Denny Zeitlin - Solo Voyage - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Not long ago Marian McPartland - who in the decades of her career has listened to and performed with more pianists than anyone else on earth - had Zeitlin on her NPR show InchPiano JazzInch and commented that she was Inchabsolutely overcomeInch by the experience. Listeners of Slickrock should expect to be too.

2017 from the jazz pianist. Note from Denny Zeitlin InchIn the two years since Sunnyside's 2015 of Riding The Moment, George and I have continued our expedition into new territories of free improvisation, and have found the journey to be very enriching and exciting. For listeners having a first contact with our duo, I'll repeat my remarks from our first album, since the set and setting remain the same. This album, like Riding the Moment, has roots going back to the late sixties, when I began a decade of exploring the electro-acoustic integration of jazz, classical, funk, rock, and free-form music. My trio included Mel Graves or Ratso Harris on bass, and throughout, the incredible drummer/percussionist George Marsh. We recorded and toured the West Coast, concluding this period with my electro-acoustic-symphonic score for the 1978 remake of Invasion Of The Body Snatchers.Inch

The past few decades have seen legendary pianist and composer Denny Zeitlin focus on a few vehicles for his adventurous journeys in music making. Playing solo, with his trio, or in the acoustic-electronic duo with George Marsh have provided ample avenues for exploration, which Zeitlin hopes to provide a wide scope of on his new, varied collection, Panoply. For nearly 15 years, Zeitlin has released new recordings yearly on Sunnyside Records. These documents highlight the different methods he has centered upon as a leader. Zeitlin's trio that features bassist Buster Williams and drummer Matt Wilson is a seasoned and adventurous ensemble that continues to generate fire in performance. Zeitlin's nearly six-decade long collaboration with drummer/percussionist George Marsh continues to yield extraordinary results, especially as they have continually broadened their color and textural palettes with electronic sounds. Finally, Zeitlin continues to perform solo piano recitals, maintaining his status as one of the foremost solo improvisers and musical interpreters. For Panoply, Zeitlin has collected unreleased performances from the past decade that highlight his and his musical partners' fantastic command in improvisation regardless of genre or medium. Zeitlin carefully curated this program to provide a sequence that blends acoustic and electronic music which transitions well and let's the music unfold. The solo piano pieces come from a recording made on December 1, 2012 at the Piedmont Piano Company in Oakland, while the trio recordings were captured live at Mezzrow Jazz Club in New York City from May 3 to 4, 2019. The duo pieces with Marsh were collected over a decade of home recordings at Zeitlin's Double Helix Studio from 2013 to 2023.