Bley, Paul - Solo in Mondsee CD
SKU
28-ECM1786
"Paul Bley, master improviser, alone at a Bösendorfer Imperial piano in Mondsee, Austria. Kaleidoscopically-splintered melodies, distant memories of standards, abstractions of the blues and spontaneous free playing are some of the subjects of the Canadian pianist’s “Mondsee Variations”. This is a resolutely creative and characteristically profound performance from one of the most influential pianists in the entire history of jazz, and Bley’s first solo recording on ECM since the crucial “Open, To Love” album of 1972."
"Another example of the improv imagination and self-sufficient virtuosity that has influenced many pianists, Jarrett included. … Though standards are fleetingly hinted at, Bley’s variations are less song-rooted than Jarrett’s, and he’s more absorbed by the sonics of the piano. It’s a dense, mostly slow-moving, session, but layered, coloured and sculpted by decades of concentrated invention that distils down to pure Bley."-John Fordham, The Guardian