Ignasi Terraza: With Respect To Oscar And Niels

Exceptionalism is often presented with a spectacular surface. However, it also hides itself behind multiple layers of deep discretion. This is true with pianist, composer, educator and record producer Ignasi Terraza. His uniqueness is based on several facts: being the first blind person in Spain to earn—a mid-1980s achievement, without today's technology—a degree in Computer Engineering; combining this accomplishment with self-taught jazz piano, becoming over the years one of the few piano players on the Iberian Peninsula with international recognition, especially in Europe and the Far East; and last but definitely not least, succeeding as a jazz musician for over four decades in a country where, despite the efforts of many professionals, this music is increasingly seen as an outdated, minority curiosity.

Terraza is a founding member of the Barcelona Jazz Orquestra, leads his own trio and various ensembles, and has a long list of collaborations with top- tier artists like Frank Wess, Jon Faddis, Phil Woods and Jesse Davis. His reputation has grown even more since 2008, thanks to his work with Joan Chamorro's Sant Andreu Jazz Band (an essential catalyst in the Catalan jazz scene) and his membership in the quintet of the well-known star who emerged from that orchestra: singer, trumpeter and composer Andrea Motis. In the U.S., he has achieved remarkable milestones, such as winning the 2009 Great American Jazz Piano Competition in Jacksonville and premiering in 2013 his suite Imaginant Miró, dedicated to the Catalan artist, at Washington's National Gallery of Art. He has also toured the U.S. with the Motis quintet and performed in New York City with saxophonist Pureum Jin, whom he has recorded under his own label, Swit Records. This label is a key part of Terraza's rigorous and cohesive career. Through it, and because of it, the Barcelona-born musician has built a discography that, including reissues of earlier recordings, now totals around thirty releases. These works reflect his love for swing and mainstream jazz, underscoring its most amiable and accessible side—always fresh and elegant, but not lacking vital tension.

Terraza began the year 2025—marking 45 years of his musical career—by releasing With Respect To Oscar And Niels, a tribute to his primary source of inspiration, Oscar Peterson, in what would have been his centennial year. This homage also pays respect to the bassist, besides Ray Brown, who is most associated with Peterson, Niels-Henning Orsted Pedersen. The disc is available in two formats: vinyl and CD, with the latter featuring five additional tracks. For this project, Terraza is joined by French bassist Pierre Boussaguet, a regular collaborator, and Swedish guitarist Ulf Wakenius, who was part of Peterson's final trios and quartets—an association captured in several discs that document the twilight, yet still dazzling, stage of his prolific career. This is not a new group, though: producer Jordi Suñol first united them in 2010 at the Colmar festival in France, and since then, they have performed occasionally, but this is the first recorded evidence of their splendid musical understanding.

Much deserves attention in this magnificent album. The CD opens with purpose with "Lines for Oscar," a composition by Wakenius that sets a strong tone, showcasing the nervous yet never anguished swing that the Canadian mastered with impressive skill. After the tonic main motif, the Halmstad-born guitarist solos with robust eloquence, followed by Terraza, joyfully percussing the lowest register of his instrument. In contrast, "You Look Good To Me"—a Peterson classic—evokes a sense of forced relaxation that mirrors the atmosphere of the master's final recordings. Boussaguet starts by introducing the theme with classical touches, while Wakenius moves from meditation to exuberance, ending in Kevin Eubanks' mode. But it is Terraza who really stands out on this track, delivering a solo that brilliantly recreates some of those familiar syntactic constructions of Peterson.

"N.H.O.P," a track credited to the Frenchman, honors the Danish bassist with an adagio featuring reminiscences of Johann Sebastian Bach that certain listeners may find somewhat cloying and predictable, but unquestionably in tune with various pieces of his final times with Peterson. Shifting gears, "Cakewalk" restores that choppy swing so beloved by Peterson, with Wakenius bursting in with authority, Boussaguet pressing the accelerator and the pianist delivering an irresistible speech with crucial support from his left hand—here in Horace Silver mode, another of his major influences. In a fresh change of pace, "Easy Does It" introduces another Peterson-related theme into Terraza's most relaxed setting; instead of the usual series of solos, the three musicians exchange concise ideas, with the leader drawing out every bit of chromaticism from his instrument in his final intervention. Alongside that pleasant calm, "Sweet Lorraine" serves as a commanding call, an 'All Aboard!' urging us to once again enjoy the trio's overwhelming groove, with a masterful Terraza during his solo. "Backyard Blues," a Peterson original recorded multiple times with Wakenius, is one of the CD's bonus tracks and closes it with a blues-inflected, firm yet refined tone, with Terraza on block chords—another favored resource of the honored pianist.

But before reaching that finale, there is room for other interesting allusions and reflections: "Take the Bouss Line" maintains the atmosphere while taking us back to the Nat King Cole trio, a pioneer in the piano-guitar-bass format—and a strong Peterson influence—whereas Boussaguet's "Mother Land" shifts the mood with its persistent Astor Piazzolla aroma, featuring an incisive, outstanding Wakenius solo. Finally, the three pieces featuring each musician in isolation deserve special attention: "When I Fall in Love" allows us to appreciate the guitarist's art at its finest, stripped of his occasional virtuosity and revealing a profoundly emotional side, with traces of the most restrained Joe Pass, another frequent collaborator of the Montreal-born pianist. "My Old Flame" features Terraza, who sparkles with wise, absorbed discretion through a magnificent exposition of his personal style and manner. And "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes" aptly reveals the most NHØP-like moments of the French bassist.

Both Peterson and Pedersen were supremely gifted performers on their respective instruments, technically and creatively, as well as masterful creators of their unmistakable language. Attempting to pay tribute to them by overly emulating them would be as fruitless as it would be inappropriate. Instead, Terraza and Boussaguet incorporate stylistic, thematic and idiomatic elements from both geniuses into their own work, while Wakenius revisits his era with the final Peterson, though updating his language. The result is a recording that will be enjoyed by Terraza enthusiasts, mainstream jazz fans and, of course, Peterson and Pedersen devotees, but it may also help others, surely younger, to discover them. A final challenge for the former: Listen to this album, and then, if you can, resist exploring to any of the timeless works of the two figures celebrated in it.

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