Bill 0’Connell – Touch

Whether you translate the word “touch” as “toucher” touch, “contact”, “nuance”, “façon singulière”, the singular way “émouvoir” move or “attendrir” tenderize, it will always be a translation that perfectly defines the musical universe of American pianist and composer Bill O’Connell.

The title of this virtuoso pianist’s nineteenth album as a leader is no coincidence, as his touch and the uniqueness of his playing move us and touch our hearts. This 71-year-old musician, renowned in the United States and in many other countries around the world, is unfortunately not yet so in France, and we hope that this first album on the Jojo Records label will bring him recognition in France.

He first came to prominence in the early 1980s, touring with the great Sonny Rollins for almost a year! He went on to make a name for himself in the world of Latin jazz, collaborating with Mongo Santamaria, Dave Valentin and Jerry Gonzalez. He has explored Latin jazz extensively throughout his career, in a variety of instrumental formats (from trio to big band), as leader or sideman, and as pianist, arranger, musical director or conductor. With Touch, Bill O’Connell wants to return to the practice of jazz as a pianist and composer, putting the “Latin” aspect aside, around a particularly organic trio, where each musician is an equal.

It’s a return to his roots, because his very first album as a leader : Searching, recorded in 1978, was a trio album, and he hasn’t repeated the experience since.

In Touch, Bill O’Connell is the leader, but it’s not a question of a pianist with two accompanists, for it’s a real trio that emerges and takes the form of an equilateral triangle governed by interaction, where each musician expresses himself fully and bounces back at a moment’s notice to each other’s proposals. Each musician develops his or her own discourse in the service of the collective, reminiscent of the great trios of jazz history, from Bud Powell to Chick Corea to Bill Evans.

Although this is Bill O’Connell‘s first studio recording with double bassist Santi Debriano and drummer Billy Hart (both Jojo Records regulars), they know each other perfectly well and have been playing together for some time, based on a perfect understanding and mutual listening that produces a musical alchemy of the highest order.

They were featured at the Hamptons Jazz Festival as part of a quartet that included saxophonist Craig Handy (and trumpeter Randy Brecker on a few tracks). A recorded concert that became an album entitled Live In Montauk released in June 2023.

Listening to the trio, you can hear that they play – in every sense of the word – with great technical skill and magnificent expressivity, without forgetting the purely playful and enjoyable aspect of their playing. There’s a sparkling energy that’s a joy to play with. We get the impression that the trio is playing live, as if carried along by the effervescence of an invisible audience. There’s also a sense of relief, as if the music were constructed in three dimensions.

A dense, generous album (72 minutes) featuring eleven well-constructed tracks developed with great artistic flair. Bill O’Connell‘s personal compositions dominate, with seven tracks, where we appreciate the lively tempos, carried by a beautiful energy (“Around and Around”, “85th Street” or a “Cay-Man” in the form of a tribute to Horace Silver), but also the slow, ophisticated pieces like “Touch” or Santi Debriano‘s composition “El Junque”, not forgetting the audacity and relevance of a blues – unstructured and chaotic – entitled “Billy’s Blues”.

The trio also offers three fine rereadings of standards. Starting with Herbie Hancock’s “Maiden Voyage”, the trio slips in a nod to Latin jazz. The beautiful melody of the song “Three Little Words” is played by the trio in an instrumental version in the style of Thelonious Monk, while elegance and emotion carry the theme of “I Hear A Rhapsody” with great fervor.

Bill O’Connell is a pianist and composer with a unique and singular style, who succeeds in organizing melodies, rhythms and harmonies, as well as compositions and improvisations, in a way that is both individual and personal and improvisation, individual exploration and collective interaction, and tradition and modernity.