Two solo piano albums, to kick things off, that have a certain amount in common and are released within weeks of each other. Both the work of top-class improvisers, one German and better known, one Polish coming into his own as a lead artist. Both are on German labels. I'm talking about Mondenkind by Michael Wollny and Lonely Shadows by Dominik Wania certainly among the best albums of the year like all five of these albums.

Wania's record is the more intense, interior vision; Wollny’s while certainly not incapable of finding those dark spaces has more an exuberant feel to it, in that regard he has more in common with Wania's fellow Polish virtuoso Leszek Możdżer while Wania is more a Keith Jarrett in temperament certainly approximating to the more austere side of the master.

Each deserve an emotional response particularly when individual passages transcend the technical virtuosity each so typically display. Most listeners, while certainly thrilling on one level or another to feats of great musicianship, aren’t necessarily always after such displays although I suppose we all get blindsided by great skill and expect it perhaps but not always demand it.

What each pianist here achieves is in their interpretations leaving footprints in the mind that somehow tap an imaginative response inside us initially and lingeringly. Solo piano albums have the ability to shine a stronger light on frank statement. You get that clarity and the infinitive resource which is remarkable.

Alfa Mist’s On My Ones scores most for being in touch with listeners who may not always just listen to only jazz or even at all but who come to the music via hip-hop and grime. There is a frankness here and a great candour in the rippling motion. Albums released immediately prior to Lockdown suffered more than most this year in terms of profile and this was one we need to remember looking back this year and appreciate all over again.

Benjamin Moussay’s Promontoire I liked a lot when I first started listening to it but while it remains a favourite its slightly sugary voicings lose their appeal a bit but only if you listen to the album too much so I’ve begun rationing this one.

Stefano Bollani’s Piano Variations on Jesus Christ Superstar by contrast is a revelation of reinvention and by all means wear it out. While fixed firmly to source material the interpretation allows plenty of scope for the born improviser in Bollani to stamp his own sound on numbers from the love it or hate it musical and if anything improve on the original, not that it detained too many jazz listeners in its original form first time around. SG