Blues & Bach - the Music of John Lewis

Album review

Iconic pianist Enrico Pieranunzi was an enthusiastic follower of the late Bill Evans in his early days and soon became sought-after amongst the greatest American musicians to come to Italy (from Chet Baker to Lee Konitz). Across his long career, this major figure in European jazz has developed a personal style that’s both sophisticated, rich and leans into the intoxication of swing and melodic seduction. He effortlessly handles even the most diverse orchestral formats (though he shows a slight preference for the trio) and specialises in creating albums based on the great figures from his personal hall of fame—be they jazz musicians (‘Infant Eyes’ inspired by Wayne Shorter or ‘Dukes’s Dream’ devoted to Edward Ellington), screen composers (from Morricone to Nino Rota) or the big names of Western classical music (Scarlatti, Bach, Haendel, Martinu...).

This new project unquestionably continues along this path. In fact, it even kills two birds with one stone by highlighting how much the music of John Lewis (pianist, composer, and co-founder of the legendary Modern Jazz Quartet in 1952) owes to Johann Sebastian Bach. Accompanied by the Orchestra Filarmonica Italiana conducted by Michele Corcella (who also wrote the orchestrations), Pieranunzi and his trio (Luca Bulgarelli and Mauro Beggio) delicately reinterpret Lewis' great works (‘Django’, ‘Vendôme’, ‘Autumn in New York’…), carefully deconstructing and deterritorialising the music. Exploring everything an orchestra with a wind quintet and a string quintet has to offer, the arrangements most often forsake the baroque grammar typical of Bach to venture into the realms of post-Romanticism. The music is tender and sentimental by design, and Pieranunzi's impressionist piano fully conveys the modernist distancing. This project is as delicate as it is refined. © Stéphane Ollivier/Qobuz