It's been a while, in fact more than half a decade since marlbank covered anything by Stefano Bollani, one of Europe’s most imaginative jazz pianists. Looking back to that time 2014 was quite a year for Bollani with the release of two albums, the first a group album of new compositions recorded in June the previous year at Avatar in New York. With highlights including ‘No Pope No Party’ shrouded in a Cool School atmosphere, busy stop/start flurries smothered in bright voicings, the melody fracturing into more open improvising space. A few months later there were even more delights in store with Sheik Yer Zappa Bollani’s infectious sense of humour going into overdrive on a project that couldn’t be more different yet undertaken with more serious intent as the pianist tackled jazz that isn’t so much dead as Frank Zappa memorably put it but one that only smells funny.

And now this his return is a complete surprise, a project that marks his teenage fascination with Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar 50 years since it appeared firstly as an album, and pares it right back to deliver a very nuanced solo piano album that is a world away from overblown musical theatre. It says much for the power of Bollani's formidable creativity and underlines his position once again as an improviser of world class ability. He funnels in borrowings from any number of jazz traditions journeying through stride to modal impressionism. On 'Gethsemane' you'll discern intimations from around 3 mins 20 seconds in of 'Willow Weep For Me' into rolling Brubeckiana spooling eventually into 'Softly as in a Morning Sunrise' in terms of quasi-quotes. In the process the Italian churns over like a baroque engine to give way to a certain serenity that Jacques Loussier would have killed for. SG

Out now on Alobar. Stefano Bollani top. Photo: Valentina Cenni

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