I was alone, it seems, in finding Petrucciani’s previous Concord dull and self-indulgent, for it figured highly in Charles Fox’s and Michael James’s choices of 1984; and I don’t find this double album much of an improvement. I was impressed by the pianist’s work with Freddie Hubbard in London last summer; but out front he doesn’t convince me more than sporadically. The first side, for example, I find semi-interminable, notable only for the transformation of two superior themes into an undirected mess that made me scream for the lithe melodic grace and formal discipline of a Wynton Kelly or a Monty Alexander.
Things get better on sides 3 & 4, with a thoughtful and sometimes arresting reading of Monk’s superlative composition and some crisp work on Trouble; but my abiding impression is of a lot of technical skill and an undoubtedly fertile musical brain considerably dissipated by inadequate structural insight and proper sense of direction. Too often for comfort I get the feeling that Petrucciani is just playing, without any real sense of where he wants to go or what he wants to do.
One or two readers gave me a (probably justified) bad time about my assessment of Petrucciani’s previous Concord, 700 Hearts. I can only assume that my equally negative reaction to this issue means that, for the time being, this pianist must be counted as a Palmer blind-spot, and that readers more sympathetic to his work can safely ignore my comments and buy the record with confidence. Certainly, if you liked that previous issue, this one will please you.
Discography
Nardis; Oleo (17.40) – Le Bri-coleur de Big Sur; To Erlinda (14.40) – Say It Again And Again; Trouble (19.07) – Three Forgotten Magic Words; ’Round About Midnight (17.16)
Michel Petrucciani (p); Palle Danielsson (b); Eliot Zigmund (d). Village Vanguard NYC, 16/ 3/84.
(Concord GW 3006)
