Enamigo Reciprokataj

Brittany Anjou: the virtuoso of the piano A mad and powerful pianist who makes us jump from the chair, that's who Brittany Anjou is. When you think that the trio plan has already been able to say almost everything, the talented Seattle artist surprises us. Her first trio album, Enamiĝo Reciprokataj , was released in February for the Origin Records label , accompanied by Greg Chudzik on double bass and Nicholas Anderson on drums, which were replaced in the last two tracks by Ari Folman-Cohen and Ben Perowsky, respectively.

The title is in Esperanto and means, roughly, "mutual love" and contains the magical interplay that the pianist manages to create with Chudzik and Anderson.

The post-modern approach, even in music, can often create works without the energy and the necessary involvement, this is not the case of the pianist who proudly mentions and reveals her stylistic influences that include modal music, pianists Ahmad Jamal and McCoy Tyner.

The album already appears from the first unusual track and with a modal approach that amazes. Monkian influences and the use of portentous pauses. Anjou manages to make its own different styles with the awareness of the quote and the will to develop its own unique and original style. Snuffaluffagasis the track that sums up the album, a marvelous theme, a ballad that favors melody and dialogues in equal measure with double bass and drums, released from any rhythmic task, and well employed in a dense and continuous dialogue between them. Of note, the notable phrasing often made up of chords (like Jamal) often discontinuous, consisting of short sentences. The left hand develops a dense harmonic texture, the right develops variations on the proposed chorus. Reciprokataj II: Girls Who Play Violin develops a unique idea and allows Chudzik to show off with a noticeable intervention with the bow.

If Balliou for Bartok is a tribute to the Hungarian composer, they are tracks like Reciprokataj IV: Olive You in which the most unexpected solutions are proposed with moments of pure expressive freedom. The project closes with Reciproka Elektra which introduces a careful use of electronics and loops taking up the theme of the first Starlight track .

Brittany Anjou collects, in a paradoxical way and with a disconcerting musical intelligence, the lesson of the piano trio presenting a vein of avant-jazz and the desire to interrogate classical music.