Tales From The Unexpected

Among jazz fans, you can have a lot of fun arguing whether “European Jazz” is a useful counterpoint to the American tradition, an original supplement thereto or “is worth less than American jazz on the market” as it can be read in a Wikipedia forum. There is no doubt that there have been and are gifted musicians this side of the Atlantic, who have molded and formed jazz for decades. They have developed very unique playing styles by merging European music traditions with American influences. To give these pioneers of European jazz a stage was the idea for the series of articles “European Jazz Legends”, which we launched in the magazine Jazz thing in our 100th issue in September 2013. We can now look back on 11 issues. The symbolic stage has now become a real one, and it is in Gutersloh in the middle of Europe. Accompanying each edition of our magazine appearing five times a year, a concert planned especially for this occasion is being organized in cooperation with the label Intuition, the city of Gutersloh and Westdeutscher Rundfunk Koln with current protagonists of the series, hosted by our author Gotz Buhler. Each concert including an on-stage interview with the artist will be broadcast by Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR 3) at a later time, and the musical highlights of the concert will be released on a CD.

In other words, five concerts and five CDs in the series “European Jazz Legends” are planned for each year in the future. In addition, a book will be published, for which the article from the magazine will be revised and supplemented, among other things, to provide impressions from the concerts and discussions.

The CD of Enrico Pieranunzi is the third publication in the “European Jazz Legends” series. We from Jazz thing are very proud of this and would like to thank all partners and especially the musicians – and hope that you enjoy this new series.

“Presence is very important to me,” Enrico Pieranunzi said in an interview for Jazz thing magazine’s series “European Jazz Legends”. “The theater director Peter Brook speaks of ‘emptying yourself’ in order to perform. You should be empty in order to listen to yourself and to others – and to be in the moment. That to me is the essence of jazz.” Born in the Italian capital of Rome on December 5, 1949, young Enrico developed his love of jazz from his father and by imitating what he heard on 78s by the likes of Charlie Parker, Lee Konitz, Lennie Tristano and Chet Baker. The latter, with whom Pieranunzi eventually got to play and record in Italy in the early 80s, steered his piano influences away from McCoy Tyner and Chick Corea toward Bill Evans. Combining this with a sense of swing and serious lyricism, Enrico Pieranunzi is internationally known by now as a unique and decidedly European voice on his instrument, having won accolades and awards for his more than seventy recordings.

On August 29, 2015, Enrico Pieranunzi added a new chapter to this extensive discography with this live recording from Theater Gütersloh featuring his trio with the Dutch double bass player Jasper Somsen and French drummer André Ceccarelli. Playing intricately woven compositions by the leader and telling a few spontaneous “Impro Tales,” they aptly illustrate Pieranunzi’s initial statement – and make these “Tales from the Unexpected” a profound joy to listen to, forever in the moment.