Friday May 20 at Tonal Park’s Alleyworld, 7014 Westmoreland Ave. Takoma Park MD * MASKS, VAX REQUIRED * TICKETS
Transparent Productions presents
Lucian Ban, solo piano
Since moving to NYC in the late nineties, Lucian Ban has become known for his amalgamations of Transylvanian folk with improvisation, for his mining of 20th Century European classical music with jazz, and for his pursuit of a modern chamber jazz ideal.
For Ban, “improvisation is just composition in real time”…“If structure (i.e. the tradition) can be learned, freedom is more of an instinct”. Years of studying the art of the solo piano have made Ban particularly devoted to radical pianists who approach the piano in unique stylistic ways. Ban: “I have always felt closer to a line of jazz pianists that I see as radical, people like Ellington, Monk, Paul Bley, Keith Jarrett, Andrew Hill and a few others who challenged the ways piano can be played both in a group or solo setting…for me they pushed the language beyond its defined borders”.
“Ways of Disappearing”, Ban’s new solo piano recording, co-produced with long-time friend and collaborator/violist Mat Maneri, and presents a program of fourteen distinct pieces that, as a whole, show the kaleidoscopic breadth of the pianist’s improvisatory and compositional styles.
After decades of gestation, “Ways of Disappearing”, represents a significant contribution to the art of solo jazz piano and shows just how inspired Ban can be in the moment, making music from ether, and, as Downbeat says in describing his music, “making personal art that feels universal”. Ban was last presented by TransP in 2014, in duet with Mat Maneri.
This performance is made possible with the support of Jazz Road, a national initiative of South Arts, which is funded by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation with additional support from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.