By Jeff Potter | Published March 2019
In addition to his fruitful career as a leader, pianist Alan Pasqua has performed alongside numerous jazz stars, including Jack DeJohnette, Dave Holland, Joe Henderson and Gary Burton. He also has supported pop/rock and r&b royalty like Bob Dylan, Ray Charles and Aretha Franklin. But at its core, this solo recording explains why the pianist’s in demand: Pasqua deeply loves great melodies and plays for the essence of a song. Naturally, there also is plenty of compelling improvisation and harmonic inventiveness here, but it never strays indulgently.
Recorded at Pasqua’s home studio on his big, warm Hamburg Steinway, this set has the unhurried, intimate feel of a twilight performance played for ’round-the-piano friends. Featuring several of his favorite standards—with an emphasis on ballads—the lovely, lyrical 10-song outing is transported by exquisite touch and fluid phrasing.
Bill Evans remains a strong influence on Pasqua’s art, as lovingly acknowledged on his 2011 tribute disc, Twin Bill: Two Piano Music Of Bill Evans, a self-overdubbed collection of piano “duets.” That influence colors this set, most notably on the opener, “Hello Young Lovers.” On “I Got It Bad And That Ain’t Good,” Pasqua elegantly reinterprets the tune’s inherent bluesy-ness in a rubato canvas of contemplative reflection. Appropriately, Pasqua closes his understated, openhearted album with the chestnut, “There Are Such Things,” imparting a confident, yet tender, statement of hopefulness.
Soliloquy: Hello Young Lovers; I Got It Bad And That Ain’t Good; Lotus Blossom; I See Your Face Before Me; In A Sentimental Mood; Embraceable You; Isn’t It Romantic; Girl From The North Country; A Time For Love; There Are Such Things. (56:33)
Personnel: Alan Pasqua, piano.
