Copyright is owned by the Author of the thesis. Permission is given for a copy to be downloaded by an individual for the purpose of research and private study only. The thesis may not be reproduced elsewhere without the permission of the Author. Against All Odds The Life and Music of Michel Petrucciani A thesis presented in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Philosophy at Massey University, New Zealand Philip Douglas Broadhurst 2007 11 Abstract Michel Petrucciani, jazz pianist and composer, was a major figure in the history of French jazz who achieved much critical and popular success in his short life span. In 1999 when he died at the age of 36, he was enough of a hero in his own country to warrant inclusion alongside Duke Ellington and Miles Davis in a series of postage stamps celebrating great jazz artists. He was one of only a handful of European jazz musicians to achieve success in the U.S. This thesis examines Petrucciani 's life and music with particular emphasis placed on the evolution of his playing and composing styles through close analysis of selected piano solos and a range of compositions representing different periods of his career. An overview of his musical and personal life, as he battled with osteogenesis imperfecta, a rare bone disease that prevents growth to adult size, is also included, along with a study of the influence of pianist Bill Evans on Petrucciani's playing. Ill Acknowledgements I would like to thank the following people without whose help and encouragement this project would not have seen the light of day: The staff at Massey University, in particular Donald Maurice, my supervisor, whose enthusiasm and knowledge kept me focussed throughout, Julie Coulson, whose intelligent and scholarly advice was always welcome, and Norman Meehan and Robert Hoskins for their inspirational help with the preparation of this thesis. In the U.S. Eliot Zigmund provided many insights and useful information, as did also writer Thomas Conrad. In France, Ludovic de Preissac provided valuable resources, and Edouard Detmer, Benjamin Halay and Aldo Romano contributed a great deal to my understanding of Michel Petrucciani's life and music. Frederic Goaty's extended interview in Jazz Magazine with the pianist was also very helpful. Thanks to Franck Bergerot at Jazzman magazine, and all those who replied to my letter published in Jazz Times. I am also grateful to Mark Baynes for his technological assistance. Lastly, a big thank you to my son, Cameron, for his helpful suggestions and to my wife, Julie Mason, for her patience and support during the writing of this thesis, not only in Auckland, but in New York and Paris as well. IV Contents Introduction ... .... ... ....... .. .. ...... ...... ...... ... ..... ...... .. ... .. .. ... ..... ..... .......... .. .. . .. 1 Part One Chapter lA Brief Literatu re Review .. ...... .. .................... .... .. .. .... ..... .... ... 4 Chapter 2 Biography... .. ...... ... ........... ... ...... .. ... ... .. .. .. .. .. ...... .. .......... ...... .. .. 11 Chapter 3 The influence of Bill Evans .. .. .. .... ............................. .. ... ...... 31 Part Two: Compositions Chapter 4 The Process ....... .... .. .. ..... .. ..... .... ...... ...... ... ..... .... ..... .... ............ . 48 Chapter 5 Six Songs ........... .. ...... .. .. ... ...... .. .. .. .... ..... .. ....... ......... .. .... ........... 54 Chapter 6 Two Earlier Compositions ..... .... .... .. ............ .... ... .... .. .. ...... .. .. ... 69 Chapter 7 Two Later Compositions ... ..... .. .. .. ...... .......... .... .. ... ................. . 74 Chapter 8 Summary of Part Two .... .. .. ........ .. ...... .. .. .. ............ .... .. ..... .. .. .... 80 Part Three: Seven Solos - transcription and analysis Chapter 9 Here's that Rainy Day .... .. .. ......... .. .... .... .. .. .... ... .... .. ............... .. 84 Chapter 10 Beautiful Love ........ ............. .. ..... ......... ............... .................... 91 Chapter 11 In a Sentimental Mood .................................... .................... 95 Chapter 12 These Foolish Things .. .. ............. .. .... ....... .. .... .... .... ...... ... .. ... 106 Chapter 13 Little Peace in C for You (Flamingo) .... .. ... .... .. .. ... .... .... .. 112 Chapter 14 Little Peace in C for You (Trio in Tokyo) ...... .. ........ .. .. .. .. 117 Chapter 15 Brazilian Like .. ......... ... .... ......... ........ ...... .... .. .. .... ... .. ...... .. ... ... 125 Chapter 16 Summary of Part Three .. .... .. .. ......... ......... .. .. .. .... .... ..... ... ... 130 Part Four Conclusion ......... .. ... .... .. .... ..... .......... .. ... ... ........ ... ... .. .. ...... ...... ... ......... ... .... 140 Bibliography ....... ... ........ .. ....... ... ........ ....... .... .... ...... .. ..... .... ... .. ........... ....... 145 Discography .. ....... .......... .. ...... ... .... ...... .. ....... ... ... ..... .... .... .. ........... ..... .. ..... . 149 Appendices Enclosed compact discs: Music CD1 accompanies chapter 3 - influence of Bill Evans CD2 accompanies Part 2 - compositions CD3 accompanies Part 3 - solos Text 1. Interview with drummer Eliot Zigmund 2. Interview with drummer Aldo Romano 3. Interview with artist Edouard Detmer v 4. Interview with Michel Petrucciani by Frederic Goaty. Published in Jazz Magazine 1997 ( 11 parts). Translated into English by Phil Broadhurst. VI Illustrations Fig. 1 Edouard Detmer at work .. ......... .. ................. ... ... ...... ........................ 2 Fig . 2 Petrucciani at the piano - Atina .......... ....... .... .................. ...... ... .... 10 Fig . 3 Petrucciani standing with crutches ..... ...... ...... ................ ............. 30 Fig. 4 Petrucciani at the piano and on the mike ................................. 47 Fig . 5 Petruccia ni at the piano - braces .............................................. ... 83 Fig . 6 Petruccian i wa lking across stage ......... ........ .. ............ ........... ...... 144 Tables " Songbook" Content. ... ........... .. .. .. .... ..... ....... ... ....... .......... .......... .......... .. .. .. 53 Chorus by chorus summaries: Table 1: Here's That Rainy Day ......... ....... ...... ........... .. ....... ........ ... ........ 133 Table 2: Beautiful Love ..... ............................ .. .. .... ..... ....... ................ ...... 134 Ta ble 3: These Fool ish Things .. .............................. ... .......... ................... 135 Table 4 : Little Peace - from Flamingo .... ..... ...... ... ... .... ....... .. ..... .... ..... .. 136 Table 5 : Little Peace - from Trio in Tokyo ........ ....... ....... .................... 137 Table 6: Brazilian Like .... ...... .................... ... ..... .......... ...... ........................ 138 INTRODUCTION The man and his life Colouring any discussion of Michel Petrucciani's music is the fact that throughout his life, he suffered from osteogenesis imperfecta (glass bones disease). He had to be carried on to the stage in his early career before gaining enough strength to walk with the aid of crutches. His stubborn refusal to allow his incapacity to limit his talent was an inspiration to all, but to what extent the novelty of his disability contributed to his fame is open to question. It is difficult to determine how his disease and resultant lifestyle affected his performances and his reputation. Should these factors even be taken into account when examining his art, or should the music stand alone and be assessed on its own merits? This study will examine the evolution of his playing style through close analysis of seven solos from different stages of his twenty-year career to determine whether a clear progression can be detected. It will also look at how his later solos measure up to his earlier playing. A similar approach will be applied to a selected range of his many compositions. The alleged influence of pianist Bill Evans on Petrucciani's style will be discussed with a view to deciding whether that influence was all­ pervading, or only temporary in nature. An account of Petrucciani's life is also included in order to place his music in context. This is based partly on my translation of a lengthy interview, given by the pianist a year before he died. Excerpts from personal interviews with fellow musicians are included. Inspiration Two serendipitous meetings gave further inspiration to this work. Eating lunch in a restaurant in the Montmartre district of Paris in the summer of 2003, I came across a news item in the current edition of Jazz Magazine. A mosaic sculpture was being prepared on a small square north of Montmartre as a tribute to Michel Petrucciani. The square was to be 2 renamed "Place Michel Petrucciani" and the inauguration ceremony was planned for the following weekend. Eventually locating the square in question, I arrived to find Edouard Detmer, a close childhood friend of Petrucciani, and an artist in his own right, at work on his mosaic of a grand piano. Fig. 1 The offer of a glass of wine at the bar across the road tempted him into revealing many fascinating insights into Petrucciani's early life and career. Two years later I recorded a lengthy interview with him, from which several extracts are used in this study. The other meeting occurred that same week in Paris in 2003 when I discovered by chance a gig at "Franc Pinot" on the Ile St. Louis by a quartet led by the pianist Ludovic de Preissac. They devoted both sets that evening to the music of Michel Petrucciani, with stimulating arrangements of some of his better- known tunes like "Rachid" and "Lullaby". An album was later released entitled Looking for Michel Petrucciani. Content and methodology Part One, chapters 1-3, consists of a brief literature review, followed by a chronological account of Petrucciani's life, then a chapter discussing the influence of Bill Evans. Much of the existing material on Petrucciani is written in French. I have therefore translated many of the excerpts used. ,., .) I am indebted to Ludovic de Preissac for his help in providing some materials, including a recording of the programme made by Petrucciani for Italian radio which proved so useful when writing the chapters on Composition. Interviews were conducted and recorded in person with drummer Aldo Romano and artist Edouard Detmer in Paris, and with drummer Eliot Zigmund in New York. Email correspondence with writer Thomas Conrad also proved very helpful. Part Two, chapters 4-8, is devoted to Petrucciani's origina l compositions and includes analysis of ten tunes taken from the Michel Petrucciani Songbook published by Francis Dreyfus Music. Part Three, chapters 9-16, contains transcriptions and analysis of six solos and one complete solo piano track. The solo transcriptions and excerpts, and the compositions and excerpts were entered into the Sibelius computer programme. The selected solos come from fifteen whole or part-transcriptions collected from various sources. Four of them were transcribed specifically for this study by using a looping function on a Sony CD player, with the added help of a software programme entitled Amazing Slow-Downer: "Here's That Rainy Day", "Beautiful Love", and both versions of "Little Peace in C for You". "These Fool ish Things " was transcribed by Raphael Plat , "Brazilian Like" by Ludovic De Preissac, and "In a Sentimental Mood" by an unknown author . All seven are com plet e solos, va ryi ng in length from 48 bars to 192 bars. Part Four consists of the Conclusion and the Appendices. 