thomastreichler Posted July 17, 2007 Report Posted July 17, 2007 At present I am very much into European pianists. Here are some favourite recordings of mine: - Bengt Hallberg: The Hallberg Touch (Phontastic) A solo effort of the fairly original two-handed Swedish pianist with hints of stride and Garner - Enrico Pieranunzi: Live In Paris (Challenge) Absolutely superb piano trio (with Heyn van der Geyn and André Ceccarelli) - Enrico Pieranunzi: Alone Together (Challenge) Featuring Philip Catherine, fine effort, not that adventurous as other Pieranunzi recordings - Enrico Pieranunzi / Dado Moroni: Live Conversations (ABeat) Sparkling with energy and a wealth of ideas, swinging like mad, state of the art piano duo, highly recommended live recording - Michel Petrucciani: Piano Solo - The Complete Concert In Germany (Dreyfus) Overwhelming - Michel Petrucciani: Conversations (Dreyfus) Delightful and highly entertaining duets with his father Tony Petrucciani on guitar Michel Petrucciani / Eddy Louiss: Conférence De Presse Vol. 1 & 2 (Dreyfus) The pairing of just organ and piano proves, in the hands of these two virtuosos, to be very satisfying - Jan Lundgren: Cooking At The Jazz Bakery (Fresh Sound) Swingin' be-bop piano with the superb rhythm team of Chuck Berghofer and Joe LaBarbera - Jan Lundgren: Les Parapluies De Cherbourg (Marshmallow) This is piano trio jazz at its best, Lundgren plays film music themes, accompanied by the great Danes Jesper Lundgaard on bass and Alex Riel on drums - David Newton: In Good Company (Candid) A fine mainstream trio effort of the english pianist - Brian Lemon: My Shining Hour (Zephyr) No surprises, nothing adventurous, just swinging and tasteful mainstream piano trio jazz (with Dave Green and the redoubtable Allan Ganley) - Raymond Fol: Echoes Of Harlem (Gitanes) Highly recommended solo recording (lots of Ellington) - René Urtreger / Daniel Humair / Pierre Michelot: HUM (Stretch) Another unsung French piano master, this 3 cd set compiles three different sessions from 1960, 1979 and 1999 by three virtuosos on their respective instruments; this is not piano with bass/drum accompaniment but trio jazz by three instrumentalists with equal rights - Stefano Bollani / Ares Tavolazzi: Italian Mambo (Philology) Fanciful tribute to Dean Martin(!), sometimes with a wink, highly entertaining swinging piano/bass duo (Volare, Buonasera and the likes), recommended - Andrea Pozza: Introducing (Philology) - Andrea Pozza: Sweet Lorraine (Venus) Another fine Italian pianist, slightly more mainstream than Bollani, but great listening - Christian Jacob: Time Lines (Concord) - Christian Jacob: Styne & Mine (WilderJazz) - Christian Jacob: Contradictions (WilderJazz) All three records by this French Pianist with residency in the US are highly recommended, this is brilliantly executed modern piano trio jazz, complex but nevertheless very accessible - Rossano Sportiello: Heart And Soul (Arbors) - Rossano Sportiello: Piano On My Mind (Jazz Connaisseur) Brilliant Italian stride and swing player in the line of Teddy Wilson, Art Tatum, Dave McKenna, both solo efforts are highly recommended to fans of the genre Any commentary or further recommendations? Quote
king ubu Posted July 17, 2007 Report Posted July 17, 2007 Interesting thread... I am not familiar or barely familiar with many of the musicians you mention. You might be interested to check out Eric Legnini. He played/plays both with Bunky Green and Stefano di Battista. He's got at least one disc under his own name (on Label Bleu). Another good one is Stefano Bollani. He played with Enrico Rava, both in quintet as well as duo settings. I don't know any official releases of his, but he's great! If you want to go into territorry completely unknown to the folks here, you might check out also a few fine young Swiss pianists: Colin Vallon - he's got two discs, "Ailleurs" (hatOLOGY) and another one (Altrisuoni) - don't have the discs, but heard him live and on the air, he's great! Hans Feigenwinter - again, I don't have any of his discs, but several live broadcasts and also heard him live... Malcolm Braff - one of my big favourites! http://www.malcolmbraff.com/ Pierre Luc Vallet - he's also a good organ player (homepage) Thierry Lang - a very lyrical player, important chap on the Swiss scene, several albums on Blue Note Then there's George Gruntz - leader of his great Concert Jazz Band (previously "The Band") for several decades by now, who did a solo album for the German ACT label recently, "Ringing the Luminator" Another very fine young Swiss pianist is Jean-Paul Brodbeck who recently did an album of songs by Tschaikovsky (heard a live show and the disc in store but don't have it yet) (homepage) Quote
brownie Posted July 17, 2007 Report Posted July 17, 2007 European piano players you should explore include Martial Solal, Bernard Peiffer, Georges Arvanitas, Maurice Vander, Stephan Oliva, Jean-Michel Pilc among others from France. Other Europeans (there are many more) you should explore are Jan Johansson from Sweden, Tete Montoliu from Spain, etc.. Most of them have their own threads. Just do a search for any of those. Good luck! Quote
