A talentosa Jess Rowland – compositora e improvisadora residente em S. Francisco, Califórnia – desligou por um momento a parafernália electrónica, experimental, noise, jazz e rock. Pelas minhas contas, à quinta vez a solo (não posso garantir a veracidade deste facto), resolveu virar-se de corpo e alma para a simplicidade e a delicadeza acústica do piano, segundo as regras taoistas da busca da verdade e da autenticidade em cada momento do ser e do estar.
De ouvido encostado à fina respiração sonora percebe-se que cada peça conta uma história. Cada história liga-se por laços invisíveis à precedente e à seguinte, fechando ciclo após ciclo, como um conjunto de painéis. Sente-se o prazer que Jess Rowland tem de contar histórias. Nasce da concentração no que é essencial, procurando fixar identidades próprias e alheias – uma multiplicidade de vozes, sujeitos e objectos animados.
Arte despojada e radical, no sentido do encontro com a raiz, que tanto pode ser a do ouvinte como a da própria música. No entanto, a aparente simplicidade exterior, ingénua e até infantil no modo de dizer, esconde uma complexa estruturação, que melhor consolida e agrega os fios narrativos desta colecção de improvisações. A música é água que corre, turva ou cristalina, vencendo todos os acidentes de percurso, imparável, como em Cecil Taylor.
Há coisas que acontecem por indeterminação, sem serem casuais. Fios de destino que se compõem, decompõem e recompõem num ciclo interminável, do qual nos é dado experimentar um belo e fascinante fragmento.
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Any CD from our pals at Pax Recordings can be expected to have something "different" on it.  Jess' piano works certainly fill that bill... totally freestyle piano improv, moving from start to finish with "no mercy".  I don't mean that in a negative sense (at all), either... it's just that Rowland's playing starts, proceeds & stops - there's no hesitation... no spots where you feel like the composer is "deliberating", or "thinking through" the next few notes.  If you put yourself in the right frame of mind before you sit down to listen, the playing will invade your consciousness, and flow in, out, around and through your brain cells very palatably.  What I found was that about 2 days after listening to these tracks, my dreams were then influenced by what I'd heard.  The playing is more "full-bodied" than many solo piano improvisation works I've reviewed before, too... lots of chords & harmonics... this will make it far more accessible for listeners who might elsewise be "scared off".  I'm highly impressed, & hope we're able to hear much more from Jess Rowland.  I give this one a MOST HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!
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As the author himself calls them "stream-of-consciousness" compositions, the focus of Jess Rowland's piano pieces is evident since the very beginning of the record; an absolutely genuine inner peace is translated into an engaging lonesomeness that never leaves doors open to rambunctious normality, not even in the reworking of a standard, say "As time goes by". Rowland takes his time between a chord and a flurry of speedy melodic droplets, so that listening to his music compares to being surrounded by a series of illustrated observations of a still lingering past. That's not to say that the nostalgia factor prevails: when his fingers find unorthodox passages to the realms of dissonance, Jess also demonstrates a tougher attitude, comparable to the fractured obliqueness of pianists like Marilyn Crispell yet often dipping in a creative ingenuousness.
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"Piano Improvisations" is in fact the subtitle of this CD. The title is some I Ching symbol I can't decipher. It seems to mean 'water'. And if I tell you that in the enclosed booklet we find a poem by zen-master Basho, it's fair to conclude that we have artist here who is inspired by eastern thought. It was only for a short moment that I was afraid to have here some semi-spiritual new age blurb. But don't be afraid this is not the case. No Rowland , who defines her music as "freely improvised, stream-of-consciousness composition", is with both her feet on the ground. She is a self-taught composer and improvisor. In the past she lead her own rockgroups like Spork and Soundchaser. More recently she is into multi-media. But also she must have spent many hours behind the piano, because she is an accomplished pianoplayer and improvisor. Much of her earlier work is available on cd, but this new cd is my first acquaintance with her work so I can't make any comparison. Also I find it difficult to situate Rowland as a pianist in the spectrum of jazz pianists. I'm not that much into this kind of music. Most pieces have a romantic and nostalgic touch. They are sounding all very peacefull and thoughtful. She is not breaking new ground but she is a remarkable, though not very original musician in the tradition of piano-improvisors. A brave move of Pax Recordings, who released another album of piano-improvisations very recently by Thollem McDonas ("Solo Piano").
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