4 PART ONE CHAPTER 1 A BRIEF LITERATURE REVIEW While researching written material on the life and music of Michel Petrucciani in order to formulate answers to the quest ions raised in the Introduction, one thing has become clear. No major works have been published in the publ ic domain. For an insight into the pianist's oeuvre one must turn to a variety of sources, yet nothing of any great substance is available to date. It is this lack of centralised information, especial ly in English, that th is study hopes, in part, to remedy. That said, much has been written about him. Short articles and rev iews abound in French and in English. Petrucciani spent much of his short adult life in America, quickly gaining fluency in the English language. He even considered himself to be half-American, and was a w illing interview subject. Indeed, the many interviews published in both French and American magazines are a rich mine of information for those seeking to know the man himself. There is one book devoted solely to him, a French publication which, with a few added photos, is actually the text of an eleven-part interv iew conducted by Frederic Goaty in eleven issues of Jazz Magazine in 1997 .1 It is the most comprehensive overview of his life and could be considered a quasi-autobiography. A chronologica l account of Petrucciani 's life and career, which places emphasis on his many recordings, it has been a particularly helpful resource for this study. Other revealing interviews in French include a fascinating conversation with Pascal Anqu etil in the magazine Jazzman. 2 Published just a few months before his death, Petrucciani radiates good will and " musical 1 Goaty, Freder ic. Interview with Michel Petrucciani. Jazz Magazine 1997 (translated into English by Phil Broadhurst ). 2 Anquetil , Pascal. Michel Petrucciani - le bonheur a la cle. Jazzman No.38 July 1998 5 happiness" . He begins by out lining his plans for an international j azz school in the Drome region of Southern France and goes on to tal k about such topics as what he is currently listen ing to, composing fo r part icu lar musicians, why he now favours playing solo concerts, the simplification of h is harmonic language, and increasing emphasis on rhythmic precision . He also addresses the issue of how his playing has evolved away from his initial influences such as pianists Bill Evans and McCoy Ty ner (see Chapter 4 ). Similar material can be found in a con versation with Petruccian i broadcast on Radio France and conducted by Michel Dubourg . 3 This is one of the last interviews (April 1998) and poignantly reveals h is exciting plans for the future which included composing and playing a piano concerto as well as the above-mentioned school. As h is ph ysical discomfort was becoming an increasing burden, Petrucciani was showing a greater interest in becoming involved in jazz pedagogy , probably as a means of escaping the dai ly grind of touring, as much as for any altruist ic motiv e. Published a month after his passing , an interview by Bernard Maury in Jazzman4 was recorded in Petrucciani 's Paris apartment in September 1997. It reveals a number of approaches to the music t hat the pianist adopted as his career progressed, namely the need t o comm unicate with the audience, and the value of limiting the number of choruses in a solo to leave t he listener wanting more. Also reveal ing is Petrucciani 's belief (shared by this researcher) that while it is important to keep listening back to your music, you are not always the best judge of it. You can like what you did today, but be indifferent to it tomorrow. Much of the interview focuses on biographical details and here the strong influence of his guitarist father is mentioned several times in the text . There is also an interesting description of h is first attempts at composing, which began with a request from his father for an introduction to "Body and Soul" that branched away from the tune, then led back into it. 3 Dubourg, Michel. Michel Petrucciani. Radio France Normandie Caen. www.jazzcaen.com April 1998 • Maury, Bernard . Michel Petrucciani. Jazzman No. 44 Feb. 1999 6 The interviews in French are generally more in-depth than those in English. One of the best of the latter is a late interview in a magazine for mainly rock players, Musician, by Robert Doerschuk5 in 1997, with questions slanted towards providing technical help . Only two pages long, it is still of great interest, not the least because the author begins by introducing Petrucciani to his readers by reviewing the opening track from his recent solo album Au Theatre des Champs-Elysees and comparing it favourably with a typical solo performance by Keith Jarrett. The author pulls no punches in saying "While Jarrett's presumption of total freedom sometimes stalls him in cycles of clueless repetition, Petrucciani finds plenty of room for expression by using songs as touchstones on his explorations". The interview concludes with Petrucciani's advice to rock musicians on how to expand their harmonic capabilities. There is nothing new here (read the Real Books6 , listen to players, do the scales), and the pianist ends up talki ng about his physical problems and turning his handicap into an opportunity for doing something else. A much earlier interview from 1985 by Krystian Brodacki in the Polish magazine Jazz Forum7 is reveal ing for a number of reasons. Interviewed by a European who ca lls him the "most American European pianist", at a time when Petrucciani was consolidating his career in the U.S., Petruccian i states that he feels more American than European, particularly since his move to New York. Yet he maintains his cultural identity, especially in the home. Petrucciani outlines various plans, some of which later came to fruition e.g. forming a band with another keyboard player on synthesizer (Adam Holzman - as heard on the CD Michel Petrucciani - Live in 1991), and the eventual posthumous release of a live recording from the Village Vanguard made by his then trio. It is interesting to note also that at this earlier stage of his career the pianist was more interested in discussing his influences, both jazz and 5 Doerschuk, Robert L. The Power Of Standards. Musician . November 1997 6 Published collections of lead sheets of j azz and Broadway standards. 7 Brodacki, Krystian. Michel Petrucciani . Jazz Forum 1985 7 classical, such as Art Tatum, Bill Evans (see Chapter 3), Ravel, Debussy and Bart6k. In discussing composition Petrucciani underrates his ability at this stage - later he was to put an increasing emphasis on originals and record entire albums of his compositions. Although there is no book in Eng lish devoted to Petrucciani, he does rate a chapter in Robert Doerschuk 's 2001 release 88: The Giants of Jazz Piano. 8 Placed in a brief section entitled " Old World/New Flavors", it 's an incisive summary of his achievements written to a format used in each two- or three-page chapter on eighty-eight jazz pianists. i.e. a page of biography and a page or t wo of assessment. The latter is well written and well-resea rched, opening with the line "In everything he played, Petrucciani exhibited a uniquely playful virtuosity." The author goes on to discuss in detail seve ral solos from amongst Petrucciani 's albums. Doerschuk writes about Flamingo, the album with Stephane Grappelli and hones in on a passage with its "beautifully articula ted triplet sixteenth­ note flurry ... it 's simple but flawlessly executed and designed." Other solos discussed include: "You Go to My Head" and the solo piano intro on " Body and Soul" from the 1998 session with Steve Grossman; " Petite Louise" a duo with Stefano Di Battista and "35 Seconds of Music and More" from Both Worlds; " One Night in the Hotel" and "Caravan" from the solo album Promenade With Duke; and "Caravan" from Solo Live. The writer concludes by tempering his praise with some reservations, claiming that Petrucciani "was one of the least cerebral players of his time and emotion trumped intellect. He never appeared to reharmonise a song and his arrangements betrayed no sense of premed itation " . Wh ile this may have the r ing of truth , one only has to lic;tE>n to "Tn A Sentimental Mood" from Promenade With Duke to hear a premed itated arrangement and some changed harmonies. As will later be revealed in t his study, just when one is ready to formulate a theory on some aspect of Petrucciani's music, a counter-argument can be found from elsewhere in the short career of this complex musician . 8 Doerschuk, Robert L. 88: The Giants of Jazz Piano. San Francisco. Backbeat books 2001. ch.54 pp 214-217 8 Most of the writing on Petrucciani can be found in magazines, and in a variety of languages. While this study is limited to those in English and French, the Jazz-Institut Darmstadt in Germany lists over 150 articles and reviews from periodicals in their archives. Thierry Peremarti was a journalist friend of Petrucciani and contributed several pieces to Jazzman, including Puissance 69 on the making of Petrucciani's last studio album Both Worlds. While this kind of article appears regularly in jazz magazines and often serves as glowing publicity for the forthcoming release, the author outlines the many problems encountered in the first two days of recording, includes quotes from Petrucciani and arranger Bob Brookmeyer, and reverts to the normal effusive praise only when discussing the recording process and eventual success of the final track. A later article, At Home with Michel Petrucciani10 is a short, but moving account of the pianist's last days. Many of these articles include extensive quotes from Petrucciani himself, who was happy to talk on a wide range of subjects as well as music. CD liner notes provide another fertile source, the most comprehensive being those for the posthumous release on Dreyfus Concerts Inedits by Pascal Anquetil, 11 a summary of Petrucciani's life and music with particular emphasis, of course, on his final Dreyfus recordings, and liberal use of quotes from the pianist. Another sizeable body of writing on Petrucciani's music is made up of the hundreds of record reviews that form the staple diet of most jazz magazines. Virtually all of his recordings have been reviewed in Downbeat, along with the compilation sets that are being released to this 9 Peremarti , Thierry . Michel Petrucciani, puissance 6. Jazzman no.29 Oct.1997. The author also wrote the sleeve notes for the CD "Both Worlds''. 9 Peremarti, Thierry. At Home with ... Michel Petrucciani. Jazzman No. 45 March 1999 10 Anquetil, Pascal. Concerts lnedits . Dreyfus 9 day. All three French periodicals - Jazz Magazine, Jazzman, and Jazz Hot - have documented his entire recorded output. Countless obituaries and homages appeared in print and on the internet immediately after Petrucciani's death . They range from the official - the French Minister of Culture, Catherine Trautmann's eulogy12 - to the personal, in an obituary written by former musician-turned-writer Mike Zwerin, 13 who played trombone on Petrucciani's first album, Flash. This recounts Petrucciani's character and personality, including his love of partying and swinging - in more ways than one " ... he personified the victory of the spirit over the flesh". Two documentaries have been made. The first, Lettre a Michel Petrucciani by Frank Cassenti 14 was filmed at an early stage of his career and ends with his departure to America. At the time of writing, the film has yet to be re-released by Dreyfus, and a copy could not be obtained. The second, directed by Roger Willemsen, is a sixty-minute German production entitled Non-Stop. 15 It has been shown on Arts channels around the world, and is a moving chronicle of the pianist's life. It revolves around an interview by the director, but contains fascinating footage of Petrucciani as he moves around Paris, San Francisco and New York. We see him catching up with his early mentor, Charles Lloyd in Big Sur, and the film ends with Petrucciani playing his tune "Looking Up" on a grand piano on the roof of a New York skyscraper. There is a scene in a recording studio during the session with Stephane Grappelli that gave rise to the CD Flamingo , and on stage during a solo concert playing "Caravan". This is a long sequence which includes Petrucciani's own simplified version of stride piano, influenced perhaps by Thelonious Monk, where the left hand alternates bass notes and chords within one octave. 