In these times of increasing fragmentation in society, we have the need for music which encourages and strengthens us with a message of openness. That is the ethos – and also the sound – which pianist Grégory Privat, from Martinique and now living in Paris, presents on his new album "Soley". When compared to his previous CD "Family Tree" which was released nearly four years ago, this new chapter represents a substantial leap forwards.

At that time, he was playing with impressive virtuosity, but remained within the framework of jazz. On "Soley" he simply plays music, of which jazz is just one of the components. "I didn't want to focus only on jazz, but have tried to derive joy from a whole range of different music. I reference pop as well as classical music, and jazz is of course still an important element. I have started to use my voice to sing, I can use my musicality in other ways. It has all been extremely exciting, but also fear-inducing."

This is, of course, a claim that almost every musician makes about himself, but Privat is a man of conviction, and has genuinely worked with great rigour to abandon his normal comfort zones and to find new means of expression. He is an experienced performer, but also someone with the imperative to try out new things: here he not only plays piano and electronic keyboards, but he has also discovered his own singing voice, which he has gently but confidently integrated into his sound. With his two bandmates, bassist Chris Jennings and drummer Tilo Bertholo, he has cast the net of sound possibilities so wide, it can often give the the listener the impression that they are playing as a quintet or even a larger group. This element of surprise is something they pass on fully to the listener. The result proves him right, especially since it is precisely the variety of Privat‘s music that comes to the listener from so many different angles. The music has an astonishing sense of immediacy and works on the listener on the physical, the conscious and the subconscious level.

Grégory Privat is a citizen of the world; the music that he plays is music for the here and now. The openness, the love of telling stories, and natural lightness of his temperament take the listener beyond anything you would normally expect from a music.

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