The Paris-born New Yorker Jean-Michel Pilc, a much-admired piano virtuoso, likes unpredictability, and he certainly invites it in this free conversation with Denmark-based Mads Vinding (bass) and Marilyn Mazur (percussion). As Vinding notes in the sleeve, “this album is composition in realtime”, but Mazur is a vigilant drummer with a big tonal palette, and the bassist has a resourceful fondness for turning most free speculations into tunes, so although they’re dancing in the dark, the music is often lyrical and pretty straight-jazzy. Pieces beginning as bass drones or cymbal tinglings, then become plaintive chord-melodies; quiet musings are nudged into Herbie Hancockish freebop by brisk drum hits and harrying basslines; Ballad in G gets closer and closer to a country song, and there are several exuberant sprints over Vinding’s fast walk and Mazur’s explosive accents. My One and Only Love is stroked with a delicacy that confirms Pilc’s emotional range, even if his simultaneous whistling of it might have warranted reconsideration. This would be a dazzling trio to hear live.
