The pianist Irène Schweizer, one of the most important exponents of contemporary Jazz, at the same time rebel and innovator of the highest order, gave a solo recital in the Great Hall of the Tonhalle, which is world-famous for its acoustics. She played a programme which, alongside her own compositions and improvisations, included pieces by Thelonious Monk, Jimmy Giuffre, Carla Bley – and by Dollar Brand.
The performance turned out to be one of her finest hours. Everything we appreciate so much about Irène Schweizer was there that evening: the freshness, the curiosity, the open mindedness that is familiar with all that from Ragtime to the Second Viennese School, from melomaniacal South African hymns to Cecil Taylor eruptions. This artist is as impulsive as she is down-to-earth, as determined as she is modest. Her performance in the Tonhalle ended the same way it had begun: with a standing ovation. Intakt Records
Swiss pianist Irène Schweizer has been a key figure in European free jazz and improv since the early 1960s, and this unaccompanied performance is an exhilarating 70th-birthday celebration in which she ranges across styles and composers from ragtime and serial music to Thelonious Monk, Carla Bley, Don Cherry and Abdullah Ibrahim. (The Guardian)
