『現代ジャズ・ギターの皇帝』ことカート・ローゼンウィンケルと数々の歴史的名盤に名を連ねたピアニスト、ジェリ・アレンによる幻の未発表音源が発売。

カート・ローゼンウィンケルと2017年に惜しくも逝去してしまった女流ジャズ・ミュージシャン最高峰の1人といわれた才能溢れる天才ジェリ・アレンが共演したフィルハーモニー・ド・パリの夜が約１０年の年を経てリリースされることになりました。ジェリ・アレンはその後もスタジオ・アルバムの制作を熱望していたそうです。残念ながらその願いは叶いませんでしたが、幸いにも録音されていた至高のデュオライブがカート・ローゼンウィンケルとジェリ・アレンのアルバムをリリースしていた今年20周年を迎えるモテマ・ミュージックのジャナ・ハーゼンのプロデュースによりリリースされることとなりました。
繊細なタッチで描かれる音像、息の合ったギターとピアノがマジカルに絡み合う緊張感に満ちた高度なインタープレイ、ガーシュウィンのスタンダード「エンブレイサブル・ユー」やセロニアス・モンクの「ルビー・マイ・ディア」など美しさと緊迫感が拮抗する音の対話は、ギターxピアノという編成で録音された演奏の中でも特に注目を集めるものといえます。2012年、多くの人に最高の感動を与えた貴重な音源が遂に陽の目を見ることになります。

発売・販売元 提供資料 （2023/10/17）

A luminously realized duo performance, A Lovesome Thing spotlights the September 2012 concert between pianist Geri Allen and guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel recorded at the Philharmonie de Paris as part of the citys Jazz a la Villette Festival. Both Allen and Rosenwinkel had been circling each other for several years hoping to work together. The idea of a collaboration made sense as both artists were steeped in the post-bop jazz tradition, but whose varied performance experiences and inclinations toward advanced harmonic concepts made them distinctly compatible. Several months prior to this concert, Rosenwinkel had invited Allen to sit in with his band at the Jazz Standard in New York, an ad hoc meeting of creative minds that underscored their shared love of improvisational interplay and musical flow. It is that improvisational flow and sense of being present in the creative moment that they bring to this performance. They open with the albums title track, an impressionistic reading of the Ornette Coleman ballad. Here, Rosenwinkel starts first, his starry chords offering a shimmering palette over which Allen paints her own cosmic, classical influenced lines. Their playing is rapturous and enveloping; its like looking for constellations in the night sky. Its a vibe they sustain throughout the concert. Often it sounds as if they are discovering a song as they go along, as on "Embraceable You," where they offer glimpses of the melody under dense harmonic chords, like sculptors chipping away at a block of stone to reveal the body hidden within. Elsewhere, they present equally artful originals, including Rosenwinkels "Simple #2" and Allens "Open-Handed Reach." They also leap into a playful and dancerly take on Thelonious Monks "Ruby My Dear." Throughout all of A Lovesome Thing, Allen and Rosenwinkels playing is endlessly inventive and bright with the promise of more collaborations to come. Tragically, Allen would die from cancer in 2017, just two weeks after her 60th birthday. Thankfully, we have this concert as both an indelible reminder of her artistry and the intense musical empathy she and Rosenwinkel shared. ~ Matt Collar

Rovi