Jan. 21--The virtuoso jazz pianist Jean-Michel Pilc has been visiting Chicago on tour for years, but when he arrives this weekend to play the Green Mill Jazz Club, he'll be in a new state of mind.
Last year, the French born-and-raised musician left New York -- where he'd lived variously in Brooklyn and upstate since 1995 -- to take a teaching position at McGill University in Montreal.
The move, it turns out, was more than just geographical; it changed Pilc's view of his music and his life.
"I feel that in New York, you have that 'if you can make it there, you can make it anywhere' philosophy," Pilc said, referring to the Kander and Ebb tune "New York, New York," rendered iconic by Frank Sinatra.
"And that philosophy of success becomes an obsessive concept over there. Sometimes it's dangerous, with the competitive mentality -- you can lose touch with the fundamentals, with the reasons you were in music in the first place, which is the love of music."
Moving to Montreal, Pilc, 55, said, "reminded me of how I was as a musician when I was much, much younger. I think maybe living too long in New York let me lose touch -- in spite of the greatness of the city and the greatness of the musicians.
"With all the competitiveness, you lose the innocence. Now that innocence is back."
By that, Pilc refers to certain aspects of the jazz rat race, as in the necessity of commodifying a particular musical project -- and sticking with it for long stretches of time, the better to sell it.
"In New York, the business is in such a way that you have to commit to such projects, when you want to play the game," Pilc said. "It's a game I got tired of."
Instead, Pilc finds himself engaging with a new population of Canadian musicians, leading a variety of ensembles and, on occasion, playing solo concerts. The scale of his sound and comprehensive nature of his technique make the latter particularly appealing to hear.
Pilc hastens to acknowledge, though, that there were other issues in play in his decision to move to Montreal, not least the fact that his wife and their two children speak French, a language prized in that city (albeit with some regional variations). With Pilc and his wife having lived a freelance existence, the time had come for "a sense of security," as the pianist puts it. "I was a little tired of struggling to raise a family in those conditions in New York."
For those who admire Pilc's art -- and his fans span the globe -- it's consoling to know that his teaching duties do not appear to have slowed the tempo of his touring. Check out his website, www.jeanmichelpilc.com, and you'll see him globetrotting from Asia and continental Europe to the United Kingdom and the United States at quite a clip.
McGill University encourages Pilc to perform globally, he said, meaning he may be enjoying the best of two worlds -- security and liberty -- in his new life.
"Right now, I feel lots of freedom in my life," he said. "I'm lucky to have a job that allows me to not worry about paying my bills, which is an enjoyable feeling after being a freelance and an adjunct" instructor elsewhere.
"I enjoy the feeling. One month I can play with this group and the next month with another group, then play solo.
"It's a feeling I hope to keep. Maybe I'm not being realistic from a marketing point of view, but it's a feeling of freedom I'd like to keep for a while.
"It's like a guy who got divorced: You don't want to jump into a relationship right away. You want to experiment."
Pilc's latest venture involves the trio he's bringing to the Green Mill, featuring bassist Ore Bareket and drummer Jerad Lippi. These musicians played with Pilc in a New York octet the pianist led briefly last year before moving to Canada, and he says he remains attracted to the particular beauty of their sound.
"Jerad to me has unbelievable colors -- he really puts colors on the music," Pilc said, while Bareket "also has this ability to fill the space with his sound."
But there's another, extra-musical facet of Pilc's artistic sensibility. Those who have taken initiative to be Facebook friends with Pilc find an intriguing array of thoughts and observations there.
Many of Pilc's aphorisms and quotations concern classical music, such as: "Artur Schnabel doesn't play Beethoven and Schubert, he reinvents them constantly. There is as much, if not more improvisation there than in most improvised music."
Pilc happens to be in the midst of listening to Schnabel's recordings of all 32 Beethoven piano sonatas, which reflects Pilc's ongoing love of this repertory.
"To me, listening to classical music, I don't have the same interference as when I listen to jazz," he said.
Interference?
"When I listen to jazz, (I think): Oh, I should have done it differently," he said. "I react positively or negatively to the music, and I don't think I'm as fresh and innocent a listener as when I listen to classical music."
There's the word again: innocence, something that Pilc seems intent on embracing in his new life.
"Portraits in Jazz," Howard Reich's e-book, collects his interviews with Frank Sinatra, Lena Horne, Ella Fitzgerald and others, as well as profiles of early masters such as Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington and Billie Holiday. Get "Portraits in Jazz" at www.chicagotribune.com/ebooks.
hreich@tribpub.com
When: 9 p.m. Friday and 8 p.m. Saturday
Where: Green Mill Jazz Club, 4802 N. Broadway
Tickets: $15; 773-878-5552 or www.greenmilljazz.com
