Au Theatre Des Champs-Elysees
Michel Petrucciani, who died at age 36 in early 1999, entered the professional jazz world as a teenager in France. He developed an early style most critics and listeners likened toBill Evans's orKeith Jarrett's. This live two-CD set demonstrates that Petrucciani indeed owed some debt to Jarrett and Evans, but he also blows listeners away with cascading, hyper runs and huge harmonic expertise. TheThelonious Monkdoubling of "I Mean You" and "Round Midnight" (spelled here in the configurationMiles Davispopularized with hisalbumof the same name) manages to burn and then burnish in a matter of moments. There is much technical brilliance in these tunes, but at no point does the set come off as needless display. Rather, Petrucciani supports all his considerable flash with layers of nuance that evoke both a brushstroke of jazz history and an aesthetically solid commentary on each facet of the music.--Andrew Bartlett