12 Trautmann, Catherine. Hommage de Catherine Trautmann, Ministre de la Culture et de la Communication, a Michel Petrucciani. Website : www.cultur.gouv .fr :80 12 Zwerin, Mike . Adieu to the Little Big Man of Jazz. Jazziz P.16 May 1999, abridged from " Victory of the Spirit" . January 22 1999 www.mikezwerin.com 12 Cassenti, Frank. Lettre a Michel Petrucciani (film). 1983 13 Willemsen . Roger. Non-Stop (film). 1996 10 The interview is wide-ranging, taking in such topics as his childhood, the current status of jazz, his dislike of too much applause, the importance of humour in his life, and his fear of death. The film closes with the poignant words "I hate to say goodbye", and the publicity gets it right in saying the film "catches the wit and joy that were at the centre of everything he did". 16 Despite the fact that there is a plentiful supply of information available on Michel Petrucciani 's life and music, it is scattered far and wide. Indeed, it could be argued that the most comprehensive accounts are the sixty­ minute film and the extended Goaty interview. The following chapters of this study will attempt to bring into focus several aspects of his craft, while at the same time presenting a detailed overview of a life lived against all odds. Fig. 2 16 www.performance-channel .com 11 Chapter 2 A BIOGRAPHY PART ONE -life and music 1. A musical childhood Michel Petrucciani was born into a musical family on 28 December 1962 in Orange, in the South of France. While h is mother, Anne, is English, his father, Anto ine or "Tony", is Italian. He is a guitarist who used to play whi le listening to Wes Montgomery records. Michel's brother, Philippe, though no longer a professional musician, also played guitar. Brother Louis is a fin e acoustic bass player who is featured on several of Michel's recordings. The figure of guitarist Wes Montgomery looms large in all accounts of Michel's childhood. An early indication of his advanced musical ear is the story of young Michel correcting, at an ea rly age, hi s father's transcriptions of Wes' chords. From the age of three I was enthralled by guitarist Wes Montgomery. My father, and I too, were intrigued by his sound, time, phrasing and swing . It was hot and strong - rather like my Dad.1 When Michel's brothers went to school, he stayed at home, with the rare and incurable disease he was born with - Ostogenesis Imperfecta. Often called " glass bones disease", not a lot was known about it in the 1960s. Sufferers have an error in their genetic instructions on how to make strong bones and, as a result, their bones break easily. Michel grew to a height of only three feet . In many chi ldren with OI, the incidence of fractures decreases significantly as the child matures, and this was the case with Michel who was able to walk with crutches by the age of 21. Although it was always certain that the disease would end his life, he lived considerably longer than the experts of the day had forecast. 1 Goaty, Freder ic. Interview with Michel Petrucciani. Jazz Magazine 1997 (translated into English by Phil Broadhurst). Also website: www.j azzmagazine.com/ interviews/Dauj/petrucciani.htm 12 After seeing Duke Ellington on television, Michel was given a p iano - a toy one which he promptly smashed to pieces. He demanded the real thing. Fortunately for us, he got his way. This incident caused a ruckus ... I broke it because it didn 't sound like anything like the pianos I 'd heard! I had heard, and especially seen, that real piano sound on a TV show featuring Duke Ellington . A great TV moment for me. That grand, the beauty of that instrument...A great memory for ears and eyes.2 Michel began to take piano lessons, but soon exhausted his first two teachers who found him too quick and cheeky. When he was six, the family left Orange and settled in Montelimar. There, he began learning the piano with Madame Jacquemin who came from Paris. She had been forced to cut short her concert career because of her husband's heart problems. She taught me the piano for about ten years. We often came to blows, but she had guts. I used to have a little electric car track and one day Mme. Jacquemin said to me : " Inst ead of playing with your cars, you'd do better to practise your piano ... besides, I 've laddered my stockings on your damned track." I answered: " With all the cash my Dad gives you, you could easily afford another pair ... " I was eight years old! I 've always been like that. Maybe it comes from being short and handicapped, and not being able to walk. It was a sort of defence . You 're on the defensive when you're different. Piano lessons were an hour a week. But with Dad it was everyday: jazz and classica I. 3 Michel 's days were spent either at the piano or in hospital, in plaster due to frequent bone fractures. In Montelimar the Petruccianis opened a music shop . Artist Edouard Detmer recalls working at t he shop in exchange for free records when he was a child. One day he went to Lyon to pick up a piano which was marked out for Michel ... ... and that was the day I discovered Michel. I'd never seen him before and his physical presence affected me. I was twelve at the time, and Michel must have been seven or eight. We didn't speak at first.. .then I met him a couple of weeks later. He was playing the piano and said "Look how I play". And I must admit I had the shock of my life. At the age of seven, this kid was play ing like a god. " He's the Mozart of the century" I told myself.4 2 Goaty, Frederic. cf . note 1 3 Ibid. • Detmer, Edouard. Personal interview. Paris June 25 2005 13 Later, Michel repaired cassette players and radios, tuned guitars and demonstrated the organ for customers at the shop . Meanwhile he and his father had designed a special contraption to enable Michel's feet to operate the piano pedals - no such device was on the market, and, according to Edouard Detmer, the Petrucciani's later sold the patent to piano manufacturers. It was a simple, easily transported device that could be fitted to any piano. By the early seventies he was doing his first gigs with the family- on a small drum kit assembled by his father. Later he was allowed to switch to piano and soon began playing gigs with trumpeter and friend Alain Brunet, with brother Louis on bass and Jacques Bonnardel on drums. Aged thirteen, he played his first major concert with Brunet's Big Band at a jazz festival in Clioustat in the Drome region. U.S. trumpeter Clark Terry sat in. By fifteen he had played with the legendary drummer Kenny Clarke, one of several people credited with discovering him. An early photo shows Clarke flanked by brother Louis and father Tony carrying Michel in his arms. When Americans came through they were fairly surprised ... could hardly believe it. We lived in a house in Montelimar, lost in the wheat fields, and we were playing Take The A Train, In a Sentimental Mood with all the right chords. We were the Frogs who didn't speak a word of English. They were amazed! To them we were a bit like peasants ... Montelimar .. . the Drome ... They wondered what they'd stumbled on ... 5 The Petrucciani family later moved to Toulon, close to Nice. As Michel's local reputation grew, the gigs increased, including a trio set with Tony and Louis at L'Espace Cardin in Paris. Trombonist Mike Zwerin, who had played with Miles Davis, wrote an article about the trio in the International Herald Tribune and asked them to record with him. Meanwhile, Michel met Italian drummer Aldo Romano at a party in Nice and asked him to be part of the project. Romano remembers the meeting fondly. 5 Goaty, Frederic. d. note 1 I met him when he was in the South of France with his father and I didn't know him but he knew me. We met in a small village near Toulon and he asked me to play with him a couple of days after. They told me he plays very good. To see someone like that, you'd never think .. . So I said yes, he seemed very nice and funny and so I said yes of course I would do it. And when he started to play I didn't believe it . I was in love immediately.6 14 The final line-up for his first album had Zwerin on bass trombone and bass trumpet, Michel on piano, Louis on bass and Aldo Romano on drums. Flash was recorded in August 1980 and included three Petrucciani originals. He may have been only seventeen at the time, but the recording process held no terrors for a teenager who had recorded regularly with his father for years. A second album, Michel Petrucciani, was soon to follow - a more substantial trio outing under Michel's own name - instigated by Romano. I had a producer at that time, Jean-Jacques Puisseau from Owl records. I told him you have to record this guy, because he's too much. So Jean-Jacques said "Do you have a tape?" I said No, nothing, but you have to book him immediately for a record. After a few months, we made the record and it was immediately successful, Michel Petrucciani with J-F Jenny-Clark. After that we did another one in Italy called Estate and we were touring for about two years. 7 2. An American Adventure In 1981, against his family's wishes, Michel wrote a dud cheque at the airport and boarded a plane for California. From an early age he had wanted to travel and see the world. Soon after he arrived he met up with an old drummer acquaintance, Trax Drohart, who may or may not have introduced him to Charles Lloyd. Saxophonist Lloyd's discovery of the young pianist is one of the more celebrated episodes in Michel 's life, yet accounts vary wildly as to how Michel ended up staying with him and when exactly he first played the piano for him. In Michel's long magazine interview with Frederic Goaty, he says he met Lloyd's wife, Dorothy Darr at a dance class at a therapy institute in Big Sur. She invited him to 6 Romano, Aldo. Personal interview. Paris June 23 2005 7 Ibid . 15 dinner, there was a piano in the house, and Michel was invited to play that very evening. He recounts a different chain of events in his New York conversation with Ben Sidran, recorded for National Public Radio in September 1988. When I met Charles I didn't know who he was. I stayed at his house for about a month . There was a piano in his studio. I have a rule - I never touch other people's instruments unless they ask me to. I don't like it when other people do that in my house .. .. One day he said, "What do you do?" I said, "I play the piano." "Would you play something for me?" I said, "O.K." By that time it was a month without playing. I was dying to touch the ivories, so I did.8 At this point the accounts converge. After ten minutes, to Michel's consternation, Lloyd left the room - only to return with his tenor sax, an instrument he had hardly touched for years. The pair played until five in the morning, then continued two hours later. They played for three days non-stop, then Charles called his lawyers and manager and told them he had found the avatar of the piano and was re-starting his music career. Lloyd had retired at the height of his success with the hippie crowd in the Sixties. His quartet included a young Keith Jarrett and drummer Jack De Johnette, and was one of the few jazz groups to play concerts in the big rock stadiums. He disappeared from public life and pursued a very successful career as an estate agent, until meeting Michel. Ironica lly, Petrucciani knew nothing of Lloyd's erstwhile fame and was even ignorant of the talents of Keith Jarrett - a fact attributable in part to the influence of his father's taste. It was only a few days later that Michel played a concert with Lloyd in Santa Barbara to 2,000 people. Soon he was appearing in the papers as the French wonderboy who had brought back the great master. Providence and talent had granted him stardom at an early age. Two months later he recorded his first album with Lloyd at the Montreux Jazz Festival and went on to play with him for five years. He was now married "Green Card -style" to his first wife Erlinda Montano. They, too, stayed together for five years. 