Bugge Wesseltoft, Jazzman for all seasons, returns with his follow-up to his first solo masterpiece, "IM". After a year spent touring the globe to great success, "Playing" is an album of rich sound, texture and colour that showcases his more lighthearted "trickster" side after the deep intensity of its predecessor. Contemplative piano solo pieces like the title track "Playing" and "Talking To MySelf" (Parts 1 & 2) gracefully glide between playful original compositions like "Singing" and "Hands", both featuring vocals by Bugge himself, in the traditions of "Somewhere In Between" and "Come On Buddy (You Got Green Light)". "Hands" propels a blues groove through John Cage's music room on a journey to Professor Longhair's lunar New Orleans - "OH YEAH!" The willingness to embrace technology as part of the solo pianist's armory is apparent throughout, but makes a dramatic appearance in Bugge's unique rendering of the Dave Brubeck classic "Take Five", turning a jazz standard into a psychedelic dub in a time tunnel! The centrepiece of the album is the two-part "Talking To Myself", a truly remarkable diptych spanning over 20 minutes. The two pieces display Bugge's remarkable skill with the pure and unadorned acoustic piano, and are intense while remaining accessible. Possibly some of the most beautiful music Bugge has ever produced. Making its presence felt is Bugge's love of percussion in the form of "My House": but not percussion in any conventional sense - the piano IS the drum: looping electronics in a full-on groove, complete with space-dub atmospherics beamed directly from inside the piano travel directly from the ears to the feet. The album closes with a contemplative solo piano take on Jimmy Cliff's classic "Many Rivers to Cross", a perfect end not only to the album, but any busy or fun-filled day in the life of an inhabitant of this loony no-time-to-stop modern world.

• published: 07 Nov 2013
• views: 40