There’s an unconscious intimacy that comes with longtime relationships — the teasing of inside jokes, completing each other’s sentences, knowing which arguments to avoid.
Of course that connection carries over into music, which raises the prospects of a unique opener for the JazzSLC series this Saturday when piano duo Bill Charlap and Renee Rosnes take the stage. It’s not so much the couple dynamic that’s unusual — there was last year’s pairing of chanteuse Stacey Kent and her husband, Jim Tomlinson, or Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham, for that matter.
This time, it’s the instruments that make this coupling unique.
Rosnes and Charlap have been playing together since the 1990s, but made it official when they married in 2007.
“When we first played together, the chemistry was there right away,” Charlap says. “It’s mutual respect. But then you have the added intimacy of how much you care about each other. It’s a nice [musical] conversation.”
For the couple, the connection is innate. The give and take of jazz is so intuitive anyway, Rosnes says, it’s hard to distinguish how playing with a spouse differs from playing with your regular ensemble.
“The audience may be able to answer that question better than we can,” she says. “They are witnessing it. We don’t really think about it.”
Both have separate musical careers and distinct discographies. Charlap, 50, comes from a musical family. His mother, singer Sandy Stewart, was a regular on Perry Como’s “Kraft Music Hall.” His father was Moose Charlap, a Broadway composer. Charlap’s long list of recordings includes working with his mother, Tony Bennett and the New York Trio. He was in Salt Lake City a year ago performing with the New York Five.
Rosnes, 55, was born and raised in Canada. In 1985, she received a Canadian Council of the Arts grant and moved to New York City. She has played with James Moody, Ron Carter and Billy Drummond. She hosted the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s “Jazz Profiles” radio show and is a founding member of the SF JAZZ Collective. Her 2017 album, “Written in the Rocks,” received a Juno Award (Canada’s equivalent of the Grammy).
Together, the couple recorded an album of piano duets, “Double Portrait,” in 2010. They practice on the two Steinways nested together in their New Jersey living room.
Salt Lake audience members can expect the couple to draw on all of that music during Saturday’s show — George Gershwin, Gerry Mulligan, Wayne Shorter, as well as some original compositions.
“People say, ‘Oh, you have a piano duo.’ And that’s entirely correct. But it’s so much more than that,” Charlap says. “It’s a duo in every sense. There’s no competition. It’s a new musician that is the sum of us.”
If 176 piano keys merging in improvisation sounds messy, Rosnes cautions: “It’s possible for the music to get muddy. We’re very conscious of that. We’re judicious in how we create the overall sounds. We’re aiming for a very clear and orchestrated sound.”
This week’s show is unusual. Charlap and Rosnes are not touring together. She’s about to go back into the studio to record. And his latest album, “Uptown Downtown,” was released last week.
But JazzSLC founder Gordon Hanks asked the couple — “super nice folks; brilliant artists” — to headline the 2017-18 season opener.
Bill Charlap and Renee Rosnes<br>When • Saturday, Sept. 23, 7:30 p.m.<br>Where • Capitol Theatre, 50 W. 200 South, Salt Lake City<br>Tickets • $29.50; artsaltlake.org