Jean-Michel Pilc - Symphony (Justin Time)

Pianist Jean-Michel Pilc is well-known for eschewing setlists in performances, making up the program – and often the music – as he goes along, trusting in his sidepeople to follow. For Symphony, the Paris-born musician goes it completely alone, sitting at the piano after finishing a session for another bandleader, and just improvising to his heart’s content. Like Keith Jarrett, whose solo piano sets are an obvious precedent, Pilc leans into melody when he plays, no matter how spontaneously composed. Cuts like “Just Get Up” and “The Encounter” show a remarkable ability to pull beauty out of the ether, as if the tunes were just waiting for someone to find them. “Waltz for Xose” reveals a familiarity with classical phrasing and a sensitive touch, while “Way to Go” inserts some rollicking discordance and bluesy groove into the mix. The pianist doesn’t just wander up and down the keyboard – he is truly composing in real time, and the connection between his mind and his fingers is so acute that the music flows out as if he’s been working on it for years. There’s barely a millisecond of pause between tracks, giving the impression the entire setlist was recorded in one go, as we listen. (It likely was.) Symphony is a bravura performance from a musician who just keeps getting better and better.