| Label: PIROUET
Catalog: PIT3049
Format: CD Florian Ross, piano & Loops"MECHANISM" is the eighth album of the worldwide renowned pianist and composer Florian Ross and his debut on Pirouet Records.
o"MECHANISM" is his first solo CD.
oAlong with his sensitive interpretations of the standard "Sometime Ago", and "Moment's Notice", pianist Florian Ross plays his own pieces, spontaneously improvised in the studio, in some cases containing motifs with a classical ambience.
oMusic of overwhelming intensity that invites the listener to come along for the ride.
oRecordings of poetic beauty. However, those who know this exceptional musician know that beauty alone isn't enough. On eight of the seventeen tracks, Ross works with a looping device live in-studio. Thus there is the possibility of recording a particular number of bars and then playing them back - Ross can be his own accompanist. He uses the opportunity to further develop and orchestrate the composition that has emerged out of the improvisation.
oPiano music of astounding variety and at the same time uncannily homogeneous.
oFlorian Ross is not just a pianist; he is also 'shaper of sounds'. As such he has made a name for himself throughout Europe and worldwide over the last decade. His creativity and virtuosity has earned Ross, numerous honours, including first prize at the Danish Radio Big Band's Thad Jones competition,
and in 2006 he received the WDR's (West German Radio) jazz prize for composition.
oWhether for the Vancouver Jazz Orchestra, the BMI Jazz Orchestra, or the Metropole Orkest, when it is about transforming large bodies of sound into lean polychromatic music, then Florian Ross is the one to call.
Press reviews
The Florian Ross Trio recalls the close communication of Brad Mehldau's trio. Highly recommended. (JazzTimes o USA)
This is simply great jazz in the truest sense - challenging, inventive, grounded in tradition but always reaching for new horizons. Ross has created great music in a number of settings, including grass ensemble, string orchestra and quintet, and now proves his true command of one of the purest forms of jazz expression. What's next, Florian Ross? I can't wait. (JazzReview o USA)
An abundance of composed contrapuntal lines, with traditional big band space for the soloist, underscored by warm harmonies and serious swing; they are not simply keeping the candle burning for important composers they are flamethrowers. (Jazz and Beyond o Australia)
Pick of the month (...) a bright new German quinte Ross never overplays or indulges in rhetoric, and he's a most subtle and effective band pianist. In his pieces he achieves a
sense of organic development, which yet includes many surprising twists and turns, and always projects emotion eloquent of the human condition. (BBC Music Magazine o UK)
The Jazz Week's specially commissioned suite, Octagon, by Florian Ross, was a total joy ,it was a marvellous blending of the elements involved -- Ross's considerable gifts as a composer were much in evidence here, skilfully building from often the simplest of motifs, and allowing both the space for improvisation, yet subtly ordering the musical discourse.
(The Irish Times o Ireland)
In his judicious piano style but also in his obvious skills as a composer and arranger, which steer the music away from the mire of homogeneous Eurobop and into the realms of inventive and original small-group jazz. (Gramophone o UK)
 Price: $24.98 |
