Pianist 2019

After bassist Scott LaFaro’s tragic death in a car accident in July of 1961, Bill Evans was devastated and didn’t feel capable of forming a new trio. The late 1961-1962 formation heard here was a transition group, with bassist Chuck Israels attempting to fill the void left by LaFaro and drummer Paul Motian still on drums (in 1963 he would be Breplaced by Larry Bunker which set the stage for Bill Evans’ second well-known trio). Presented here are the two studio LPs by the Evans-Israels-Motian group, originally issued on the albums Moon Beams and How My Heart Sings!

After the success of "Short Trip" (Fresh Sound Record / Socadisc) released in February 2017, pianist Vincent Bourgeyx once again invites American musicians Matt Penman (double bass) and Obed Calvaire (drums) to support his new project, "Cosmic Dream" (Paris Jazz Underground / The Other Distribution).

“Johann Sebastian Bach's music has always been present in my life as a performer, listener, pianist, and even more as a harpsichord. Soon I also discovered the music of his eldest son Wilhelm Friedemann Bach, which caused some strangeness and great curiosity, sounded somewhat exotic compared to that of other composers of the time, and even that of his father and his most famous brother, Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach. ”

Pianist Kerry Politzer releases her sixth jazz album: a modern tribute to the late Brazilian jazz guitarist/composer Durval Ferreira. For this album, which features eight reworked Ferreira compositions as well as three originals inspired by him, the pianist has assembled a fine cast of sidemen: John Nastos (Dianne Schuur, Esperanza Spalding) on saxophone, flute, and clarinet; noted pianist George Colligan, here on drums; Seattle bassist Tim Carey (Jovino Santos Neto); Ben Graves on acoustic and electric guitars; and Simon Lucas on Brazilian percussion.

Tellinger & Fresk is a meeting of the minds between South African treasure, Barbora Tellinger, a prolific songbird whose pure tone and effortless vocal style have been thrilling audiences for decades, and American jazz pianist and Grammy nominee John Fresk.

Pianist/composer/educator Greg Burk has lived, studied, educated and performed around the world. Over the last decade, living and working in Detroit, Boston and now Rome, he has established himself not only as a vital sideman, but also as a leader with the rare ability to combine original compositions with memorable melodies and a desire to push the creative envelope as an improviser. He has been called "an exceptional pianist/composer" (All Music Guide), "a pianist and composer with vigorous, freewheeling ideas that always feel grounded within a well-reasoned structure" (Boston Herald), "a pianist with a gift for melody and a generous touch that makes you want to like him" (LA Weekly), and a musician that "plays with an apparent love and passion for his craft" (AllAboutJazz).

From an Alpine crow circling rocks and precipices to a lonely curlew off the coast of Brittany; from a golden oriole singing in the sun to a tawny owl hooting in a dark forest… The Catalogue d’Oiseaux of Olivier Messiaen forms an extraordinary and varied tribute to the landscape and bird-life of France, and to its composer’s powers of invention as he explored and developed innovations in harmony, melody and rhythm at a time when all the elements of music were in flux and up for grabs. Any new recording of one of the 20th-century’s major piano cycles is a major event.

Bernstein's piano output reflects the various strands of his multifaceted personality, in works as different as Touches (1981) – influenced by Aaron Copland’s thorny Piano Variations – and , at the other end of the scale, his often tender, sentimental Anniversaries, miniatures written in commemoration of important people in his life. Taken together his piano works form a musical diary tracing the breadth of his experiences and ideas. Smaller piano pieces often preview bigger things to come. Four of his Five Anniversaries (1949-51) appear as themes in his violin concerto, the Serenade after Plato’s “Symposium.”