Enrico Pieranunzi - Mads Vinding - Alex Riel: Yesterdays

Pianistyka Jazzowa
premiera polska: 2018-01-12,
Wydawnicto Audiofilskie
kontynent: Europa
kraj: Włochy
opakowanie: digipackowe etui
opis:
multikulti.com - ocena * * * * *:
Dostając do rąk taki album jak omawiana "Yesterdays", fan jazzu jest bezsilny. Bowiem konfrontacja ze skończonym arcydziełem zawsze sprawia, że stoimy nadzy i bezbronni. I choćbyśmy podejmowali próby poszukiwań jakiś braków, niedopasowań, rys, to przed uczuciem zachwytu się nie schronimy. Pokochamy i tym samym narazimy się na pewną zgubę, a zarazem na pewne szczęście, bo miłość jest synonimem cierpienia i radości.

Sześć jazzowych szlagierów i jedna kompozycja Pieranunziego tworzą album po prawdzie genialny! Siedem utworów, 66 przykuwających uwagę minut wypełnionych muzyką wykonaną znakomicie przez gigantów europejskiego jazzu, pianistę Enrico Pieranunziego, kontrabasistę Madsa Vindinga i perkusisty Alexa Riela. Każdy z nich był klasą dla siebie.
Pianistykę Pieranunziego cechuje ta subtelna elegancja, która w zderzeniu z unikalną wrażliwością harmoniczną daje zniewalający efekt, nawet tam, gdzie pianista daje się ponieść fali natchnienia i porwać urokom uskrzydlonej fantazji stan jego ducha nie jest nigdy egzaltacją, ale wyraża cichą, zadumaną melancholię.
Styl Alexa Riela cechuja unikalna dla perkusistów wrażliwości i dyskretność, co stawia ich w jednym szeregu z obok takich gigantów jak Max Roach, Tony Williams, Joe Morello czy Art Blakey.
Basista Mads Vinding o bardzo wyrazistym brzmieniu, operuje na tym samym poziomie, co Charles Mingus, Ray Brown, i Ron Carter.

Cała trójka ma po prostu charyzmę, Mads Vinding i Alex Riel nie mają kompleksu akompaniatora, ten zarejestrowany w audiofilskiej jakości koncert daje rzadką okazję do uchwycenia momentów, gdzie kończą się interpretacje standardów, a gdzie inwencja instrumentalistów idzie tak daleko, że powstają nowe kompozycje. Poza ulotną płynnością muzycznej narracji i doskonałym timingiem, jest w niej zawarta niespotykane lekkość i inwencyjna bezpretensjonalność pomysłów. Co ważne, żaden z muzyków nie stosuje żadnych „polepszaczy smaku”. Tylko w pełni ukształtowani, świadomi celu artyści tak postępują. Enrico Pieranunzi ma w sobie to coś, co sprawia, że nawet gdy położy jeden akord, to słychać tę "inność".

Reasumując, płyta "Yesterdays" uruchamia proces, nad którym my - słuchacze nie do końca mamy kontrolę. Tak dzieje się bardzo rzadko!
autor: Krzysztof Szamot
Copyright © 1996-2018 Multikulti Project. All rights reserved

musicrepublicmagazine.com - ocena * * * * * (5/5) Dull Zone:
Live recordings are hit and miss. Often they are patchy, an uneven listen and unless there are big bucks in the budget, more often than not the audio quality can be a bit naff to say the least. Even major label stuff with money thrown at it can be disappointing. Many are doctored to death in the studio post-gig, and bear little resemblance to the original recording.

I can count on one hand the number of great live albums I have, in a collection of music that I started way back around 1969. I tend to give live stuff and most compilations the swerve these days, so as not to be disappointed.

I make an exception here. Three real jazz masters… pianist Enrico Pieranunzi, bassist Mads Vinding and drummer Alex Riel….at the peak of their powers, on this new, previously unreleased live album, “Yesterdays”, recorded in 1997. The recording quality is second to none, as good as many studio efforts.

In that same year, Stunt Records had released a studio session with this trio, “The Kingdom – Where Nobody Dies,” and 20 years later they release this brilliant live album, the trio caught in the act at the Copenhagen Jazzhouse. This high-quality, multi-track recording, captures that November night in Copenhagen, with all three playing with effortless confidence and mastery.

Only seven cuts here, but it all weighs in at a perfectly acceptable 66 minutes, and we are speaking of quality not content, after all. The set opens with the title track, a Jerome Kern composition, the second longest duration here of just above 11 minutes. The Great American Songbook standard, Richard Rogers’ “My Funny Valentine”, gets a whopping 12 minute and 54 seconds airing.

The outfit also offer up Victor Young’s, “My Foolish Heart” – where the bass and drums lock tight and the piano man swings like heck, playing out of his skin with creative run after run – Fats Waller’s delightful “Jitterbug Waltz”, Gary Peacock’s, “Vignette”, an Arthur Schwartz composition, “If There Is Someone Lovelier Than You” (a pacy tune that fits like a glove for this trio), and the graceful Enrico Pieranunzi-penned, “A Nameless Date”. A quality example of the song writing craft, and a worthy addition to sit alongside the classics. Some beautiful fluid runs from Enrico on this tune.

The Victor Young tune they also recorded on the previously released album “The Kingdom – Where Nobody Dies”. (Can’t compare them as I have not heard the first go at the song, but I am told this is an extended and more improvised version). That previous album is now one of the all-time best sellers on the Stunt record label.

