It was only a matter of time before Stefano Bollani took away a little bit of the spotlight. While listening to trumpeter Enrico Rava's Tati, it was quite obvious that Bollani was a pianistic force to be reckoned with. No, I'm not talking about a young lion (can you be a young lion at age 34?), full of chops but bereft of ideas. Take a close listen to Tati and you'll hear Bollani engaging with some fine interplay with Paul Motian, one of the world's most sensitive and musical drummers.
With Piano Solo, the personality of Bollani's musical thoughts is allowed to wander. Some may say this isn't a good thing. But those are the same people who can't deal with Keith Jarrett's far-ranging improvisations. I look at it this way: Imagine you're standing in the center isle of a cathedral in the middle of the night. You're there with your camera to capture the details of the ceiling. Instead of a flash setup, you'll use an long exposure and "paint" the ceiling with a flashlight. While it's not possible to look at the photo being created during this process, the mind's eye can retain the most recent information and perhaps a vague sense of the entire image. With improvised music this sonic picture is constructed in real time, the story is there waiting to be revealed.
But wander Bollani does, through the history of his love of music. Piano Solo presents a mini-bio of his varied musical interests including classical (Prokofiev), show tunes ("On The Street Where You Live" from My Fair Lady), and pop (Louis Armstrong's "Do You Know What It Means To Miss New Orleans" and the Nat King Cole gem "For All We Know"). Purists might not take kindly to his version of Scott Joplin's "Maple Leaf Rag," but I thought it put Bollani's brilliant musical mind on display.
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1 - Connie Phillips
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