Unplanned Ways

Italian pianist Alessandro Lanzoni has been picking up awards and citations since he first came on the scene in his late teens. Lanzoni’s fourth recording (CAM JAZZ / Cam Jazz Presents) as leader is Unplanned Ways, a confident trio performance with bassist Thomas Morgan and drummer Eric McPherson that takes in jazz repertory classics by Billy Strayhorn, George Shearing, Thelonious Monk and Jimmy Rowles, but also more freely improvised structures by the trio itself.  Lanzoni’s maturity of approach isn’t defined by technical virtuosity so much as by an intensely musical vision that transforms whatever material falls across its path. One senses him always on the brink of making another fresh musical transition and another leg of an already impressive and creative musical journey.  With Morgan and McPherson, he delivers an album that sits comfortably with the classic piano trios but lacks nothing of the exploratory instinct that has transformed the trio format in recent years. Unplanned Ways is an open-ended itinerary for the music’s future. (Brian Morton)

Recorded in March 2018 at The Samurai Hotel Recording Studio in Astoria, NY by David Stoller

Mixed in November 2018 at Artesuono Recording Studio in Cavalicco by Stefano Amerio

Photos by Justin Bettman

Liner notes by Brian Morton