The Italian’s deft skills on those keys are in his own style, for sure, but I hear nods to the likes of McCoy Tyner, Oscar Peterson, Dave Grusin, most definitely the great French pianist Michel Petrucciani, and maybe touches of Ahmad Jamal, Bill Evans and hard bop exponent Cedar Walton. Alex channelling the likes of Max Roach, Tony Williams, Joe Morello, Art Blakey and the sensitivity and unobtrusiveness of former Miles Davis drummer, (from the 70s) Al Foster.

Bassist Mads in the same territory as Mingus, Ray Brown, Eugene (or Gene) Wright and Ron Carter, also with shades of young (45) contemporary bassist Christian McBride. Note: Pieranunzi, Vinding and Riel are in the same class as the likes of all of these starry jazz names I spew out in this review, as regards skill and quality. That is indisputable.

The record swings, it flows, it grooves, it lays back and creates an emotional ambience too, lots of light and shade between the up-tempo and slower material. Enrico is an exceptionally gifted pianist and an uber-creative interpreter of new and older material, the latter of which may have been done to death and seemingly covered every which way – until this man gets a hold of it.

But there should be just as much kudos given to Mads and Alex for their effervescent and steadfast contributions, allowing the Italian to veer off the beam if the fancy takes him, knowing above all else, they have his back. A very safe pair of hands x 2, indeed.

No big name guests required here. This is a glorious jazz trio record showcasing not just a truly magnificent pianist, but two more mega talents and a sparkling performance that has waited two decades to be heard. An essential listen, sincerely, therefore an easy task to award this album the maximum five big fat stars. Bravo.
By Simon Redley


JazzViews.net:
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.
by Euan Dixon


Editor's Info:
Mads Vinding’s trio album from 1997, THE KINGDOM WHERE NOBODY DIES, received quite a lot of attention at home and internationally. In Denmark the album was chosen as “Best Jazz Release of the Year”, and it placed among “Top Five Albums” in the American jazz magazine Jazz Times. After 20 years, there is finally a follow-up to this classic Stunt album!

Since then, the whole world has become pianist Enrico Pieranunzi’s stage. Mads Vinding – one of Denmark’s all-time bass giants – and the ever-present drummer Alex Riel round up the trio, whose playing on this recording from the same year will remind audiences all over the world of why their collaboration was so unique. The album has been a long time in the making, but finally here it is. Sound wizard Bjarne Hansen engineered the original recordings and now he has mixed and mastered this outstanding live recor- ding into a rich listening experience.

Let these three musicians carry you away with their musical intelligence, imagination and vitality. Let the raw and liberating force of this music enthrall you. These musicians are on the same wavelength, they share maximal mutual confidence, and they know of nothing better than this intoxicating mixture of serious playfulness. Serious - because this game is based on the deepest respect for the musical foundation that these artists deconstruct and recon- struct, throwing thoughts in the air in wonderful cascades, catching them and putting them together in new combinations. Playfulness - because their interest in this music is based on ple- asure and blessed with the ease that comes from instrumental mastery and enormous musical training.

This unique collaboration came about on Mads Vinding’s initia- tive. It was a simple means of ensuring that he got to work with two of his favorite musicians. Thus this project became a labor of love, which is apparent in the efforts of all three players.

Vinding’s big, rich, elastic sound spreads out a safety net under everyone, and his means of musical expression continuously astound us. Next to him, drummer Alex Riel’s simmering, crack- ling cymbals and fiercely inspiring accentuations are a unique platform for rhythmic nuances and dynamics. Add to this an Italian pianist.

If one feels the need to compare Enrico Pieranunzi with any- body, it would be with Keith Jarrett, with whom he shares a deep expressiveness, pianistic mastery and breadth. But there are also deep differences. Pieranunzi is more generous with his music. Fortunately he has never become an exclusive artist performing but a few times a year. Pieranunzi shows up spontaneously when he is tempted by musicians that may inspire him. And this is exactly what happened when Mads Vinding called. It is this desire to express something, this pleasure in sharing a common musical language, and this joy in being challenged by and in turn challenging brothers in spirit, that oozes out of every note recor- ded one evening in November 1997 at Copenhagen Jazzhouse half a year after the famous studio session.

One unique quality in particular lifts this great constellation abo- ve a mere performance of high caliber. Despite their telepathic interplay, each musician’s individuality stays intact through their means of expression, their sharing of solos and repertoire. We hear Pieranunzi’s mixture of romantic approach and straight- forward punch. We hear Mads Vinding’s aristocratic timbre and exquisite technique, and we hear Alex Riel’s intuitive and mature expressiveness. Their generous, playful, virile and poetic musicianship blossoms in a repertoire featuring one Pieranunzi composition, Gary Peacock’s Vignette and five carefully picked standards.

muzycy:
Enrico Pieranunzi (piano)
Mads Vinding (bass)
Alex Riel (drums)

utwory:
1. Yesterdays (Jerome Kern) 11:08
2. Vignette (Gary Peacock) 08:34
3. Jitterbug Waltz (Fats Waller) 09:27
4. A Nameless Date (Enrico Pieranunzi) 07:55
5. My Funny Valentine (Richard Rogers) 12:54
6. My Foolish Heart (Victor Young) 08:47
7. If There Is Someone Lovelier Than You (Arthur Schwartz) 07:28

nagrano: Recorded in 1997 at the Copenhagen Jazzhouse.

more info: www.sundance.dk