| Paul Bley, master improviser, alone at a Bösendorfer Imperial piano in Mondsee, Austria. Kaleidoscopically-splintered melodies, distant memories of standards, abstractions of the blues and spontaneous free playing are some of the subjects of the Canadian pianist’s “Mondsee Variations”. This is a resolutely creative and characteristically profound performance from one of the most influential pianists in the entire history of jazz, and Bley’s first solo recording on ECM since the crucial “Open, To Love” album of 1972. |