Downtown NY cornerstone pianist Anthony Coleman is heard in a solo album of Coleman originals including a piece dedicated to Roscoe Mitchell, plus one piece each by Billy Strayhorn, John Klenner, and Ellington/George/Hodges/James, all beautifully captured at Boston's Jordan Hall as Coleman reveals his unique logic and inventive approach to solo performance.
Format: LP Condition: Sale (New) Released: 2019 Country: Lithuania Packaging: LP Recorded in Jordan Hall, Boston, Massachusetts, on February 14th, 2018, by Jeremy Sarna.
"I first met pianist Anthony Coleman with saxophonist John Zorn in his Cobra project. He also appeared in Zorn's "Kristallnacht", "The Big Gundown" and "Spillane", and he has played with musicians such as Ron Andrson, Dave Douglas, David Krakauer, Ikoe Mori, Marc Ribot and Wadada Leo Smith. He has studied with Jaki Byard and George Russell, as if he has not become the most talked about jazz pianist in recent years, one cannot blame the teacher.
One of the reasons he worked closely with Zorn was probably his Jewish background, which he shares with Zorn, and his Jewish background he often brings into the music.
Here we meet him solo in a recording from Jordan Hall in Boston, USA on February 14, 2018, and we get nine freely improvised "stretches", showing in a good way where in the free landscape you find Coleman. We get a lot of free improvisation, but also some slightly melancholy and thoughtful themes that he spins around with nice games.
Often, pianists in the area of freely improvising are compared to Cecil Taylor and musicians who often "take it all out". But that's not the case with Coleman. Here, there is a clear structure to what he is doing, and he is much closer to an updated version of Bill Evans in his game than Taylor. Maybe a little Keith Jarrett once in a while, though he certainly goes his own way musically.
And it's a nice whole over the nine "stretches" of the record, which fascinates. He is a creative and inventive pianist, and his ideas I think are well expressed on this fine solo record."-Jan Granlie, Salt Peanuts (translated by Google)