Jason Rebello: Held

Straightahead / Pianistyka Jazzowa
premiera polska: 2016-07-01,
Wydawnicto Audiofilskie
kontynent: Europa
kraj: Anglia
opakowanie: plastikowe etui
opis:
multikultiproject.blogspot.com, 2016-07, ocena: *****:
Brytyjski pianista Jason Rebello jest uważany za jednego z najbardziej utalentowanych, pomysłowych i intuicyjnych pianistów jacy pojawili się na scenach Zjednoczonego Królestwa od początku lat dziewięćdziesiątych ubiegłego wieku. Na początku nagrywał on dla wytwórni BMG muzykę o dużej głębi emocjonalnej, co przyniosło mu popularność i zwróciło na niego uwagę Wayne'a Shortera, Jeffa Becka czy Stinga. I to właśnie z nimi związał on na długo swoją muzyczną karierę, zastępując choćby w zespole Stinga słynnego Kenny Kirklanda (na wydanym w 2003 roku DVD "Inside the songs of Sacred Love", Sting opowiada, że to Kenny „wybrał” Jasona, mówiąc: "He is the only cat in England I listen to" - "To jest jedyny chłopak w Anglii, którego słucham").

Jason rozpoczął współpracę ze Stingiem przy płycie Brand New Day. Po jej wydaniu spędził 2 lata na trasie promującej album. W nocy, 11 września 2001 roku, po zamachach na WTC, Jason był jednym z muzyków, nagrywających "...All This Time" - koncertowe DVD i CD, zarejestrowane u Stinga w domu, w Toskanii. W 2003 roku Jason uczestniczył w nagraniu płyty "Sacred Love" Stinga, a trasa koncertowa promująca ten album, zakończyła się dopiero po 18 miesiącach.

O ile jednak grając z Beckiem czy Stingiem pracował przede wszystkim z klawiaturami instrumentów elektronicznych (tak samo najczęściej też we własnych grupach), to teraz jednak zdecydował, że nadszedł czas, aby nagrać coś na instrumencie, który kocha, na fortepianie. I tak, wyposażony we własne, autorskie kompozycje (inspirowane ludźmi i miejscami ważnymi dla jego życia i muzyki), na początku 2016 roku wszedł do studia i nagrał pierwszy w dorobku solowy album.

Tak sam opowiada o tej: "w całej mojej karierze miałem okazję uczestniczyć wielu rozmaitych scenicznych scenariuszach i najróżniejszych dramaturgiach, szeroko zakrojonych i niezwykle zróżnicowanych, ale nigdy nie miałem okazji zanurzyć się w pełni w fortepian. Teraz osiągnąłem taki punkt, gdzie czuję, że mam tu coś do powiedzenia, tylko na klawiszach fortepianu i na tym albumie staram się wykorzystać wszystkie muzyczne doświadczenia, jakie były moim udziałem przez ostatnie dwadzieścia lat".

W tym formacie solowej gry na pierwszy plan wysuwa się jego skupiona, intensywna liryka, od zawsze obecna w jego muzyce, ale nigdy wcześniej tak nie podkreślana. Sprzęgnięta ze znakomitą techniką i artystyczną, ale i ludzką, dojrzałością daje niezwykły, wcale nie cukierkowy efekt, pozwalający cieszyć się pięknem muzyki i brzmienia, i w pełni zanurzyć się w dźwiękowe światy jazzu Jasona Rebello.
autor: Józef Paprocki

Editor's info:
British pianist Jason Rebello is regarded as one of the most talented, inventive and intuitive pianists to emerge in the UK since he burst onto the scene in the early 90’s with a string of critically acclaimed albums for the BMG label.

Marked with an emotional depth unusual in one so young, these albums elevated Jason to the peak of jazz celebrity at a time when the music was undergoing an unheralded period of popularity.

It came as no surprise that Jason caught the attention of Weather Report’s Wayne Shorter (Herbie Hancock, also from Miles Davis’ famous 1960s quintet was a personal hero) and he toured internationally with his band before replacing another hero, Kenny Kirkland, in Sting’s band.

Jason had primarily worked with electronic keyboards in his own groups (as well as with Sting and Jeff Beck), but now he has decided it’s time to say something on the instrument he loves. In early 2016 Jason will release his debut solo piano album, featuring mostly original compositions inspired by the people and places that have been important in his career.

In this solo format the intensely lyrical quality always evident in Jason’s music comes to the fore and, allied to his formidable technique and maturity as an artist and musician, ensures that on Held, he is creating some of the most compelling and beautiful music of his career.