8 Sidran, Ben. Conversations with Michel. September 1988 Go Jazz CD, LC 05082 16 Before the Lloyd recording Michel returned briefly to Paris to cut an album for Jean-Jacques Pussiau who ran Owl Records. Toot Sweet is a duo recording with the great alto player Lee Konitz - a fairly successful pairing which Petrucciani remembers little about. In autumn 1982 Michel was back in Paris playing with Charles Lloyd at the Paris Jazz Festival And there I am back in France, an American: I speak American, I look American, I arrive in sandals - we played bare-foot! I'd lost all my French ways ... 9 Petrucciani recalled this era as the greatest time of his life. Lloyd booked only the finest hotels and Michel saw a side of life that astonished and thrilled him. Travel was fascinating, plane flights a novelty, and discovering different countries and cultures a buzz. Fifteen years later Michel tells a different story. These days, I'm ashamed to say I'm a little blase .. .I still enjoy it, but there's not the same excitement . I went to Japan twenty-five times, and countless times to Montreux ... I take too many planes and I get sick of them . Look out, I'm talking "career". Music's different. They pay me today to pack my bags in a way. My music is always free, but to pack my bags costs more and more, because I have less and less desire to do it. 10 Michel continued to record for Owl Records with a solo date in October 1982 dedicated to Bill Evans - Oracle's Destiny. He was also the subject of a film made by Frank Cassenti, Letter to Michel Petrucciani, shown at the Cannes Film Festival the following year, the first of two films dedicated to him .11 1983 saw him voted "Jazzman of the Year" by the noted critic Leonard Feather, "Best European jazz musician" by the Italian Ministry of Culture, and in France he received the Django Reinhardt Prize. 12 He was still only twenty years of age. More albums followed, including the first American record 100 Hearts. The solo disc gained a four-star review in DownBeat magazine and was produced by the celebrated entrepreneur George Wein, Michel's first U.S. agent. Note 'N Notes, a solo outing, with piano parts overdubbed, followed for Owl records. 9 Goaty, Frederic . cf. note 1 10 Ibid. 11 Cassenti, Frank. Lettre a Michel Petrucciani (film). France 1983 Willemsen . Roger. Non-Stop (film). Germany 1996 12 The Prix Django Reinhardt has been awarded yearly since 1955 for the best French jazz musician . 17 All through these years musicians took it in turn to carry Michel around - it even became something of an honour to be a carrier. There were good-natured jokes about forming a carriers club with such notable members as Lee Konitz, Jim Hall and Charles Lloyd . Although Petrucciani returned to France regularly through the eighties, he felt more at home in the States and preferred the American way of thinking. It was a position that was to shift later in life when he went back to feeling more French and maintained apartments in both countries. Though quick to praise Charles Lloyd for opening so many doors for him, Michel left him in 1985, claiming that he had been paid virtually nothing during the five years they worked together. After a brief spell with bassist Charlie Haden, he settled in the jazz capital of New York, where he began playing with bassist Ron McClure, having recorded a duo album with him for Owl Records, his last for the label. In New York I really lived jazz, became part of the jazz world . The bars, night clubs, I hung out until five in the morning, talking, playing, jamming. It was THE great town, no more Californian country ... I met everyone: Sonny Rollins ... . Gil Evans .. .Jack DeJohnette.13 A chance meeting with the great arranger Gil Evans led to a brief friendship. One day, Michel received a call from him wishing him luck with his music. He died a few hours later. That really touched me ... just to talk about it... Yet we never played together. I affected people, I think. Sometimes I tell myself I must be an interesting person ... People have a certain admiration for me, as if they see I'm a lesson in courage .. . 14 Later that year Petrucciani signed a contract with Blue Note, the most prestigious label in jazz, reborn under its new president Bruce Lundvall. He was the first European jazz artist to be signed to a major U.S. label, yet there were problems from the outset. Not only did Michel fa il to read the contract and conditions properly - leading to major issues later - but Blue Note wanted to make a star of the young pianist and assigned a producer who had more experience in the pop music field . He asked 13 Goaty, Frederic. cf. note 1 1 • Ibid . 18 Michel to record the theme from Superman. Michel refused and called in Lundvall to sort it out. Pianism sold around 15,000 in the U.S., a healthy debut, and featured Petrucciani's working trio of the time - Palle Danielsson on bass and drummer Eliot Zigmund who remembers the session well. There's a funny story to that album. We went into the studio and did it in one day. It took them forever to get t he sound - literally six hours. We were just playing at the end of the day and we put a couple of tracks down finally, after they got the sound. The whole idea of the album was to come back the next day and re-record it. And at the end of that one day - very frazzled, we were all ill-tempered. It's impossible if they take t hat long to get the sound, especially with a trio, And then the producer, this guy who was known for producing Barbara Streisand - how he ever became a jazz producer, I 'll never know. He said, " Well, that's it, we got it. I looked at Michel and said "What?" As nice as that album is, it could have been much better. There's things on it ... Michel loses the form on " Night and Day". There are a couple of things that are really glaring . We really should have come back the next day and redone it . So that was it for Palle. That was the last time I played with Palle and Michel. That was the way the trio ended. It was kind of a drag. That was one of the haphazard things that happened - typica l of what could have happened in that band. It felt at times there was nobody really in charge. Anything cou ld happen and that was one of them. Nobody to say, No wait a second, we got to come back tomorrow. Michel just kind of accepted it, and it was strange because it was his first album for Blue Note. It should have been redone. 15 In July 1986 Petrucciani recorded his second album for Blue Note, another trio record - but with a difference, this time featuring guitar and sax. By this time his reputation had grown to the extent that he was able to hold his own with two living legends of jazz, Jim Hall and Wayne Shorter. He ca lls it "an exceptiona l meeting". Power of Three was recorded live at the Montreux festival and released on video as well as CD, one of only four video recordings of Petrucciani available at the time of writing . Michel Plays Petrucciani followed a year later and sees the pianist at his best in two conventiona l trio settings with guest guitarist John Abercrombie. Once again he is working with big names - bassists Gary Peacock and Eddie Gomez and drummers Roy Haynes and Al Foster. While the earlier trio recordings - Live at the Village Vanguard, recorded first, 15 Zigmund, Eliot. Personal Interview. New York June 7 2005 19 but released later, and Pianism - featured several Petrucciani originals, this album sees him going in a direction he maintained through much of his remaining career. There are no standards - all tunes are written by Michel. A long world tour with Peacock and Haynes followed in 1988. Blue Note were ultimately successful in pushing Michel Petrucciani into a more commercial area, and several albums featured him on synthesizer as well as piano, one or two even including another synthesizer player and a percussionist. Some of his writing at this time bordered on the banal, with some tunes sounding more like TV themes. Petrucciani, himself, calls this his "easier" period, with more emphasis on the song and less on jazz, and a desire to make his music more accessible. He sees it as the start of his career as a writer of more listenable songs. The album Music from 1989 sold more than 90,000 copies in France and even more in the States. It proved to be a major turning point in his career and turned Michel into a star. Ironically, he had to fight hard some years later to obtain the royalties that were his due. He enlisted the help of Francis Dreyfus, owner of the Dreyfus label Petrucciani would switch to, and he received a cursory note of apology from Blue Note, together with a cheque that the pianist describes as "$450,000 - not such a huge amount over seven years". When one of his idols, McCoy Tyner, couldn't make a session organised by drummer Lenny White, Michel was asked to take his place. He was on tour in France at the time and was flown back to New York on the Concord , paid $26,000 for three days work, t hen flown back t o Paris . Influenced perhaps by Music, White uses two synthesizer players to colour the sound. The resulting CD and video, The Manhattan Project, is a mixed bag with only Wayne Shorter and Michel himself providing solos of substance. Petrucciani waited two years before recording his next album for Blue Note Playground. Influenced by the sound of Miles Davis' Tutu album, Michel used the keyboards of Adam Holzman, who had just left Miles Davis' band. To strengthen the Miles connection, Michel wrote a witty collection of Miles phrases from his fusion period and called it "Miles Davis Licks" 20 Michel Petrucciani's second-to-last album for Blue Note was a highly regarded solo tribute to Duke Ellington called Promenade with Duke. Here we have a different project altogether with Michel interpreting such classic jazz repertoire as "Take the A Train", " Satin Doll" and " In a Sentimental Mood" in his own imaginative way . There is only one original - " One Night in the Hotel - and it's one of his most lyrical and endearing compositions. He was now married again , this time to a classical pianist, Gilda Butta , who he credits with getting his left hand up to speed for the recording session (the marriage lasted only three months). A final, unplanned, Blue Note disc came about through Petrucciani 's insistence . 1991's Live documents the band he was touring with at the time and includes versions of already-recorded originals played by an unusual line-up of piano, electric keyboards, bass, drums and percussion. 3. The Dreyfus Years No longer the sole European on the Blue Note roster, Petrucciani was becoming disenchanted with the label. He began negotiations in France with Francis Dreyfus who had recently formed his own label. In financial strife at the time, Petrucciani had even attempted suicide. I threw myself down a staircase in a bar. I chucked my crutches away, and I passed out. With all my fragile bones, I didn't even break a rib ... When I came to, nothing was wrong with me. I told myself God didn't want me to die . I wasn 't ready ... It wasn't my time. I picked myself up and things started to improve. 