The Week in Jazz is your roundup of new and noteworthy stories from the jazz…
Tag: Michel Petrucciani
French-born Michel Petrucciani was born on this day in 1962. He overcame severe disabilities to…
Jazz may not have an official yearbook, but it does have a vast and well-documented…
Jazz may not have an official yearbook, but it does have a vast and well-documented…
Jazz may not have an official yearbook, but it does have a vast and well-documented…
Jazz may not have an official yearbook, but it does have a vast and well-documented…
French pianist Michel Petrucciani (1962-1999) was born a dwarf. Reaching a height of only three…
There’s no discernible generation gap between Petrucciani, then only in his mid-20s, and middle-aged jazz vets Peacock and Haynes. Petrucciani's composition “13th” opens the disc as a duet with Peacock before Haynes makes his mark on the highly improvised piece via punctuation, a theme that gets repeated throughout. It’s one of five originals culled from the pianist’s 1988 LP Michel Plays Petrucciani, most with this rhythm section. The breakneck “One for Us” features Haynes dropping bombs between Petrucciani phrases and during a middle solo, as the always-innovative drummer alternates between hi-hat cymbals, drum hardware and even stick-on-stick playing. The playful “Mr. K.J.” is a nod to Keith Jarrett, whose trio employed Peacock from 1983 to 2014; the buoyant “She Did It Again” showcases Petrucciani’s incredible two-handed independence; and the gorgeous ballad “La Champagne” displays another primary pianistic influence, Bill Evans.
Standout standards include a warp-speed “There Will Never Be Another You” and a similarly rousing “Giant Steps,” with churning, bop-influenced work by the rhythm section and the diminutive pianist standing far taller than his stature. The trio gets a little too loose on “My Funny Valentine,” which concludes the performance, yet their enthusiasm unquestionably triumphs. The only real question regarding One Night in Karlsruhe is how a live recording this good could’ve stayed unearthed for 20 years after Petrucciani’s death. — Bill Meredith https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yikslzrS5IA