Alessandro Di Liberto: Flowery Piano

With its ability, in the right hands, to make pretty sounds, the piano is an instrument made to take on of the themes of pretty things. For example, on 2022's 88 Butterfly (Playscape Recordings), Peter Madsen's CIA Trio explored the beauty, elegance, delicacy and grace of our favorite flying insect, with eighty-eight keys and the supplest of touches.

Italian pianist Alessandro Di Liberto tracks a parallel lighter-than-air path with his Flowery Piano. The eleven Di Liberto-originals presented here each examine a different flower. Like so many top jazz pianists, Di Liberto comes from a classical background. His "Flower" pieces are mostly through-composed, with judicious room for improvisation to keep things fresh and vibrant, like a bouquet of cut flowers in a vase of crystalline spring water.

Stylistically Di Liberto can be compared to his countryman, pianist Enrico Pieranunzi. His touch is exquisite, his technique impeccable. The sound has a cerebral quality combined with an organic loveliness. These reflective moments, concerning the permutations and overlappings of fragrant arrays of petals and life-giving stamens ,can serve both as soothing background music or deep, alone-in-the-darkness listening with undivided attention to the sounds.

Flowers in nature dazzle the landscape; the flowers in Di Liberto's Flowery Piano sweeten the air with gorgeous vibrations. A nice mix of meticulous classical ideas tinted with jazz moods and freedoms.