Improvisation Diary 2020

The pianist and composer Allen Shawn went to work on these improvisations during the early part of the pandemic, and recorded them in people's living rooms, on his phone and on a zoom recorder. The various locations give the listen a spontaneous feel, as we get a peek of the sketchbooks of this artist's vision. The aptly titled "Jaunty"starts the listen with upbeat and radiant keys that are as firm as they are lively, and the also appropriately titled "Almost A Waltz"follows with a calm pulse of mesmerizing, expressive song craft. Further along, the bouncy and animated progressions of "Intersecting Points"is quite exciting, while "Lovely Love"is indeed romantic, and carries a rare intimacy with it. Deeper yet, the charming and commanding presence of "C Major Obession"makes this one of the album's best, and "Epilogue"exits the listen with a hushed beauty that possesses so much sophisticated and timeless playing. A body of work dedicated to his son, Shawn's 'sketches' are certainly more developed than you might think, and his heavy emphasis on blues and jazz nods is his highly creative and quite inviting.

Commenting on his Aria Caprice, reviewed above, Allen Shawn describes it as having an "improvisatory"quality. That impulse finds its purest form in this unique release. Shawn wrote these 19 improvisations for his son, to whom the album is dedicated, during Covid lockdown. He began improvising at age 10 before learning notation, so this exercise is natural for him. These unplanned miniatures are wistful, tuneful, jazzy, raucous, intensely creative, and mostly tonal. You can listen to a few or put the whole album on. It works either way. Shawn never intended this to be any more than a "sketch book"but decided it was "possibly deserving consideration in its own right". Indeed, it is. Right from the beginning, in `Jaunty', one of Shawn's most lyrical jazz pieces, we get a feeling of freedom and spon-taneity. `Jitterbug' delvers this vibe as well, along with just enough harmonic crunch. The wistful `Almost a Waltz' becomes one by the end: these little pieces go on just enough to create an identity. `Hurly Burly' packs a lot of fun into just over a minute and leaves a happy impression. `Blues' is a real blues, not a mod-ernist deconstruction, full of beautiful jazz chords and vibrating trills. Some of these were recorded on zoom, others on a phone. The recording is clear and resonant, though nothing is corrected. "This CD contains the original improvisations", says Shawn, "mistakes, recording quality, and all". There is so much freshness and true feeling that we can only be grateful Shawn didn't do the usual mechanical clean-up – not something we would want in every recording but exactly right here. These improvisations don't have the careful, artful craftmanship of the chamber works reviewed above, but they have the element of surprise. If you want something wonderfully, artfully sentimental, put on `Lovely Love': it will put you in an optimistic mood. Put on the whole "sketchbook", and you'll feel even better.