As Jason explains: ‘throughout my career I’ve had the opportunity to play in wide-ranging and diverse scenarios, but never had an opportunity to immerse myself fully in the piano. I’ve reached a point now where I feel there is something to say with just a piano and I’m relishing this opportunity to consolidate all my musical experiences on this record’.

roughout my career I’ve had the opportunity to play in wide-ranging and diverse scenarios, but never had an opportunity to immerse myself fully in the piano. I’ve reached a point now where I feel there is something to say with just a piano and I’m relishing this opportunity to consolidate all my musical experiences on this record’. JASON REBELLO>

All About Jazz, ocena: * * * *:
As a teenage prodigy in 1988, Jason Rebello received the Most Promising Newcomer of the Year award in The Wire magazine. By the time he reached the tender age of 21, his debut album A Clearer View was produced by none other than Wayne Shorter, not a bad start to a burgeoning career. A graduate of London's Guildhall School of Music and Drama he's now a visiting artist of the School.

Rebello has already recorded seven albums under his own name but surprisingly this is his first solo piano recording. He's worked with many of the biggest names in music such as Gary Burton, Branford Marsalis, Tommy Smith, Tim Garland, Jean Toussaint, Pee Wee Ellis, Mica Paris and Carleen Anderson, Peter Gabriel and Phil Collins. In 1998 he replaced Kenny Kirkland in Sting's band which won him worldwide acclaim and has played on three of the ex-Policeman's albums. Following six successful years with Sting he moved on to work with Jeff Beck and was featured on the guitarist's 2010 album Emotion & Commotion.

In The Rough Guide to Jazz (3rd edition, 2004) Ian Carr described him thus: "Rebello's is a very great talent: he has brilliant technique, and is familiar with soul, funk, Latin, classical music and jazz. His eclectic style reflects all these..." This eclecticism explains his ready ability to fit in with almost all genres of music.

Held is his follow-up to 2013's Anything But Look which involved a marriage of styles such as jazz, soul and fusion and featured amongst others, Omar, Will Downing and Pino Palladino. But the feel here is quite different. From the opening track "Pearl," Rebello instantly engages the listener with a repeated left-handed vamp over which he extemporizes fluidly. The title track, played at an adagio pace, compares very favourably with the doyen of jazz pianists, Bill Evans. This contrasts with a perky version of Lennon and McCartney's timeless "Blackbird."

Although not stated, the languid "Thanks John" could be a paean to the late John Taylor, perhaps the greatest jazz pianist to emerge from the UK, ending on a poignant major chord of gentle finality. "Happy But For How Long" is, as its title suggests, a mostly upbeat affair, adorned by great swathes of florid notes, whereas the final three tracks, "Purple Sunflower" "Polzeath" and "Dissolve," uniformly display a decidedly meditative quality. Rebello has produced something quite remarkable here with his first solo piano recording, an album of delightful and mesmerising contrasts.
By ROGER FARBEY

The Guardian, ocena: * * * *:
Veteran pianist delivers fresh jazz gymnastics!

Pianist Jason Rebello’s years with Sting and Jeff Beck were sometimes portrayed as a big loss to a UK scene on which he had made such an impact as a wunderkind in the early 90s. But on the evidence of Rebello’s latest personal statement since his pop retirement, those years never blunted his improv reflexes. In fact, they refined the songwriter’s ear that gives such broad appeal to a fine solo piano album, all original songs apart from the Beatles’ Blackbird. The unwavering left-hand ostinato and delicate melody of the Brad Mehldau-esque Pearl never loses its shape for all the gymnastics of Rebello’s variations and the title track has the seductive lightness of a classic ballad, but with an Eric Satie-like skew to its harmony. The headlong improv on Blackbird, meanwhile, is always locked into the contours of the song, and the pianist’s timbre and touch on slow pieces strikingly refreshes the familiar piano-ballad arts. It isn’t cutting-edge music, but it’s classic jazz-making very personally reappraised.
by John Fordham

muzycy:
Jason Rebello: piano

utwory:
1. Pearl
2. Salad Days
3. Tokyo Dream
4. Held
5. Blackbird
6. As the Dust Settles
7. Thanks John
8. Happy But For How Long
9. Polzeath
10. Purple Sunflower
11. Dissolve

total time - 45:26
wydano: 29th April 2016
nagrano: Recorded in August 2015 and January 2016 by Andy Allan at Michael Tippett Centre, Bath Spa University
more info: www.editionrecords.com