November 14 2010
The greatest pianist alive.
The Pianobabbler has often thought the person matching that description, the greatest pianist alive , is not to be found on a music magazine's front page, or a web site's home page.
The greatest pianist alive probably sits, as I write, in a basement, or some outlying piano studio playing greatly, alone, or for a small audience. He or she is serving the music at the expense of the music business.
Of course, the Pianobabbler is merely rehearsing the enduring truism that many a glorious artist thrives in obscurity.
In the confluent bog where the streams of art meet the rough seas of business, many artists, often the most artistic artists, content themselves to stay back in the dinghy and create, while others sail on by.
The Pianobabbler would like to shine what light he has on two fellow Toronto jazzers. Though they are not stuck in that backwater dinghy, they both reside firmly within their art, upstream from commercialism.
Jordan O'Connor, composer and bassist.
Lina Allemano, composer and trumpeter.
The Pianobabbler has played with them both, more with Jordan than Lina. My music nous differs from theirs. But the experience has always been pleasurably rewarding, rewardingly pleasurable. And both Jordan and Lina radiate the spirit of humanity with which the arts connects. Good people.
Jordan combines power and tenderness in their extremes. His ballads weep. His energetic tunes wail. Intensity. One audience member leaving a concert Jordan and I gave on acoustic piano and bass said the music had been so intense, that she felt she was leaving a heavy metal concert. Commitment. Yet Jordan plays with a grace uncommon in jazz bassists I know.
You'll get the idea in the video of Jordan's beautiful composition Brothers (David French- sax, Craig Harley- Piano, Nick Fraser- drums):
Lina brings an unfettered sense of happy exploration to her music. She opens herself to the sounds, and goes in to find the music. I remember playing my tune Allelujah with Lina. She had never seen it before. Without fear, right on the bandstand, she smiled and said "Let's do it." She made a beautiful job of it.
Just watch Lina in this video of Cannonball Adderley Tattoo (Brodie West- sax, Andrew Downing- bass, Nick Fraser- drums). She mixes joy and adventure in a way that includes the listener. We join her on her journey, in contrast with those jazzers who erect a wall between them and the audience, expecting us to look on admiringly:
Thank you Jordan and Lina. Long may the light shine from and on you.
The Pianobabbler has babbled.
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