Sat Mar 25, 8:00 PM – Jazz Piano.
What piano music inspired Wayne Shorter? Which pianists did he play with, and which pianists play his compositions? This trio of pertinent questions forms the multiple theme in Jazz Piano. Bud Powell, Danilo Pérez, Enrico Pieranunzi and Michiel Borstlap are four of the ten names in a richly varied playlist.
Inspiration
Pianist Bud Powell was released from a psychiatric clinic in 1953 and placed under the supervision of Oscar Goodstein, manager of the New York jazz club Birdland. Powell had a contract there, and to guarantee his presence at the club, Goodstein placed him under a form of house arrest. Alfred Lion, of Blue Note Records, visited him in his locked apartment. Powell played him a few new pieces. One jumped out. When asked about the title by Lion, the answer was: “Glass Enclosure.” A completely unique work in Powell’s oeuvre. The piece is fully composed, without improvisation. Inside, some contrasting sections are strung together. Blue Note later recorded it in a trio with bassist George Duvivier and drummer Art Taylor. ‘The Amazing Bud Powell, volume 2’ became the title of the album.
Pianist next to Shorter
Between 2001 and 2013, Shorter recorded 4 albums under his own name, in a highly acclaimed quartet line-up with pianist Danilo Pérez, bassist John Patitucci and drummer Brian Blade. Two of them received Grammy Awards: Alegria (2003) and Beyond the Sound Barrier (2005). Without Shorter, the trio remained active under the name Children of the Light. An album of the same name was released in 2015. The composition Light Echo/Dolores gives a good impression of the intensive involvement between the three players. Above an underlying, not always accentuated tempo, the improvisation fans out freely, sometimes taking sharp turns.
Enrico Pieranunzi plays ‘Capricorn’
In his Capricorn – released on Super Nova (1969) – Shorter regularly returns to the simple melodic theme. A falling fourth – sometimes a fifth – at the end of a short phrase is characteristic. In between there are energetic outbursts. Pieranunzi takes the theme at a faster pace and stays closer to the starting point in his improvisation. With Hein van de Geyn on bass and Hans van Oosterhout on drums.
Infant Eyes – The Enrico Pieranunzi Trio plays the music of Wayne Shorter (2000).
We can call it a special case.
The Dutch pianist Michiel Borstlap received the American Thelonious Monk/BMI Composers Award in 1996 for his Memory of Enchantment. Wayne Shorter and pianist Herbie Hancock took the composition to the recording studio a year later, for their duo album 1+1. Nine of the ten pieces on that CD are by Shorter and/or Hancock, and that one piece by Borstlap. The composer himself recorded the solo piece on his CD Georg.
The other six pieces in this program are by Horace Silver, the Zimbo Trio, Renee Rosnes, Jeff “Tain” Watts, Jimmy Rowles and Marc Copland.
For details, see the Guide.
(Wayne Shorter passed away March 2nd, 2023)
