The concert that gives
Sal Mosca's CD its title is a love fest with the audience erupting with applause and rapturous shouts after each number. That kind of enthusiasm is characteristic of the
Tristanoschool, a jazz sect too little appreciated, save for its founder and such key disciples as
Lee Konitz and
Warne Marsh, by the jazz world at large. Mere partisanship, however, doesn't account entirely for the fans' reaction.
Mosca delivers a breathtaking display of eccentric pianio acrobatics. His lines roll through the cycles of conventional chord sequences, but they often seem ready to spin off into the musical stratosphere.
Mosca keeps his improvisations tethered to tonality by the thinnest of musical filaments. His two hands often seem to be working at cross purposes crashing together. Even on up tempo tunes the time remains elastic as on a rhapsody, and the ballads never steep in sentimentality as
Mosca decorates them with percussive clusters as well as lush arpeggios. He keeps the listener off balance with brief episodes of stride giving way to twisting contrapuntal lines. An essential entry into the jazz solo piano repertoire. ~ David Dupont