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HISTORICAL
Appreciating Petrucciani
In life as in art, sometimes the things left unsaid move us most. So it
was during the brief career of Michel Petrucciani, whose legacy this
extraordinarily comprehensive CD and DVD box set celebrates.
Michel Petrucciani: The Complete Dreyfus Jazz Recordings
(Dreyfus Jazz 1446430) AAAA contains nine albums, including two
solo piano double-disc sets, Piano Solo: The Complete Concert In
Germany and Au Théâtre Des Champs-Elysées. Aside from a few
bonus tracks, the music has all been heard before, beginning with the
wonderfully intimate Conversation, recorded in 1992 and featuring
Petrucciani with his father, Tony Petrucciani, whose gifts as a guitarist
have been overshadowed by his apparent excellence as a mentor to
his son. From here we revisit a series of albums. These include Eddy
Louiss/Michel Petrucciani, an organ/piano summit that swings harder
than any session without bass and drums has a right to do; the equally
invigorating combination of string quartet with bassist Dave
Holland, drummer Tony Williams and Petrucciani on Marvellous; and
other titles that capture the late pianist’s facility as a composer and his
distinctive mixture of wit and eloquence as a player.
Above all, Petrucciani celebrated melody. The smaller the group,
the more he could express himself through the long lines that were
the essence of his improvisation. Some combinations seemed to
restrict this aspect of his performance. On Live In Tokyo, the muscle
of Anthony Jackson’s electric bass and Steve Gadd’s backup on
drums push him toward a more extroverted expression and even
shift the focus of “Home” away from nuances of performance toward
the drama of an extended crescendo. He seems nearly lost in the funk
jams supervised by Marcus Miller on Dreyfus Night In Paris. And
though he plays fluently within Bob Brookmeyer’s arrangements on
Both Worlds, Petrucciani’s best moments occur when he joins with
saxophonist Stefano Di Battista in a duet on “Chloé Meets Louise.”
When working alone, Petrucciani made full use of his freedom.
Michel Petrucciani:
celebrating melody
Like Keith Jarrett, he took the time he needed to make his statements;
his “Trilogy In Blois” runs 11 minutes on The Complete Concert In
Germany. But Petrucciani produced more intricate and yet more
communicative results, which invited listeners into the music. On that
same album, he performs a third of an original tune, “Little Peace In C
For U,” with his right hand only, but that’s enough to illuminate the
structure of his composition through artful implication.
This set has no supplementary booklet, but two DVDs leave us
feeling this great artist’s presence as if we had enjoyed his friendship
as much as his music. First, there is abundant concert footage, some
of it richly informative. The camera allows us access to a piano technique
that rivals Thelonious Monk’s in its idiosyncrasy and power.
HYOU VIELZ
Mining Kuhn, Codona Catalogs
Those who know pianist Steve Kuhn for his musical production over
the last quarter-century—he’s led 20-plus trio recordings, swinging
repertoire drawn both from the American Songbook and his own
corpus—may have trouble recognizing the artist represented in Life’s
Backward Glances: Solo And Quartet (ECM 2090–92; 44:57/41:32/
37:59) AAA, comprising Kuhn’s second (Ecstasy), third (Motility) and
fifth (Playground) ECM recordings, from 1974 to 1979.
The results are mixed. The most successful date is Ecstasy (disc 3
of the set), a solo recital on which, addressing a first-class piano,
Kuhn improvises with raw materials drawn almost exclusively from
19th and 20th century classical music. He places his subtle, exemplary
technique and sense of structure at the service of self-expression.
It’s as strong as any contemporaneous ECM solo recording by
Keith Jarrett—or, for that matter, Paul Bley. Kuhn projects an introverted,
melancholic tonal personality, and his narrative circa 1974
contained none of the redemptive sacral strains that allowed Jarrett’s
extended meditations to resonate so strongly with a broad audience.
The ensemble sessions evoke a dated ’70s laxity. Motility features
a working quartet with Steve Slagle on woodwinds, Harvie Swartz
on bass and Michael Smith on drums. The ensemble flow is gauzy,
diffuse and self-conscious. Grooves are scarce, except for “A Danse
For One,” a Jaki Byard-ish solo track on which Kuhn deconstructs
stride and boogie-woogie. Some people swear by Playground, with
Bob Moses on drums, on which Sheila Jordan works hard to develop
Steve Kuhn:
exemplary technique
Kuhn’s ironic, alienated lyrics to his tunes. But it seems a stretch to
claim, per the liner notes, that it’s “as good a collection of original
songs as the jazz world has produced in the ensuing three decades.”
The Codona Trilogy (ECM 2033–35; 42:53/39:31/46:26) AAAA collates
the output of the collective trio named for protagonists Collin
ECM RECORDS
68 DOWNBEAT June 2009