king ubu Posted July 17, 2007 Report Posted July 17, 2007 I thought this was more about younger pianists so I didn't mention big names such as Tete, Solal or Arvanitas. Big yet on all of the ones brownie mentions (Johansson I still need to check out, though), specifically Oliva... and Pilc! If you enjoy some more adventurous music, check out something by Irene Schweizer (her discs are almost all on Intakt, you might start with "Chicago Piano Solo", which I love a lot, or the first of the two "Piano Solo" volumes). Quote
thomastreichler Posted July 17, 2007 Author Report Posted July 17, 2007 Thank you very much for the recommendations. I wil check them out and report back. Quote
gnhrtg Posted July 17, 2007 Report Posted July 17, 2007 Good recommendations here. I'll just say that I don't like Pilc. I have his recent solo cd (called Follow Me, I think) to trade in case you are interested. Quote
Alexander Hawkins Posted July 17, 2007 Report Posted July 17, 2007 The greatest of the English 'straight-ahead' players - Stan Tracey. Possibly not in the vein of the other recommendations in this thread, but Keith Tippett is an exceedingly fine player, and Pat Thomas is a stone genius. Quote
Alexander Hawkins Posted July 17, 2007 Report Posted July 17, 2007 Again, not perhaps in this vein, but Alexander Von Schlippenbach is phenomenal, as is the great Irene Schweizer. Quote
king ubu Posted July 17, 2007 Report Posted July 17, 2007 Good recommendations here. I'll just say that I don't like Pilc. I have his recent solo cd (called Follow Me, I think) to trade in case you are interested. I don't like "Follow Me" that much, either... but I like him very much in the classical piano trio setting! Did you check him out in that format? Quote
couw Posted July 17, 2007 Report Posted July 17, 2007 (edited) some dudes with many consonants and funny letters: Iancsi Körössy Andrzej Trzaskowski Krzysztof Komeda and in honour of his recent death and also because he's da shit if you find him playing piano: Andrzej Kurylewicz there's more but with less consonants and funny letters. Edited July 17, 2007 by couw Quote
RDK Posted July 17, 2007 Report Posted July 17, 2007 The late Per Henrik Wallin. Indeed. I picked up a disk of his during the Tower close-out sale that impressed me, but better still is this 50-minute track with Johnny Dyani that I found on emusic... http://www.emusic.com/album/Per-Henrik-Wal...d/10842588.html Quote
RDK Posted July 17, 2007 Report Posted July 17, 2007 Malcolm Braff - one of my big favourites! http://www.malcolmbraff.com/ Just downloaded "Yele" with Alex Blake and am really digging it. Thanks for the tip! Quote
Sundog Posted July 17, 2007 Report Posted July 17, 2007 Anyone have the Marcin Wasilewski Trio CD? I like his work with Tomasz Stanko very much, but have yet to hear this album. Quote
Van Basten II Posted July 18, 2007 Report Posted July 18, 2007 Nobody has mentionned Bojan Z. yet. Quote
clifford_thornton Posted July 18, 2007 Report Posted July 18, 2007 The late Per Henrik Wallin. Indeed. I picked up a disk of his during the Tower close-out sale that impressed me, but better still is this 50-minute track with Johnny Dyani that I found on emusic... http://www.emusic.com/album/Per-Henrik-Wal...d/10842588.html Yes - Burning in Stockholm on Atavistic/UMS - fine indeed! Quote
Niko Posted July 18, 2007 Report Posted July 18, 2007 as everyone is naming his local favorites... of the pianists playing around Cologne i like a lot Martin Sasse Andreas Schneermann Florian Ross Simon Nabatov Quote
Niko Posted July 18, 2007 Report Posted July 18, 2007 Dont forget Joachim Kühn. Don't forget Wolfgang Dauner Quote
king ubu Posted July 18, 2007 Report Posted July 18, 2007 Anyone have the Marcin Wasilewski Trio CD? I like his work with Tomasz Stanko very much, but have yet to hear this album. It's a bit weird... I used to love Stanko, saw him three times with this trio, but last time it was pretty mediocre... the trio was great but sounded awful (cheapo drumset, not the club that is to blame, rather the Miskiewicz' bad-sounding cymbals, I think)... anyway, the trio on its own then I don't find as interesting as when they're backing Stanko... too restrained, too pop-like (EST, yuck... how boring!). Anyway, the disc isn't bad but it's ECM and hence it's a far cry from what they do in a live situation... Find an earlier discussion >> here << Quote
thomastreichler Posted July 18, 2007 Author Report Posted July 18, 2007 Does anybody here know Kasper Villaume and/or Carsten Dahl, two young Danish pianists? If yes, how would you describe their playing and are there any recommended records? Quote
RDK Posted July 18, 2007 Report Posted July 18, 2007 Sampled a bunch of these over the last day or so and that Malcolm Braff disc is a killer. My favorite so far, by far. A lot has to do with Alex Blake, but I'd love to hear more of his stuff. Quote
clifford_thornton Posted July 18, 2007 Report Posted July 18, 2007 François Tusques ! Yes indeed... people tend to categorise him with the "Free" thing, but his trio with Denis Colin and Noel McGhie is certainly across the boundaries! Quote
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