Orvieto

“It is as if one mind were controlling four hands.” –Stefano Bollani 

The ECM piano duo release Orvieto readily suggests that old saying that “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.” But when the parts are acclaimed Italian pianist Stefano Bollani and American keyboard legend Chick Corea, the summation must be calculated geometrically. While Corea is a household name in the U.S. and abroad, Milan native Bollani may be less familiar, at least on this side of the Atlantic. An ECM recording artist since 2007, Bollani first gained international attention working with trumpet great Enrico Rava, and initiated his current partnership with Corea in 2009, playing a series of duet performances, including two sets from the 2010 Umbria Winter Jazz Festival that provide the 13 tracks of Orvieto. 

Paspanga

Despite coming from a musical family (his father was composer Gyorgy Ligeti 1923-2006), Lukas Ligeti did not start formal music studies (aside from some piano lessons at age nine) until he was a teenager. He studied composition and classical percussion at The University for Music and Performing Arts (Vienna) but found the program and methodology too limiting compared to his growing interest in improvisation. Returning to piano to gain admittance to their piano program, he again found this direction to be of no interest.

From his earliest days at The International School (Vienna) Lukas had been fascinated by maps of Africa. In 1994 The Goethe Institute commissioned his trip there to work with musicians on Cote d'Ivoire. The African influence would become one of the most consistent ingredients in his artistic palette.  While leading a workshop in Albijin,  he co-found Beta Fol,  recording  his first album as a leader with them in 1997, Lukas Ligeti & Beta Foly. Just as his inspiration came from diverse non-musical sources such as experimental mathematics, traveling and painting, he proved to be equally eclectic with his music, incorporating aspects of jazz, experimental classical, electronic, and ethno-African techniques and rhythms. 

In the Bubble

Jazz Times called her first recording “state-of-the-art piano trio finery," and two of the CD’s original compositions, “How Will I Know” and Meridian” earned awards from Billboard. And following its 2001 release, Call Me When You Get There hit the jazz charts’ Top 50 in both the U.S. and Canada for 8 consecutive weeks. A modern mainstream artist who celebrates melody without being confined by it, pianist Mary Louise Knutson took her time in planning her second album, In the Bubble, released this month on Meridian records. “The format of half originals and half standards worked so well for me the first time that I thought I’d stick with it,” she said recently. And indeed, it seems to be a strategy that works at least as well ten years later.

Essential

Now an American citizen, self-taught pianist Jean-Michel Pilc grew his reputation with such big leaguers as Roy Haynes, Michael Brecker, Chris Potter and Harry Belafonte. He then began a continuing relationship with bassist Francois Moutin and drummer Ari Hoenig, compatriots on trio releases led by both Pilc and Honig. With a technique that conjures none less than Art Tatum and Oscar Peterson and an imagination that is entirely his own, Pilc’s live performances typically leave an audience breathless and light-headed, whether he’s free-associating through a cover or original composition. One minute he spins gold filigree with a brush of his fingertips, and the next he launches an all-out assault with flying palms in a sudden burst of pugilistic fury. Or he ducks inside the piano, finding the hidden orchestra that allows him to coax elegant melodies without actually striking a single key. Consistently excelling as a soloist and trio partner, as a composer and performer, Pilc’s standing as one of his generation’s best at all of the above is solidified by two recent releases on Motema Records.  

Forever

Return to Forever, in its three classic editions, helped define jazz fusion in the 1970s and boosted the careers of its soon-to-be legendary artists, including leader Chick Corea, bassist Stanley Clarke and drummer Lenny White. The three were on hand for RTF’s first reunion in 2008 and again this fall for the Return to Forever IV tour that launched on August 24th in Minneapolis. But the trio also reconnected as an acoustic jazz band, touring in late 2009. Those gigs yielded the tracks for Disc One of Forever, released this week on Concord under the name “Corea, Clarke & White.” A second “bonus” CD is included, a collection of takes in the studio during preparations for that 2009 tour with special guests and former RTF colleagues Jean-Luc Ponty and Bill Conners, and two tracks with vocalist Chaka Khan. 

Augmented Reality

Often I hear the complaint that today’s young practitioners of jazz are sacrificing melody for innovations (e.g., “freedom”) in structure. Without debating the point, I am confident that there are indeed musicians in this new era who still respect melody—and in fact embrace tuneful composition and improvisation –while nevertheless generating the sounds and structures that attract their peers and more rock-oriented young audiences. My confidence is bolstered by bands such as Augmented Reality, a cross-cultural ensemble that draws significantly from the great piano trios of an earlier generation while bending (gracefully) to 21st century influences.