ENRICO PIERANUNZI, MADS VINDING & ALEX RIEL- Yesterdays
Stunt Records STUCD17072
Enrico Pieranunzi (piano) Mads Vinding (bass) Alex Riel (drums) Recorded in 1997 at the Copenhagen Jazzhouse.
This live date, recorded some 20 years ago but issued now for the first time, gives equal billing to each of the participants but being a piano trio it is de facto Pieranunzi’s session. Like most contemporary piano trio jazz the music has lots of moving parts and the bass and drums contribute significantly to its inner complexity and the intricate melodic and rhythmic construction but the it pianist’s stylistic devices that set the tone hence my decision to give him pre-eminence.
It is said that Pieranunzi’s formative musical influence was Erroll Garner and echoes of this remain in the teasing preludes with which he launches his often febrile and over-wrought forays into the interpretation of the several songbook ballads he explores at great length. Add to this the sentimental romanticism he picked up from his work with Chet Baker in the later stages of the trumpeter’s career, his innate feeling for melodic classicism, a touch of rococo embroidery and you have a pianist who is capable of producing music of great beauty and power.
There are some gems in this set, notably a witty, off the wall version of Fats Waller’s `Jitterbug Waltz` but a tendency to ostentation and climactic pile driving overwhelms the ballads; for instance, `My Funny Valentine` gets a fair drubbing and emerges somewhat bedraggled and disfigured from the process as does the opening `Yesterdays`. Live dates do of course have the potential to dispose performers to overexcitement and the intervening years have shown Pieranunzi is still capable of grandstanding tendencies as the 2014 live date, also from the Jazz House, revealed in another somewhat prolix treatment of the unfortunate `Valentine`.
Notwithstanding my reservations I remain a committed enthusiast of Pieranunzi’s subsequent work, particularly the wonderful CamJazz recordings that remain as examples of a high point in the art of the piano trio equalling in technique and expressiveness anything by Jarrett and Mehldau and this disc, though slightly flawed by the aforementioned mannerisms, will happily take its place on my shelf alongside my prized copies of his superb Morricone interpretations.
Reviewed by Euan Dixon
Stunt Records STUCD17072
Enrico Pieranunzi (piano) Mads Vinding (bass) Alex Riel (drums) Recorded in 1997 at the Copenhagen Jazzhouse.
This live date, recorded some 20 years ago but issued now for the first time, gives equal billing to each of the participants but being a piano trio it is de facto Pieranunzi’s session. Like most contemporary piano trio jazz the music has lots of moving parts and the bass and drums contribute significantly to its inner complexity and the intricate melodic and rhythmic construction but the it pianist’s stylistic devices that set the tone hence my decision to give him pre-eminence.
It is said that Pieranunzi’s formative musical influence was Erroll Garner and echoes of this remain in the teasing preludes with which he launches his often febrile and over-wrought forays into the interpretation of the several songbook ballads he explores at great length. Add to this the sentimental romanticism he picked up from his work with Chet Baker in the later stages of the trumpeter’s career, his innate feeling for melodic classicism, a touch of rococo embroidery and you have a pianist who is capable of producing music of great beauty and power.
There are some gems in this set, notably a witty, off the wall version of Fats Waller’s `Jitterbug Waltz` but a tendency to ostentation and climactic pile driving overwhelms the ballads; for instance, `My Funny Valentine` gets a fair drubbing and emerges somewhat bedraggled and disfigured from the process as does the opening `Yesterdays`. Live dates do of course have the potential to dispose performers to overexcitement and the intervening years have shown Pieranunzi is still capable of grandstanding tendencies as the 2014 live date, also from the Jazz House, revealed in another somewhat prolix treatment of the unfortunate `Valentine`.
Notwithstanding my reservations I remain a committed enthusiast of Pieranunzi’s subsequent work, particularly the wonderful CamJazz recordings that remain as examples of a high point in the art of the piano trio equalling in technique and expressiveness anything by Jarrett and Mehldau and this disc, though slightly flawed by the aforementioned mannerisms, will happily take its place on my shelf alongside my prized copies of his superb Morricone interpretations.
Reviewed by Euan Dixon