16 Dreyfus helped Petrucciani to recover the royalties owed by Blue Note and the final phase of the pianist's recording career was spent with the Dreyfus label. The first release, Marvellous, was marred by some muddy writing and poor recording of a string quartet, though Petrucciani's playing is quite joyful at times and he seems to be enjoying playing with the ace rhythm team of Dave Holland and Tony Williams. He says himself that in retrospect he didn't feel quite ready to do the arrangements (he did them anyway) and if he had the chance he'd remix the string quartet and put 16 Goaty, Frederic. cf. note 1 21 them more to the forefront. He was particularly flattered that drummer Tony Williams liked his melodies. Back in New York Michel rented a flat at the property owned by the wife of Victor Jones, drummer with his previous band, but he was soon back playing and recording in Paris at the Petit Journal Montparnasse w ith one of his idols , organist Eddie Louiss. Two duo albums were released from those 1983 sessions - Conference de Presse Vol. 1&2, the title coming from Louiss ' reluctance to talk to the press. They held a press conference, but played instead. Although his recorded oeuvre is scattered throughout with solo piano sessions, Michel Petrucciani played an increasing number of solo concerts in the last decade of his life. Several are documented on the Dreyfus label, including a live double CD set Au Theatre des Champs-Elysees in November 1994, which opens with a 40-minute tour de force " Medley of my Favourite Songs". It's the complete concert, without any touch-ups. Nothing was changed , not a single note, unlike Keith Jarrett's Kain Concert. Through playing solo a lot the last few years, the worlds great classical concert halls have opened their doors to me. I'm even due to play at La Scala in Milan in 1999 - Jarrett's already played there, but that's normal .. . he has more talent than me ... and more years behind him .. . In these halls it's wonderful. .. there 's a piano, no mike, you just play .. .17 Sadly, Michel Petrucciani never made it to La Scala. Eliot Zigmund believes that the reason behind the move towards solo concerts may have bee n fi nancial as much as musica l. Being a band leader became increasingly difficult in the nineties, if not economically impossible. Most horn players find rhythm sections in each city they play in. Though perhaps less fun, it's a lot easier to travel by yourself. Petrucciani played solo for the last six years of his life, interspersed with a few trio dates and a septet. 17 Goaty, Frederic. cf . note 1 22 It was perhaps inevitable that Petrucciani would eventually play and record with the one (living) French jazzman more celebrated than himself, violinist Stephane Grappelli. Flamingo features the pair with George Mraz on bass and drummer Roy Haynes - a Dreyfus artist to this day. It's a straight ahead session with short solos and mostly well-loved standards. Not surprisingly, given its stellar cast, it has become one of the rare gold discs in jazz, selling more than 100,000 in France alone. A much more ambitious project followed - the formation of a sextet to tour Europe and the States, and record some new originals. It was a constant battle for Michel, who first had to persuade his record company to go along with an economically uninviting venture. Veteran arranger and trombonist Bob Brookmeyer was recruited to write the arrangements. At first they were too long and involved, not giving the pianist enough chance to shine. Even the modified versions heard on Both Worlds have shorter solos than usual with Petrucciani less up front in the mix than on his other recordings. More remarkable, though, is the freshness of the compositions, all written by Michel in the two years prior to the recording. The earliest recorded version - 27 February 1997 - of any of these tunes is on Solo-Live (another solo album from a concert in Frankfurt released soon after his death). The lyrical appeal of these late compositions together with the off-hand charm of the arrangements, rather than any exceptional piano-playing, is what makes this album one of the most enjoyable of all Petrucciani's recordings. Mention should also be made of what would turn out to be Michel's last rhythm team - Anthony Jackson on elect ric bass and St eve Gadd on drums. When I look at the sleeve of my first record, Flash, and the one for Both Worlds I take stock of the path I've travelled. In 1980, I wasn't working, I weighed 25 kilos, I knew nothing about life, I was a bit lost ... In 1997 I'm more thick-set, I walk with crutches, I get by on my own, I'm in good health, I've learnt a few things ... and even if I've lost some hair, I think I'm better looking today than I was then! 18 As Petrucciani found himself taking more and more master classes while on tour, his dream was to found an international jazz school in the South of France, in the Drome region where he had been brought up. He 18 Goaty, Frederic . cf. note 1 23 had already put in some work, researching sponsors and seeking helpers, and his plan was for a school with about fifty students and eight teachers, beginning with piano, guitar, bass and drums. Sadly, he ran out of time. Michel Petrucciani died on January 5 th, 1999 in Manhattan from a pulmonary infection. His lung capacity was very small due to the shape of his chest and he had become too heavy. He put on a brave face, but always knew deep down that he would die from something brought on by his ailment, if not the disease itself. In the twenty-odd years of his career he achieved more than many musicians do in a lifetime. He was survived by his mother, father and brothers, and son Alexandre, who was born with the same disease (Aldo Romano is his godfather) and stepson Rachid. Several accolades were bestowed on him during his lifetime. In 1994 he was made a knight of the Legion of Honour in Paris. He is buried in Paris' famous Pere Lachais cemetery next to Chopin. French President Jacques Chirac paid tribute to him, praising his ability to "renew jazz [an exaggerated claim], giving himself up to his art with passion, courage and musical genius" After his death a postage stamp was issued in commemoration by the French Post Office as part of a short series dedicated to jazz greats - he is in the company of Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker and Miles Davis. A theatre in Montelimar has changed its name to "Theatre Michel Petrucciani ". In retrospect, it seems he was lucky to live as long as he did, lucky to receive such acclaim while still alive, yet there are some, like Eliot Zigmund who feel, had he taken better care of himself, he would have lasted longer. He smoked cigarettes, he drank, he did other things. He lived really large in ways larger than he had to. Maybe at the end of his life, with all the acclaim that he got, he wasn't trying so hard to be a character, There were times when I felt the whole thing was a bit much . Slow down, man. Everything's cool. 19 19 Zigmund, Eliot. cf. note 14 PART TWO - personality ... he wanted to be understood. But sometimes I would tell him, you please people anyway. You have a personality like that. They love you, whatever you do.20 24 The personality of all great players is revealed in their music to a greater or lesser degree. To what extent does Michel Petrucciani 's individuality come out in his playing, and on what scale did his daily battle with pain affect his performances? To answer these questions it is helpful to look back at his early days and some of the factors that contributed to the formation of such a talent. In many ways his upbringing was a simple one. His father Tony, a strict, but fair man, introduced him to music at an early age and he was encouraged to participate in the family jam sessions, though on a fairly controlled basis. At first he played drums - his mother in particular deciding that, as far as Michel was concerned, the piano was for classical music. I was having classical lessons so I didn't really have " the right" to play jazz or anything else on the piano. My mother insisted I play only classica l. So my Dad had the great idea of putting me on the drums. He'd put together a little kit to suit my size, which also allowed me to exercise my legs. I was having osteopathic therapy and enjoying playing jazz wit h my brothers and father at the same t ime. 21 His rapid development at the piano, though certa inly attributable in part to his enthusiasm for the instrument and his natural musical talent, was also a direct consequence of his disease putt ing him under house arrest. While his peers were enjoying the big outdoors, Michel was confined to spending hours in the house, and for him, the most satisfying way of passing the time was at the keyboard. Later he would comment that the difference between someone talented and untalented is that a talented person loves what he's doing so much that he can spend ten hours doing the same thing and feel that only ten minutes have passed . The untalented person will spend ten minutes and feel it's more like ten 20 Romano, Aldo. cf. note 6 21 Goaty, Frederic. cf. note 1 25 hours. For Petrucciani the piano was never a chore, it was his life and he could spend ten or twelve hours in front of it without even realising. He grew up quickly, rarely experiencing the company of his peers. He was unable to attend school, receiving home tuition from a series of tutors who quickly experienced his mischievous, even manipulative, qualities. As for school work, I had a teacher at home who came two or three times a week. It didn't work out at all : bad teachers and no contact with other pupils. Those teachers ended up leaving because we didn't get on, or else they stayed because I'd tamed them completely. A few even went as far as doing my homework for me. 22 His progress at the piano was mirrored on a larger scale in the speed with which his life evolved. Most of his time was spent in the company of adults and older brothers. Once he had left home, things moved even faster, helped partly by often being in the right place at the right time. He took little time to establish popularity with the jazz public, who, it must be said, were doubtless also fascinated by the sight of such a slight figure producing such memorable music. In his obituary, Pascal Anqueti l refers to Petruccia ni 's "hands of iron and arms of steel". His percussive style displayed a great energy and total physical involvement with the instrument, as if he were trying to tame the piano in a battle between David and Goliath. In the later solo recordings in particular there are some moments where notes are hit with such force that we are made aware of the mechanics of th e piano, almost uncomfortably so. Driven by daily pain in his muscles and joints, he overcompensated at times, striking too hard and losing tonal quality. Since ch ildhood days Petrucciani had decided not to fraternize with suffering, not to make a meal of it. "You never get used to pain . You just carry on or die. "2 3 Childhood friend Edouard Detmer recalls the lengths Michel went to in order to distract himself. To relieve the pain he would soak in a scaldingly hot bath. "You couldn't put your finger in. It was the only thing that calmed him down. The boiling water made him forget his other aches and pains"24 22 Goaty, Frederic. cf. note 1 23 Ibid. 24 Detmer, Edouard . cf . not e 4 . 26 In spite of this, Petrucciani never complained, accepting his lot philosophically, even stoically, and showing great courage. Indeed, both Zigmund and Romano paint pictures of someone eager to please who wanted to be loved, to reach out to his audience with his playing. His switch to a more accessible, singable music (first heard in the big-selling album Music) bears witness to this need to communicate on a wider level, to have his music appreciated by a larger audience. "A lot of jazz musicians play too selfishly" he said. "In the end, they don't want to be understood. It's only them and a "happy few" who matter."25 Not everyone agreed whole-heartedly with Michel's approach. Drummer Aldo Romano was sometimes frustrated by the safeness of some of his material, particularly in the earlier days. 'They love you whatever you do", he told him. "So why don't you try to be more .. . adventurous, take more risks with your material. Try to do something different instead of always playing "C Jam Blues". Try to have a repertoire with more of your own music."26 Romano's own compositions, (heard in albums like Intervista, 27 and, more recently, The Jazzpar Prize,) 28 possess that same simple, folk-like lyricism with the emphasis on melody that can be found in many Petrucciani songs, especially the later tunes - "Brazilian Like" and "Guadeloupe" come to mind. Romano was, in the end, won over. "Later he wrote some beautiful things. You can always write technically, chords and things, but to have a melody that makes sense, it's not so easy."29 Michel Petrucciani decided at an early age to live life to the full while he could. A few days before he died he spent New Year's Eve with friends at the Village Vanguard, not leaving until dawn. "Speed - I have no choice in the matter. It's my life that's going by so quickly. "30 By most people's standards, he led a highly adventurous life. He was not one to settle for long in the same place or stay long with a partner. 