USA: Denny Zeitlin-Solo Piano: Remembering Miles (2019)

The great pianist Denny Zeitlin has always been interested in surprising listeners (and himself!) with his improvisational explorations on his original pieces and those from other composers. For the past five years, Zeitlin has been focusing on a single composer to reinterpret on solo piano for his yearly residency at the Piedmont Piano Company in Oakland, California. In December 2016, he decided on the singular trumpeter and musical iconoclast, Miles Davis. Zeitlin’s new Remembering Miles is a recording of this spellbinding performance.

The Piedmont Piano Company has been a Bay Area stalwart for decades. In 2004, they began to have live performances in their showroom. Zeitlin was an early addition to their performance roster. The room proved to be a perfect setting for his playing, as the audience has always been informed, appreciative and ready to interact with the performer. The fine acoustics, the amazing staff, and the ability to pick amongst the showroom’s many fine pianos, have made the room one of Zeitlin’s favorite performance places.

Zeitlin’s first composer focus was early Wayne Shorter. This was followed by Thelonious Monk, Miles Davis, Billy Strayhorn, and George Gershwin. The creation of these programs has been an organic process, which involved reinvestigating recordings; polling musical friends on appropriate repertoire; living with potential selections and allowing them to evolve; and... more
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released May 10, 2019

Denny Zeitlin - piano