foot” makes so much sense on Colorfield Records, a label that zags and champions playfulness and risk-taking. The music that Sullivan and Goldings make can fit—like many Colorfied releases—within the loose category of jazz, but it wanders well outside of that too. Some of these tracks, or portions of these tracks, feature a blend of electronic and analogue sounds that’s reminiscent of something like Aphex Twin’s “Computer Controlled Acoustic Instruments pt2,” the physicality of Sullivan’s incredible tapping, which you can hear even when it’s disguised, and Golding’s beautiful piano playing alongside the many, many synths he also plays on this album.
“Do You Like” starts with Steve Gadd saying the title of the track, then drumming on a carboard box, a rhythm that Sullivan joins with her tapping, and then Goldings comes in with rolling electric piano, a background drone, a hovering synth. A minute into the song: airy, wordless vocals (from Anna Goldings, Larry’s daughter), floating on clouds of synth. Followed by a stretch of gorgeous piano, and then the beat doubles up, accompanied by more vocals, soft marimba sounds, and laughs from Gadd and Sullivan.
The recording of Sullivan’s tapping deserves a special shout-out. She provides almost all the percussion on the album, tapping in traditional tap shoes, boots, sneakers, socks, and sand. The way her tapping is recorded in different ways and manipulated is incredible—you still get a sense of the texture of her tapping, those toe taps, heels, slides, etc.—but camouflaged until it sounds like a snare drum, or a rim click, or programmed percussion. For example, on “Sin Zapatos,” you’ve got Sullivan tapping but it comes through in the beginning of the song as these huge programmed bass drum hits or like the hissing of brushes drawn slowly across the drum face.
“Loose Caboose” is another one that sort of beggars belief: a manic little jam, sax, keyboards, Sullivan tapping with cartoonish speed. Reminiscent in the best ways of Fiery Furnaces at their most inventive, a song that you can both marvel at and enjoy.
Steve Gadd shows up again on the last track, “Dyad,” an incredible ending for the album. It’s almost all percussion, hands and feet shifted and altered, and a couple words exchanged. Beautiful, simple, stunning.