Le note di copertina di George Ziskind

Often I hear people discussing some “singer du jour” and saying “Oh, he/she has such a beautiful voice!”. Whenever I am presented with this inanity I always respons with something like “What the hell does the beautiful voice have to do with being a GOOD SINGER?”. It is as if these persons never heard of such things as feeling, interpretation, conception, etc. etc.

I am reminded of this thought because the world classic jazz pianist Franco D'Andrea surely has all the “tools” – he has chop up the wazoo, he knows all the tunes and he understands how their harmonies interact with one another. But what makes Franco truly great is ability to take these basic tools and with the wisdom that comes from a lifetime of playing his craft, create lasting music of great feeling.

I feel it is both fair and accurate to depict Franco's playing on this recording as a kind of “stream of consciousness” rendition of jazz classic; he floats from motif to motif as different themes or sections of the originals present themselves to his brain, and thence, his fingers. Accordingly, I too have chosen this modality to express some of my thoughts about the his playing here. What follows are some stream-of- consciousness random thoughts that raced in and out of my head while listening to this record for the third time. (For the first two hearings, I was mesmerized, immobile).

Before we even get past the intro of track 1, we are delighted by a repeated figure that evokes a boogie-woogie lick from my teenage boogie-woogie days. No wonder boogie-woogie is all I played for over a year – it still sounds compelling and intriguing. Franco, of course, puts his own personal spin on it.

Around minute #14 of track 1, C Jam finally materializes.  These “jazz standard of jazz standards” appears gracefully and naturally in a segue so smooth that one might miss it if not listening carefully. But don't geet too comfortable with it – because within a moment or two Franco is tranforming it into a hymn for tomorrow, an encapsulating statement that holds within its bounds the history of the music.

I just heard the final two bars of the bridge of Dave Brubeck's “The Duke” which was “put on the map” by the Gil Evans chart for Miles. Big smile from me! This guy knows his jazz piano history. Wait – don't limit that to “piano” alone; make that just “jazz history” period!

Quotes and interpolations, interpolations and quotes, from the most diverse sources!

Dick Hyman is one of those rare birds who can play in any style. He can even do a fairly accurate knock-off of Art Tatum. Now, I wish to be totally clear on this: Franco plays nothing at all like Dick Hyman. But he too has the ability to play in any style of jazz piano. It comes out, of course, sounding totally like his own creation, his own conception. But it still sounds completely valid and it still swings madly and furiously. This can only be the result of Franco having listened, listened hard, during his entire life – and having soaked up most of what he heard and internalized it for later use as he might choose to use it and whenever he felt like using it.

Speaking solely for myself (but I have a feeling that you will agree), THIS is the Franco that I love the most. Playing traditional material (ranging however from Armstrong to Ayler) with a jazz sensibility, playing it from the gut, from the heart, and from the beautiful center of his brain – all three simultaneously!

George Ziskind

New York City, June 2002