Enrico Pieranunzi and Bert Joris - Afterglow

The Guardian 0

(Challenge)
Italy’s top jazz pianist and one of Belgium’s leading trumpeters have nothing to prove on this effortlessly breezy set of originals

In its quiet and unassertive way, this is a happy set by two highly accomplished, middle-aged musicians with nothing to prove. Pieranunzi gave up being a professor of music to become Italy’s best-known jazz pianist, while Joris is one of Belgium’s leading trumpeters. They composed all 11 of these tracks, either singly or together, and play with such easy grace that I’d defy anyone with an average ear for music not to be charmed. The mood varies from warm lyricism to a kind of breezy playfulness and each piece sounds like a complete and finished work, which is often not the case with music that includes improvisation.

Quite a few of these tracks run for less than three minutes. One of them is What’s What, a spiky, half-humorous little nod to the bebop genre. On the other hand, there’s How Could We Forget, a lovely, melodious piece that unfurls itself elegantly over twice the space, with Joris playing the darker-toned flugelhorn. How they do it, how much is composition and how much inspiration of the moment, I can only guess. But it all hangs together quite brilliantly.