25 Anquetil, Pascal. Romantic but not blue. www .irma.asso.fr/cij/articles/petrucciani.html 26 Romano, Aldo . cf. note 6 27 Romano, Aldo. Intervista . CD Verve 537 196 28 Romano, Aldo . The Jazzpar Prize. CD Enja 9164 29 Romano, Aldo . d. note 6 30 Anquetil, Pascal. cf. note 25 I rarely stay more than five years with the same woman. At a certa in point I get bored. I always need renewing, emotionally. That's also why I'm always forming new bands, why I move around a lot. 31 27 Change was essential to him - whenever he felt a routine being established, he would break it. Getting bored easily, he kept moving the furniture around at home. He claimed it was the same with music. Changing his bands - shifting from solo to septet to trio - and renewing his material by composing fresh songs - one thing he never tired of - was his way of staving off the weariness that was creeping into his daily life, of distracting him from his constant physical struggles. He was aware of the paradoxes in his character. Unable or unwilling to sustain a romantic relationship for too long, he was nevertheless a very faithful friend and maintained strong connections with the women he had lived with, notably the mother of his son Alexandre. Eliot Zigmund called him "a psychologist's dream" because of the unpredictability of his character and the heavy burden he had to deal with. Generous and loving in nature, he could also be domineering and manipulative. He liked to carry an air of mystery about him. "You never could tell if what he was saying was really true, or half-true, or not true at all. There was always some intrigue going on." 32 Many women were attracted to Michel, wanting to protect and take care of him due to his apparent fragility. Yet he would often dominate them and have expectations that most people might consider unreasonable. There was always a feeling you had to approach him with kid gloves and give him a lot of slack ... just for who he was and what he'd gone through . I've heard him say things to people that if he was a normal size person , they would have beaten the hell out of him. He'd get away with it. Especially if he had some alcohol under his belt. He could do amazing things. 33 Edouard Detmer, his childhood friend, recalls Michel's unpredictability. Detmer ran a record label, Anais, in the Eighties, and was able to 31 Goaty, Frederic. cf. note 1 32 Zigmund , Eliot. cf. note 14 33 Zigmund , Eliot. cf. note 14 28 persuade Petrucciani to play on a few tracks, though he was never sure if and when it would happen. We recorded two albums together34 - I'd arrange my schedu le to accommodate him. He didn't play on everything, but sometimes he'd arrive at the last minute, quite unexpectedly, saying "Hi, guys, it's me." We were pretty loose about it.35 CONCLUSION Any consideration of Michel Petrucciani's greatness as a player has to take into account the ailment that dogged his career, and whether he would have achieved such fame as a man of normal stature. Even five years after his death it remains difficult to divorce his physical struggle from the musical evidence that Petrucciani left behind. Hearing the piano keys hit with such clarity and force cannot help but remind us of those large hands extending from his relatively bulky torso contrasting so dramatically with such thin, ineffective legs dangling in mid-air. Many of the words that describe Michel 's personality can equally apply to his playing. His enormous appetite for life spilled out on to the keys. He could be, in turn, playful, spontaneous, joyful, serious, humorous, tender, direct, romantic, dominating, crafty, bawdy and self-indulgent. All these characteristics emerge at one time or another in his music. Petruccian i was sometimes guilty of excess, falling into the trap of grandstanding or playing to the gallery. The rapid tempos can be overdone and played for shock value . Quotes from st andards are not always used appropriately .36 Passages of repeated notes or licks, rising and falling patterns, and rapid sixteenth note lines go on for too long, diluting their effect. Comparing his playing to that of Keith Jarrett in his book 88 The Giants of Jazz Piano, Bob Doerschuk argues, that " these 34 Detmer, Edouard. Cf. note 4. When asked how to get hold of these recordings, Detmer replied, " I don't have any left. Nor does Michel. They were all given away or sold at concerts." 35 Ibid. 36 A video of a trio performance in Japan in 1988 of Petrucciani's "One For Us" shows Petrucciani quoting the first phrases of "Caravan" in a rhythmic duet section with Roy Haynes on the hi-hat. It has no connection with what has gone before and seems superfluous and irrelevant. 29 excesses rose from a joy that was absent from Jarrett's solemn marathons and much of the rest of jazz piano as well. "37 Like most great musicians, not all of his recordings are of five-star quality. They are, after all , aural snapshots of how he was feeling at the time . Guitarist Jim Hall felt he, himself, had a certain fragility in common with him, both being affected by what was going on around them. They could sound great when the environment was conducive, but relatively mediocre in less favourable surroundings. Discussing Petrucciani's final trio with Anthony Jackson and Steve Gadd, drummer Eliot Zigmund says It was interesting music. It wasn't terribly commercial. I th ink he was just following his instincts ... which is the way he went through life. I think Michel basically followed his nose. He was a very instinctive person and a very instinctive player. 38 The combination of his disease and his desire to live life so intensely must have been a distraction from the music on occasions. Though, in his earlier days, he occasionally missed gigs through staying up all night, he maintained right to the end a phenomenal energy. Edouard Detmer remembers that as the years went by and Michel remained alive and well, exceeding all earlier expectations, his friends started believing he would live on and on. I've seen him with friends who went off on tour with him for six months. They came back and needed three months to recover. Michel, on the other hand, took off the next day for another six months, leaving his coterie asking themselves how he does it. He eats for four, drinks, plays around. He never seems unwell , and has such abnormal energy. 39 A year or two before his death it was becoming clear to Michel that his body could not continue to cope with the daily grind of touring and performing and he was putting into place alternate plans for his future, notably the jazz school he intended to create. Further chapters will show that his later work, while still technically impressive, was beginning to show signs of a certain lassitude, with some self-parody creeping in and a less complex style of soloing developing. 37 Doerschuk, Robert L. 88 The Giants of Jazz Piano. San Francisco Backbeat books 2001. ch.54 p214 38 Zigmund, Eliot . cf . note 14 39 Detmer, Edouard . Cf. note 4. 30 Solos were becoming shorter (Both Worlds) and he was turning more and more to composition. I always play for people. I hope that after every concert they go away happy and want to come back. My music isn't intellectual; it's sensual and full of song . Enchanting. I want it to beat with the heart and to be simple. But, just because people like my music doesn't make it in any way commercial. I'm just trying harder and harder to apply the lesson of the great masters - less is more. 40 Fig. 3 • 0 Goaty, Frederic. cf. note 1 31 Chapter Three THE INFLUENCE OF BILL EVANS Introduction While it is the goal of all serious jazz musicians to eventually develop their own voice, it is generally accepted that to achieve this they must first copy past masters. It takes several years for influences to be thoroughly absorbed and for a personal style to emerge. Most jazz players and teachers the world over agree on the inestimable value of transcribing a favourite musician's solo note for note, then attempting to play along with it. Many of the greats attest to this 'training' method as a way of developing one's playing while internalising the musical language passed down by the great soloists. Since the bebop era jazz has been the genre of music which most allows for individual expression, yet rare are the jazz musicians who arrive on the scene 'fully formed' without going through the slow, but fascinating process of gradual evolution from a style heavily influenced by one or more established players to a more personal synthesis, and then on to a way of playing that can be identifiably one's own, to sound 'not quite like anybody else'. When listening to a new player it is helpful to be able to have some reference points, to see the 'bigger picture' and relate his or her playing to what we have heard before. Players, listeners and especially writers would often be at a loss to describe what they have heard without the 'influences' crutch, without the ability to detect phrases, licks, even whole passages of improvisation that are reminiscent of an already established player or, more likely, one of the great soloists on the same instrument. In this chapter I will discuss the alleged influence of pianist Bill Evans on Michel Petrucciani by examining the latter's recordings and his own comments as well as the viewpoints of other musicians and writers in order to determine whether the commonly-held belief that Petrucciani 32 was a member of the Evans-school of piano playing can be substantiated. 1. Differing Views Setting aside the impact of non-pianists - the first great soloist he studied was the guitarist Wes Montgomery - it becomes clear that by far the most common influence on Michel Petrucciani, according to the press, was pianist Bill Evans. Almost all biographical references and obituaries, many of the countless magazine articles, and even most of the early record reviews mention him as a primary influence: It's very seductive-full of Bill Evans-like romanticism but with at times more dense harmonic features and greater tension 1 While he is an adoring admirer of Bill Evans ... 2 Anyone who writes about Petrucciani can't help but note the influences of Bill Evans and McCoy Tyner Petrucciani 's early recordings for Blue Note and Owl were occasionally too much in thrall t o the august modal motifs of his idol. Bill Evans. 4 The jazz internet site allaboutjazz even cites Petrucciani in their biography of Bill Evans, lumping him in with far more Evans-inspired players than Michel ever consist ently was : (Bill Evans) spawned a school of "Bill Evans style" or "Evans inspired" pianists, who include some of the best known artists of our day, including Michel Petrucciani, Andy Laverne, Richard Beirach, Enrico Pieranunzi and Warren Bernhardt.5 Yet a quite different viewpoint emerged in discussions I had with two of his drummers, the American Eliot Zigmund and the Italian Aldo Romano. P. B.: Bill Evans was a great influence on him. He 's always claimed that. 1 Cordle, Owen. Downbeat Sept 1985 2 Cook, Richard . Penguin Guide to Jazz on Compact Disc. Fourth Edition. Penguin Books 1998 3 McLennan, Doug. www.salon.com • Robson, Britt www. Citypages.com 5 www.allaboutjazz.com Eliot Zigmund: He's claimed that, but you know I didn't hear it that much in the music. Michel's rhythmic touch was actually easier to play with than Bill's, so in that sense he was more coming out of McCoy Tyner ... you know, the really hard swinging piano players . Bill never felt like that when you played with him ... and he (M.P.) didn't have Bill's ... well he did have a good harmonic sense, but not the way Bill did. Nobody did really. Michel was a much funkier piano player than Bill was. You could see that Bill knew a lot about music, intellectually. He knew a lot about classical music, he'd played a lot of classical music. He'd taken a degree in classical music. You didn't get that sense from Michel at all. I got the sense that Michel was influenced more by blues-oriented players, more of the black tradition .. . 