COMPOSERS: Jean-Michel Pilc Trio
LABELS: Dreyfus Jazz
PERFORMER: Jean-Michel Pilc Trio
CATALOGUE NO: FDM 36630-2
France’s long fascination with jazz has produced some remarkable musicians, and the current generation includes the 42-year-old pianist JEAN-MICHEL PILC, a virtuoso who combines Gallic panache with steely intellectual rigour as he artfully deconstructs the likes of ‘So What’, ‘Stella By Starlight’ and ‘Giant Steps’, and reshapes them in his own extravagant visions on Welcome Home.
His arresting technique is not deployed gratuitously; instead it serves a vision of jazz that, while compelling, can also be quietly unsettling, as heard in his version of ‘Tenderly’.