Not only is Enrico Pieranunzi considered the best jazz composer and pianist in Europe, he is also regarded as an amazingly prolific artist. The ideas and the music never stop. Perhaps that creative restlessness is why he named his third release of 2009, Wandering. The recording is his 14th for the acclaimed Italian jazz label, CAM Jazz, which will release the new music in the United States on October 13, 2009 in digital form only.
Pieranunzi’s release of three recordings this year presents a unique opportunity to understand his diverse influences and distinctive voice in light of these very different discs. With Enrico Pieranunzi Plays Domenico Scarlatti , the fearless Roman took on an unprecedented challenge: improvising on the sonatas of the famous classical composer Domenico Scarlatti. He followed that with the ephemeral Dream Dance, the seventh album he’s recorded with his long-time American partners, bassist Marc Johnson and drummer Joey Baron.
Now with Wandering, he returns to solo form such as on Scarlatti, but returns to his own evocative compositions and mastery of his own personal process. As always, Pieranunzi plays elegantly and with such astute technical ability that it heightens the tension for the listener. He also captures the emotional undercurrents of the music expertly, stoking our imaginations.
Writes Paul Benkimoun in the liner notes,
“Harmonic and melodic progressions appear as events in the course of the stories told in Wandering… ‘Fermati A Guardare Il Giorno’ has this evocative power. Who knows why ‘Wandering 2,’ as ‘Dark,’ engender black and white images…With its repeated bass vamp, ‘Improstinato 2’ too recalls a dark menace…A master in creating atmospheres, Enrico Pieranunzi allows us to hear all of the tenderness which he is capable of in the tune ‘Rosa Del Mare’; … ‘For My True Love’ finds its intensity in the delicacy with which Pieranunzi exposes in different ways the same thing: words of love…Through the multiple facets which make up each of its pieces, Wandering yields a portrait of Enrico Pieranunzi. Thanks to a magnificent pianistic mastery, to an extended dynamic and to the amplitude of his sound palette, the artist manages not to be repetitive albeit remaining himself in every instant.”