6 P.B. : Do you think Bill Evans influenced him a lot? Aldo Romano: I don't think so. It was just a moment, but that was not his background . It was more Oscar Peterson, many influences. He was pretending for a while. He was more bluesy. His big thing was Oscar Peterson at the beginning and some Errol Garner. You know, his left hand. Some of it, because he loved him . He was not trying to be a poet in his playing, Michel. He was more direct, trying to attract the people. 7 Along with his early experiences playing in the family trio (with father Tony on guitar and brother Louis on bass) there seems little doubt that Petrucciani formed his style through the most common route - listening to recordings. Later he must surely have been affected by what he heard in the U.S., though there is no written or recorded evidence to suggest that his playing was changed by any other piano player. Drummer Aldo Romano recalls: When I met him, he didn't know Keith Jarrett for example. And Keith had already played with Charles Lloyd and made many albums. Michel, he knew nothing (of him) . Very strange. P. B.: Perhaps that's his father's tastes. Yes, he was obliged to listen to standards in a traditional way and study that . So at the end I would tell him - when Brad Mehldau came out. I said "You should listen to him - he's great". And he didn't want to. Maybe he was scared to be disturbed. 8 His playing is more likely to have evolved through contact with the musicians he played with, particularly the bassists and drummers. While 6 Zigmund Eliot. Personal interview. June 7 2005 7 Romano Aldo . Personal interview. June 24 2005 8 Romano Aldo . Personal interview. June 24 2005 34 little can be made from Petrucciani 's description of a meeting with the great pianist, In July 1980, just before recording Flash I took part in the "Grande-Motte" festival. I played with Jaume, Guerin, Bernard Lubat and my brother Louis. I was introduced to pianist Bill Evans, one of my idols. I didn't say much to him because of my English .. . 9 we cannot ignore the fact that Petrucciani played in early and mid­ career with some of the same sidemen as Bill Evans: Eddie Gomez, Gary Peacock, Jim Hall, even Aldo Romano, and particularly Eliot Zigmund who filled the drum chair with Petrucciani's American trio for some years, and who throws an interesting light on the difference between playing with the two pianists. I loved playing with Bill, but I caught Bill near the end of his career, but I was with Michel near the beginning of his career. It was really a more exciting experience playing with Michel. Anything could happen, it was very exciting. I got to solo a lot. We played a lot of up-tempo stuff. The audiences went crazy ... 10 Petrucciani himself did not discuss his influences at any great length in the several interviews with him that have been published. In one of the last that he gave 11 he talks about exchanging five favourite albums with his trio bandmates (Steve Gadd and Anthony Jackson). Last to make the list after Ravel's Piano Concerto in G, Ella and Louis ' Porgy and Bess, Wes Mongomery's Bumpin', and Prince's Diamonds and Pearls is Montreux 1970 by Bill Evans. He was eight years old when his brother gave him the record, but at that point he was an "unconditional fan" of Art Tatum, Bud Powell and Oscar Peterson. At first he totally rejected Evans' music, but later the album became a favourite. It is on record that he told guitarist Jim Hall to "call me Bill"12 , but on the whole he refers to Evans as just one of the pianists he drew inspiration from. He told journalist Pascal Anquetil: 9 Goaty, Frederic. Interview with Michel Petrucciani. Jazz Magazine 1997 (translated into English by Phil Broadhurst). Also website: www.jazzmagazine.com/interviews/Dauj/petrucciani.htm 10 Zigmund Eliot. Personal interview. June 7 2005 11 Anquetil, Pascal. Interview with Michel Petrucciani. Jazzman. No.38. July 1998 12 Cook, Richard and Morton, Brian . The Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD. Fourth Ed ition. U.K. Penguin Books 1988 P.A.: Your piano playing has evolved a lot and freed itself from your first influences, mainly Bill Evans and McCoy Tyner M.P.: Like all young musicians, I copied at first. I imitated Oscar Peterson, Erroll Garner, Bill Evans. I worked tenaciously to find the right notes and create pretty passages. 13 35 In the early and mid - period years there are several instances of Petrucciani recording tunes associated with Bill Evans, though it's mostly the standards - he rarely played Evans' own compositions, with the exception of Bill's first tune, "Very Early". M. P.: I was sort of the musical director with Charles (Lloyd): it was me for example who pushed him into playing Bill Evans' "Very Early", which wasn't in his repertoire at all. I made him work on that piece for six months. He could never get the chords in the right place, he kept getting lost. He really liked it, but said he preferred playing modal. .. 14 2. Some recordings (refer to enclosed CD 1 for excerpts and tracks) While we will discover overt references to Evans in the early work, can we detect the same current running through Petrucciani 's complete oeuvre or do the echoes of Evans die out as the young pianist finds his own voice? Is it fair to say that he was tarred with the Evans brush early in his career and it stuck? One of the clearest examples of the Evans influence is found in Petrucciani's second solo album Oracle's Destiny, recorded in October 1982 and dedicated to Bill Evans. Three tracks from this date, were re­ issued in 2000 on the Owl Records compilation Days of Wine and Roses. Reviewing it in Downbeat, critic Doug Ramsay says: "On "Eugenia" he often sounds like Bill Evans overdubbed on two pianos". 15 This is a sly reference to the breakthrough recording Conversations With Myself where Evans overdubs himself twice to give the effect of three pianos playing at once (e.g. 1: 12-2:00 of "Hey There") 16 . Originally on the 1984 album Note 'n Notes, "Eugenia" is a Petrucciani original whose overdubbed piano, waltz tempo, rich melodic passages (2: 50-3: 23, 13 Anquetil, Pascal. Interview with Michel Petrucciani . Jazzman. No .38. July 1998 14 Goaty, Frederic cf. note 9 15 Ramsay, Doug. Jazz Times November 2002 16 See enclosed CD 1 track 1 36 3: 30-5: 20), descending patterns (5 :43-47) and final rising whole-tone sequence (8:28-57) 17 all recall Evans, though Petrucciani's playing is far more ebullient. "I Just Say Hello" is an original ballad from Cold Blues with bassist Ron Mclure. While there is a direct Evans lick, (a short downward sequence at 3: 51-53) 18 , Petrucciani's playing bears little resemblance to the way Evans plays a ballad - it is far less richly textured harmonically. Early in the piece he builds right-hand tremolos more in the style of Erroll Garner, an earlier influence. Another Petrucciani composition "Mike Pee" (originally from Oracle's Destiny) is at times an overt homage to Evans. While the title is Petrucciani's own Anglicised nickname and could imply that he is asserting his own independence, he quotes freely from Evans' vocabulary. The piece opens with rubato explorations for almost three minutes but at 2 :48 (-2: 58) 19 the Evans allusions begin, starting with a quote from "Granadas" from Danzas espaifolas by Granados which opens the album Bill Evans recorded with a Symphony Orchestra playing classical themes. This quote recurs at 4:18 (-4:83). 20 The Evans tune "Very Early", which Petrucciani often played with Charles Lloyd, appears at 3:12 ( -3:23) and re-appears at 5:05 (-5:20)21 where he solos over part of the sequence. "Someday My Prin ce Will Come" puts in an appearance for a few seconds at 3: 22 (-3: 38), coming back at 5: 20 (- 5: 38), 22 followed by a lovely reharmonisation of the first few bars of Evans' "Waltz For Debby" (5: 53 - 6: 10)23 After further ruminations on his own theme, Petrucciani plays a final run which is a direct imitation of Evans ( 9:31). 24 He changes his touch to a much softer tone and runs up the keyboard echoing the slightly 17 See enclosed CD 1 tracks 2-5 18 Ibid. track 6 19 Ibid . track 7 20 Ibid. track 8 21 Ibid . tracks 9 and 10 22 Ibid. tracks 11 and 12 23 Ibid . track 13 24 Ibid . track 14 37 jaunty rhythmic eighth-note feel typical of Evans, bringing to mind certain phrases Evans plays on his album with the Symphony Orchestra. Further Evans-like phrases can be heard in "Three Forgotten Magic Words" from Live at the Village Vanguard, notably the right-hand thirds at the very start (0:00 -0:45) and, in the solo, the ascending sequence at 1:25- 1:32; the ornament at 2:22; and the pattern at 4:12-4:15. 25 Petrucciani plays sequences in thirds at 3:00-3:12, but develops them in his own way in a more robust and exaggerated syncopation at 3: 19- 3 :41. 26 At 4: 39-5: 05 he executes a longer passage with left-hand chords in unison with the right-hand line, a Bill Evans trademark, but with less delicate balance and a heavier left hand than Evans. This is closely followed by a line leading to a rising sequence played with an Evans-like rhythmic jauntiness at 5: 12-5:22. 27 His approach to the head on the solo version of the same tune from 100 Hearts bears a striking resemblance to Evans' style as he moves into tempo at 0: 19-1: 00. 28 • The rush through the harmonies, the rapidly changing dynamics as a series of quieter chords are followed by melodic phrases where the upper notes are played fortissimo, and the prevalence of descending chromatic movement in the root notes all echo the stylistic devices found in many introductions played by Evans, particularly to his original compositions. If nothing else, this reveals that of all Petrucciani's originals this comes closest to evoking Evans' spirit . 3 . Comparisons - Parallels and Opposites In his book Bill Evans: Portrait of the Artist at the Piano the Italian pianist Enrico Pieranunzi discusses Evans' lyrical qualities: Never before in the history of jazz had a pianist managed to 'sing' on his instrument, to tell a love story, with the same impact as a saxophonist or trumpeter. In that respect Evans was a revolutionary - in his ability to transform a well-established tradition, the piano previously considered as an imitator of the two dominant solo voices - the trumpet and the saxophone) 29 25 Ibid. tracks 15-18 26 Ibid. tracks 19 and 20 27 Ibid. tracks 21 and 22 28 Ibid . track 23 29 Pieranunzi, Enrico . Bill Evans: Portrait of the Artist at the Piano. Rouge profound p 66 2001 38 Pieranunzi identifies the following factors that formed part of Evans' quiet revolution and which became essential elements in the jazz piano language thereafter: • Rootless voicings • Close position chords often containing a minor second interval within and creating harmonic overtones • Frequent use of passing chords to enrich the harmonic palate • The adapting of a chord voicing to suit different registers of the piano • Developing melodies by treating the piano as an orchestra, using five or six voices, allotted, in part, to the right hand • Use of a legato touch brought in from the classical realm • Highlighting of the melodic line with great care placed on the weight of the hand on the keyboard in the tradition of the great concert pianists. 