Stefano Bollani Trio - Stone In The Water

Some writers are so striking that they can impose a musical language above its own cast. ECM - meaning the German Manfred Eicher - is typical. Always so. Discs are sonically sensitive, almost artisan. Generally intimate, close to introspection. Even the most rebellious musicians, creative, outside of that stamp. Not even a restless and brilliant pianist as the Italian Stefano Bollani (36, Milan). Yes, he has just launched, this time in a trio, his second CD for ECM.


Bollani was passive listener of the most popular pianists of the 50s, as Brubeck and Peterson. The father had a huge disco and loved jazz. But if there was influence, now disappeared. Bollani Bollani is. What is striking is its productivity. Voted the best European musician in 2007, he writes without stopping and maintains an annual agenda that includes more than 300 presentations. Filled the Sala Cecília Meirelles last year in solo show - so I know there was no cejubiano, irreparable blunder. The repertoire, as he is unpredictable. Vai a Tico-Tico no Fubá by Parker, Gershwin, Jobim, Legrand, Nelson Cavaquinho, etc.. The ECM strategy for taming the lion should not have been anything but easy.

Stone In The Water is the title of the CD. Bollani reappears with the Danish trio - the same as Mi Ritorni In Mind (2004) - with Jesper Bodilsen on bass and Morten Lund on drums. As usual, a set-list and some remarkable daring reconstructions, style ECM. Gift of Deceiving (Caetano) and Fights Never More (Jobim), examples, received a very strong dose of illusionism. Elsewhere, compositions Bodilsen, and Francis Poulenc's own Bollani.

Rarely heard as a Bollani behaved - in a good way. That atmosphere of an Evans or Jarrett. Without prejudice to the known and enviable harmonic conception of multi-talented Italian. Neither seems the same pianist who at Umbria Jazz 2009, in duet with Chick Corea, stunned the jazz world with a daring delusional. And he did himself Corea, also in a beautiful way to surrender: "It's an honor to play next to a genius like Stefano."
PS. If Monk were alive and saw what Corea and Bollani made with Blue Monk, never lay a finger on the piano. Just to compose.

Stefano Bollani Trio - Stone In The Water (ECM 2009)
Stefano Bollani - piano
Jesper Bodilsen - bass
Morten Lund - drums
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