This post is by Dan
Recorded June 25 and 26, 1987
When Keith Tippett died in 2020, the entirety of the British music community mourned his passing. He was known and cherished widely for his work across genres, including progressive rock, jazz, free improvisation, and orchestral. According to most of the eulogies I've read, he was constantly searching for new modes of expression.
In the 1980s, Tippett performed a series of solo piano concerts under the "group" name Mujician. The name was bestowed by his young son, and it's a clever elision of musician and magician. The name fits because Tippett plays magically, conjuring up supernatural sounds from the concert grand. Mujician was recorded in 1981, Mujician II in 1986, and Mujician III (august air) in 1987.
Like the first of the series, Mujician III (august air) draws from performances on successive days. "I Love You, Julie" is the 23-minute first track, dedicated to his wife, Julie Tippetts (née Driscoll). Tippett likes to explore particular ranges of piano keys, often focusing either on the high treble or the low bass. He plays both fleet-fingered runs and repetitive figures. He sometimes lays an object on the mid-range piano strings to produce a "prepared piano," sound. Toward the second half of the piece, he explores the lower keys, creating a dark rumbling sound by keeping the damper pedal down continuously.
The second performance, "August Air," is from the following night and is much longer at 47 minutes. It begins with over ten minutes of exploring the lower keys, then moves on to higher regions of the keyboard. Many of the same effects are used as the night before, but the overall performance differs and remains highly engaging. I listen in anticipation of Tippett's next move but am always surprised that he has found some novel nuance to exploit. Fascinating!
The first two Mujician releases have been reissued as a "twofer" CD/download, as shown on the reissue cover. In addition, Tippett also performed:
The Dartington Concert (E.G., 1992)
Mujician Solo IV (Live in Piacenza) (Dark Companion, 2015).
Live in Trieste, (Klopotek, 2018)
I have not heard the Trieste concert, which was released in Slovenia, but Dartington and Solo IV are well worth exploring.
My first encounter with long-form solo piano recitals was Keith Jarrett's Köln Concert. I never imagined that either audience or performer could sustain interest in hour-long concerts but listening to Jarrett on Köln and his other solo records, I began to get the point. Which was, in simple terms, to go with the flow and follow the performer's muse.
Following soloists' muses means acknowledging the huge differences between performers. There is no meaningful comparison between Keith Tippett and Keith Jarrett, except that they have the same first name and play the same instrument. Likewise, solo performances by Sir Roland Hanna, Don Friedman, Michel Petrucciani, Marilyn Crispell, Art Hodes, and Cecil Taylor - all reviewed in this blog - are uniquely different.
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