30 These important elements of Evans' language and technique are all evident to some degree in Petrucciani's playing, as they are in the majority of jazz pianists that followed Evans, notably Herbie Hancock and Keith Jarrett. The last element is particularly relevant to Petrucciani and underlines one of the more obvious parallels with Evans - the clarity of the line and evenness of the touch. Like Evans, his lines often 'sing' in a lyrical, romantic manner, yet their rhythmic drive is stronger and more percussive, as confirmed by drummers who played with him (See above). Further examination of some of the similarities between the two pianists reveals the following: Evans plays "My Foolish Heart" in A major, a key considered as uncomfortable by most pianists who generally prefer to play in 'flat' keys, rather than 'sharp' keys. Pieranunzi points out that Evans enjoyed 30 Pieranunzi, Enrico. Bill Evans: Portrait of the Artist at the Pian o. Rouge profound pp.106-7 2001 39 playing in these harder keys because they inspire less automatic choices in the soloist, who is less prone to resort to technically easy phrases which fall under the fingers. The ear is forced to focus completely in the sense that it can no longer count on what the hands 'already know' through having played a phrase countless times in a favourite key. 31 Petrucciani took this further by composing many of his tunes in sharp keys - no less than 40% of his tunes in the songbook32 are in sharp keys (counting only the 61 out of 79 which have a definite tonality) Novelty per se never attracted Evans. He was not concerned with ' new' forms of expression, preferring a more 'interior' development - a certain liberty contained within the existing rules of improvisation which could be renovated but not abandoned . His objective was to go to the very heart of his own ideas in an attempt to translate into sound what he felt deep within. Some of this can be said of Petrucciani also . It is a commonly-held view that history will see Petrucciani as a consolidator, even populariser, of existing forms rather than an innovator.33 Like Evans before him and Jarrett today, Petrucciani had a lifelong love affair with the piano, maintaining a healthy scepticism, if not complete aversion, to the electric keyboard. He played only the acoustic piano, not even recording the odd tune on Fender Rhodes as Evans was persuaded to do. When he decided to use electric keyboards on the aforementioned albums, his role was minimal with Adam Holzman taking up the bulk of the electric duties and Petrucciani taking all the solos on acoustic piano. 34 31 Pieranunzi, Enrico. cf. note 30 p. 74 32 Michel Petrucciani Songbook: Compositions Originales. Francis Dreyfus Music. Paris 2000. 33 Doerschuk, Robert L. 88: The Giants of Jazz Piano. ch .54 pp214-217 3 • A video of the Manhattan Project - admittedly not a project Petrucciani had any hand in conceiving - reveals two keyboard players standing in line at the back of the band looking - and on occasion, sounding - rather awkward. Since Petrucciani's piano solos are the most worthwhile thing about the whole concept, it is clear he made the right choice in avoiding the electrics. 40 Alongside these interesting parallels, however, there is plenty of evidence to suggest Petrucciani's music was heading in a different direction and the above similarities are superficial at best. Like Evans, Petrucciani wrote new compositions throughout his career, but included far more of them in concert towards the end. His career as a solo pianist was also developing rapidly at the time of his death - Evans rarely, if ever, performed solo concerts, limiting his solo excursions to the odd album - "Alone" - and long intros before the entry of bass and drums, like his classic arrangement with his final trio of "Nardis". Similarly, we do not find Petrucciani limiting his repertoire to the tried and true plus one or two new. As his career progressed, so did his writing. Whereas Evans' career stalled mid-period with little development, a withdrawal into himself, and a virtually static repertoire, Petrucciani's artistic progress was steadier and more even. Although his desire to reach a wider public with more commercial material was evident in best­ selling albums for Blue Note like Music and Playground, he continued to search for new material. When revisiting favourite tunes, he would apply fresh approaches to playing them and avoid any staleness. "Sesame Mucha" (see appendix) is treated quite differently each time, and not only in the recording studio. Posthumous releases taken from live concerts show a variety of approaches, even when there was no question at the time of the music being released commercially. In trying to throw light on Jimmy Giuffre's view that "Bill Evans is a more important musician than Charlie Parker" writer Don Nelsen says Evans, like Parker, was able to express tenderness, love, anger, fear, happiness and despair - in a word: beauty. Many people feel these emotions, but don't have the technical means of expressing and communicating them. Others have the technical skills, but seem unable to get to the heart of their feelings. There are very few who can intuitively grasp what is universal and have the means to express it"35 41 While few would claim that Petrucciani was of equal stature (as a musican) to Bill Evans, these words bring about the question of Petrucciani 's reputation as a great communicator. There can be little doubt that, brushing aside for the moment the question of his disease and its affect on both him and his public, Petrucciani had the one gift that all musicians wish for, that of communicating successfully on a variety of levels with his audience, be they patriotic Frenchmen proud of their local boy or trendy New Yorkers v isiting the Village Vanguard for the first time. "The interactive, chamber-music concept of the Bill Evans Trios"36 was not explored in any great depth by Petruccian i. The Evans influence is there in the harmonic voicings and even at times in the right-hand ' touch' and the ability to make the piano ' sing', but not in the holistic trio approach. We do not really get the same feeling of an intimate three-way equal conversation in Petrucciani's trios that we do in Evans' first and last. 4. Finding his own voice As Petrucciani's playing and reputat ion grew in stature, he began to shake off his early influences and while Evans' impact lingered a little longer, it, too, waned in the mid- to later years. I have found very little in his later period that can be linked back to Evans on anyth ing but a superficial level, other than the downward broken arpeggios and some of the inner harmonic movement in the two-minute solo intro to "Home" from Trio In Tokyo . 35 Nelsen, Don . Liner notes for Trio'65 36 Pettinger, Peter. Bill Evans: How My Heart Sings . Yale University Press . p. x 1998 42 I cannot agree with reviewer Jon Andrews who states in his review of Both Worlds in Downbeat: 37 " he doesn't disguise his admiration for Bill Evans' music, particularly on " Petite Louise". "38 The resemblance is slight and shallow. The left-hand arpeggios do take us back to Evans - but he often favoured downward arpeggio movement in the left hand which Petrucciani ignores. The harmonic scheme includes much II V movement and stepwise motion in the roots which could be said to echo some of Evans' writing. It is nothing more than an indication of the all-pervading influence that Evans had on the development of jazz piano, rather than a specific hommage on the part of Petrucciani. After all, Petrucciani had already dedicated an entire solo piano album - Oracle's Destiny - to Evans early in his career. The melody makes great use of transposition, as did several Evans tunes, but this is a common tool of melodic, lyrical writing. By this time Petrucciani had long since shaken off his earlier influences such as Evans and moved on to his own personal synthesis. Writing in allaboutjazz.com Aaron Rogers gets it even more wrong: Bill Evans wrote in his liner notes for his Grammy Award -winning album " Alone" that "to understand music most profoundly one only has to be listening well." If you listen to an Evans album and follow it with So What, 39 you will understand well that Evans' music lived in the small but profound hands of Michel Petrucciani. allaboutjazz. com40 This is nonsense - there is no suggestion of Evans here at all and the author is clearly not "listening well " , confusing the aural evidence with the fact that Evans is the pianist on the original recording of "So What". The chord voicings are simpler, the melodic lines bear no resemblance to anything Evans might play, the solo builds in volume unlike most Evans solos, and the tune is one Evans rarely played. At best we can detect a hint of McCoy Tyner in the left-hand quartal voicings, but most pianists playing "So What" can be superficially linked to Tyner in the same way. Here Petrucciani is his own man. 37 Andrews, Jon . Downbeat. July 1998 38 See enclosed CD 1 track 24 39 Trio in Tokyo , track 8 40 Rogers , Aaron . www.allaboutjazz.com 43 pianists playing "So What" can be superficially linked to Tyner in the same way. Here Petrucciani is his own man. Conclusion .. . his extrovert attack places Evans ' harmonic profundity in a setting that will energize listeners who find Evans too slow and quiet to respond to41 . The convenience of the Evans comparison remains, at least in the press and on the internet. Invariably it is seen in a positive light. For all the comparisons to Bill Evans, Petrucciani had found his own style, which was more aggressive, fuller and sunnier than that of his idol and incorporated secondary influences as disparate as McCoy Tyner and Debussy. 42 In his review of a late work, the solo album Au Theatre Des Champs­ Elysees, Doug Mclennan starts with a bold assumption: Anyone who writes about Petrucciani can't help but note the influences of Bill Evans and McCoy Tyner; the Evans voicings and sensibilities are sometimes so baldfacedly direct they're spooky. But no phrase is allowed to get too comfortably familiar, because Petrucciani inevitably swerves sideways with an odd chord choice or a flash of unexpected notes, serving a crucial function - he pays off his influences but never lets you forget he's the one calling the shots.4 3 Dr. Herb Wong appears sceptical of Petrucciani's own claims in his review of two reissues in the International Association of Jazz Educators magazine. "He was a one-of-a-kind pianist despite his declaration of the pivotal influence of Bill Evans (stronger impact in his earlier years)."4 4 The Internet site the overgrownpath brings up a revealing comparison with Evans and Keith Jarrett (outside the scope of this chapter) when discussing the solo piano work, but goes a little too far in claiming ... .. . the solo piano work is sheer genius. Here we have the musicality of Bill Evans being extended into a more innovative language, and the creativity of Keith Jarrett without the 41 Cook, Richard and Morton, Brian . The Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD. Fourth edition p. 1225 Pengu in 1998 42 author unknown. www .sunnysiderecords.com 43 Mclennan, Doug. www .salon .com 44 Wong , Dr. Herb . www.iaje.org interminable post-Lisztian monologues. Petrucciani can appeal both to the emotions with melody, and guts through the power of his playing.45 44 Common thinking is that Bill Evans was the primary influence on Petruccian i, and pianists such as Oscar Peterson, McCoy Tyner, even Keith Jarrett were secondary ones. I have endeavoured to show that while there is evidence to support this in his early work, the influences, particularly that of Evans, have all but disappeared by mid-career and Petrucciani has found a recognisable sound of his own. Can we assume that this is whole-hearted ly a good thing? Jazz Times writer Thomas Conrad, for one, does not see this as a welcome development. Remembering how an ardent jazz follower shouted " Bil l Evans lives!" at the end of a Petrucciani trio concert in the early eighties, Conrad goes on to say: I think Evans' influence on him was profound. It is apparent in certain technical elements such as chord voicings and touch and precise fingering, but more importantly in the way that Petrucciani was able to tap into that whole world of feeling , that pensive poetic poignance, that was Evans. Which leads into [the] question, "Do his later solos measure up to his earlier playing?" My strong bel ief is, unfortunately, no. I think that Petrucciani 's later work is mostly inferior to his early stuff-and I think it is because he lost the Evans connection and went for bravura and speed and bombast. 46 Conrad raises an interesting question concerning Petruccian i's later works, one t hat wi ll be examined through analysis of his solos in