This is first solo outing by pianist
Bojan Zulfikarpasic, which is mainly composed of originals, including a jerky and troubled reprise of the moving "Zulfikar-pacha." The remnant of the program pays tribute to his influences, covering
Sonny Rollins,
Ornette Coleman, and longtime cohort
Henri Texier, and salutes his roots with a traditional Macedonian theme. This is to say that
Solobsession covers a lot of ground even though the pianist never sacrifices his love for crafty melodies or traditional dances (waltzes and Balkan folklore). He skillfully navigates between genres and demonstrates how thoroughly he has absorbed jazz piano idioms. He can bring modernity to an old form (rag) as on "Who's BoB," in which a minimal rhythmic pattern supports an unpredictable progression. On the title track, he lays out a few blues bars from which emerges a folk dance -- one more evidence of the existence of threads linking all musical forms. On
Ornette Coleman's "Mothers of the Veil," the pianist creates an orchestral maelstrom with clusters of chords. Or, he can approach abstraction in a manner that is not without recalling
Ran Blake ("Uci Me Majko, Karaj Me"). In a nutshell,
Solobsession is a remarkable and tasteful statement by an already accomplished pianist. ~ Alain Drouot