Artist: Roberta Piket
Title: Emanation (Solo: Volume 2)
Release Date: May 12th, 2015
Release Number: TNR-007
Liner Notes by Richie Beirach
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| 01 Softly, As in a Morning Sunrise | |
| 02 Haunted Heart | |
| 03 Con Alma | |
| 04 Saying Goodbye | |
| 05 Ba Lue Bolivar Ba Lues | |
| 06 Emanation | |
| 07 All the Things You Are | |
| 08 Ambiance | |
| 09 Actual Proof | |
| 10 Fantasy on a Theme by Chopin |
As legendary pianist Richie Beirach points out in his liner notes, solo piano is the greatest of challenges for a jazz pianist, “because all the burden of interest and variety is placed in the pianist’s hands.” In the fire of this challenge, Roberta continues to forge and refine her original voice.
Beirach continues, “Her touch is elegant, expressive and musical. Most important, there is an extraordinary emotional intensity that one rarely finds in today’s overloaded recording industry.”
The program ranges from free improvisation to reinventions of time-tested standards. Highlights include a reimagining of Chopin’s second Prelude in A minor; the mournful ballad Ambience, composed by Roberta’s friend, the late Marian McPartland; the Herbie Hancock Headhunters funk classic Actual Proof; a swinging asymmetric take on Monk’s Ba Lue Bolivar Ba Lues and Dizzy Gillespie’s Con Alma, grooving in 7, and a burning Softly, As in a Morning Sunrise.
The daughter of a European composer and a Great American Songbook singer, Roberta Piket is a pianist who loves to swing while exploring the more adventurous harmonic possibilities of jazz and improvised music. Roberta’s father was the Austrian composer Frederick Piket, whose works were performed by the New York Philharmonic under famed conductor Dimtri Metropolis. (The elder Piket, who passed away when Roberta was eight, is also renowned for his significant contribution to the musical liturgy of Reform Judaism.) From her mother, Cynthia, Roberta learned by ear the tunes of Porter, Gershwin, Kern, Rodgers, and Berlin (as well as accompanying lyrics).
Roberta has played professionally as a sidewoman with David Liebman, Rufus Reid, Lionel Hampton, Mickey Roker, and Benny Golson and was thrice a featured guest on Marian McPartland’s Piano Jazz, on National Public Radio. She has also toured and performed with some of the most interesting musicians in European and American improvised music, including drummers Klaus Kugel and Billy Mintz, and saxophonists Petras Vysniauskas and Louie Belogenis.
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“Pianist and composer Roberta Piket stands among the elite minds of modern jazz”
-National Public Radio
“She’s quietly been working on form and conceptual matters in the spirit of devoted explorers like Chick Corea and Richie Beirach.
–Ben Ratliff, The New York Times
“Wonderful and versatile… a strikingly fine pianist and composer.
–Josef Woodard, Santa Barbara News-Press
“…Piket’s dexterity is on full display…[a] diverse, engaging set.”
-Mike Shanley, JazzTimes
“…one of the greatest discs of Roberta Piket’s career. It contains eight of her finest interpretations and one of her own compositions. And every one—and I mean every single one—Ms. Piket plays offers a benchmark or a version to stand with the best…. an exceptional release.”
-Raul DaGama, Jazz DaGama
“…flawless technique and a decidedly inventive style… Piket’s musical realms continue to grow and expand and she exhibits a skill for incorporating the strong belief that multiple musical interests need not present an obstacle in the same program. In fact, Emanation is a masterful example of Piket’s additive creative process; it is one that allows her to cover a significant amount of esthetic ground while providing a absorbing platform for her ample talent.”
-Karl Ackermann, All About Jazz
“This recital will hold your attention. A recording full of warmth and personal soul and quirkiness.”
-Robert Rusch, Cadence
“Ms. Piket successfully takes up the challenge, leaving herself bare to express the music the way she hears it and she does so in a most personal and satisfying way… you’ll be swept away… Spending fifty minutes, listening to an emerging talent’s solo piano voice on Emanation is time well spent.”
-Ralph A. Miriello, Notes on Jazz
“Nimble and reflective… a mix of light and inquisitiveness…Solo albums give away the heart of an artist, and this release displays one worth knowing well and deeper.”
-George Harris, Jazz Weekly
“Impressive, often viscerally compelling….”
-George Kanzler, NYC Jazz Record