Pianist Jean-Michel Pilc Releases Symphony, An Entirely Improvised Solo

Fri Mar 03, 2023

Paris-born. Montreal, QC-based Jean-Michel Pilc’s artistry comes from an expansive imagination and a fearless sensibility of musical exploration. He is self-taught as a piano player and composer. There is liberty that comes with that, an unobstructed view of the palette of music and harmony. On his latest release, Symphony, Pilc realizes that fearlessness and freedom completely. As he explains, the genesis of the recording came in November 2021:

“Right after recording Spanish saxophonist Xose Miguelez’s excellent album Contradictio, and inspired by the perfect conditions at OJM Studios in Portugal - beautiful Steinway piano, perfect acoustics and technical conditions - I decided it was time for a 'special' session as part of my solo project, so Xose and José Trincado, our sound engineer, were kind enough to let me sit at the piano for as long as I wanted, improvise freely, and be recorded. 

Jean-Michel Pilc at The Crescent (first clip)

Renowned Jazz Artist Jean-Michel Pilc Releases New Album in Alive - Live at Dièse Onze, Montréal

Fri Mar 25 2022
Jean-Michel Pilc -Alive – Live At Diese Onze Montreal

Spontaneity may well be the most important element of jazz expression — the immediacy of creativity in its purest and most adventurous manifestation. For extraordinary pianist Jean-Michel Pilc, the live performance represents the pinnacle of that level of spontaneity and, in his outstanding new release on Justin Time Records, Alive – Live at Dièse Onze, Montréal, Pilc and his bandmates Rémi-Jean LeBlanc and Jim Doxas on bass and drums respectively, splendidly offer proof of this concept.

Available now, the liner notes of Alive reveal Pilc describing this state as “improvising musicians in their natural habitat, the jazz club, playing music for the sake of music, never repeating themselves, and creating sounds that they will never replicate.”

“Improvisation is often associated with freedom, but beware of appearances,” Pilc expands. “When inspiration strikes, music has a way to lead you from one moment to the next that gives you no choice but to follow the flow. And when all the members of the band hear the same sound, all of it, and react not as individuals but as part of that sound, then it feels like home, or family.”