Piano Solos by Roberto Magris, Pat Thomas, Matthew Shipp

   

    Pianist Roberto Magris combines deep feeling, a command of the keyboard, and exquisite taste in picking material for Lovely Day(s), an enchanting solo recital. There’s just one of his original tunes, the blues that starts things off. The rest of this charming date feature songs from an interesting array of composers, nearly all jazz pianists. There are two by Andrew Hill, a gorgeous Reverend Du Bop and an appropriately tender Laverne, Hill’s dedication to his wife. Thelonious Monk, one of Magris’ key influences, is represented by a playful Bemsha Swing and a musical dissection of Let’s Cool One. The most obscure piece, by far, is pianist Billy Gault’s The Time of This World is at Hand, which first appeared on Gault’s only album, When Destiny Calls, a 1974 release on SteepleChase. No one has picked up on the straight forward groove of this one save for Magris, who previously recorded it in duet with bassist Eric Hochberg in 2019. Magris’ version of Billy Strayhorn’s timeless A Flower is a Lovesome Thing gets a few mildly surprising flourishes along the way, without veering far from the melody. Leonard Bernstein’s Lonely Town, from the 1944 musical On The Town, is the oldest piece of the session. It’s played with a solemn feeling, and leads right into Steve Kuhn’s Saga of Harrison Crabfeathers, which gets a rousingly emphatic treatment to conclude the program. The year 2025 has been full of unlovely days, but nearly an hour spent with Roberto Magris at the keyboard is bound to improve your mood. This is Magris’ first outing as a piano soloist in his four-decade career. I’m already looking forward to the next one. Warmly recommended. JMood JM 025; Roberto Magris (p); Trieste, Italy, January 10* or 11, 2024; Blues Clues/ Reverend Du Bop/ Bemsha Swing/ Laverne*/ The Time of This World is at Hand/ A Flower is a Lovesome Thing/ Let’s Cool One*/ Lonely Town/ Saga of Harrison Crabfeathers; 55:23. www.jmoodrecords.com 

    The pianist Pat Thomas, thoroughly in command of his instrument, delivers a staggeringly intense recital on Hikmah (“wisdom” in Arabic). Matthew Shipp has written about what he defines as the Black Mystery School of Pianists, and Thomas surely fits into the lineage of Thelonious Monk, Randy Weston, Mal Waldron, Cecil Taylor, Andrew Hill, and (although he modestly leaves himself out), Matthew Shipp. One of the major attributes of the Mystery School is what Shipp calls “the iconoclastic nature of it.” He goes on to note that “As in the ultimate example of Monk, the artist carves out a niche for themselves within the world of the jazz universe.” And that’s exactly what Thomas has done, with this batch of truly original compositions, most of which are inspired by and dedicated to specific individuals. From the dense and playful For Toumani Diabaté and hypnotically pulsing melodies of For Caroline L. Karcher to Thomas’ inside the piano forays on Luqman the Wise and the kalimba-like For McCoy Tyner, Thomas covers plenty of musical ground in less than an hour. I admit that I’m very late to the world of Pat Thomas, who first made himself felt on the London new music scene in the late Eighties. I’ve got quite a lot of catching up to do, and the immersive Hikmat is a glorious way to start. Absolutely recommended! TAO Forms TAO 19; Pat Thomas (p); London, England, September 22, 2024; Hikmah/ For Joe Gallivan/ The Shehu/ For Toumani Diabaté/ Luqman the Wise/ For Caroline L. Karcher/ For McCoy Tyner/ Sheikh Amadou Bamba; 51:09. aumfidelity.com/collections/tao-forms

    What more can you say about the magnificent playing of pianist Matthew Shipp that hasn’t already been written about his work? The Cosmic Piano is a solo work released by Cantaloupe Music, a label founded by New York’s Bang on a Can organization. This recording came to Cantaloupe at Shipp’s request, as a way of encouraging listeners to approach the work in a different context. As David Lang, one of the artistic directors of Bang on a Can, writes in a brief liner essay entitled Just Listen, “People like categories,” and he also states that “Everything about Matthew Shipp is about welcoming the unexpected.” It’s both impossible and pointless to try and figure out from just listening if any of this music is composed or if the one-day session was totally improvised. Titles like Cosmic Junk Jazz DNA, Radio Signals from Jazz Keys, and Suburban Outerspace hint at Shipp’s wry attitude to genres. In his playing, there are intimations of Monk, Sun Ra, Cecil Taylor, Mal Waldron, and even a touch of Art Tatum now and again. But it’s all Shipp, and he is in top form for this wondrous hour spent in his world. Just listen. Cantaloupe Music CA21208; Matthew Shipp (p); NYC, September 8, 2024; The Cosmic Piano/ Cosmic Junk Jazz DNA/ Orbit Light/ Piano’s DNA Upgrade/ The Other Dimensional Tone/ Blues Orgasm/ Radio Signals from Jazz Keys/ Suburban Outerspace/ Face to Face/ Subconscious Piano/ The Future is in the Past/ A Cosmic Thank You; 55:30. cantaloupemusic.com