Spirit Speech

Jazz pianists are like red wine, they should mature to taste mature and fuller. But Dominic J Marshall proves that rule does not always apply. Living in the Netherlands, the pianist came from Scotland in 2012, yielding a promising second CD with Icaros. Now he again makes a particularly strong CD, and while he is a young 24 years, at that young age he is already a very mature wine. To which grand cru does this lead?

Just like Icarus, his band consists of a trio of piano, bass and drums. Only the personnel of this group is different. Drummer Jamie Peet and bassist Tobias Nijboer support the leader Marshall in all his facets and musical inspirations. Marshall guides his trio in turn with unprecedented inventiveness through a musical mixture of Keith Jarrett, Brad Mehldau, Bill Evans and Bud Powell. But that list of pianists can't be completed. With ease, Marshall has obvious examples, and suitably borrows, but mainly draws his own conclusions and keeps it all musically sublime.

Spirit Speech has 11 pieces. The opening of the CD, "Austin Peralta," starts pondering then gives the bass the melodic acclaim. A slow funk is deployed and the pianist solos, working a dreamy theme, highlighting and deepening the harmonic material from all possible angles, hypnotizing the listener. The opening piece is representative of Spirit Speech as a whole. It is endlessly varied atmospheres, tempos and energy, which as a listener, is absolutely not annoying in this case. The unflinching calls to the atmospheric, is in accordance and reflective of the creative cover of the CD. "Tiwanaku" has playfully varied rhythms and tempos. The shortest piece of Spirit Speech is a piano stretch-out where Marshall makes it clear that he is not only a virtuoso who knows how to operate a piano, but also has an impeccable sense of timing, melodic elaboration and musically relevant features.

After a successful performance at the Manchester Jazz Festival, Marshall met celebrities like Jamie Cullum to vouch for his game. Highly praised by Cullum, many will follow, that's my prediction. I can still remember my time when I studied at the conservatory, Brad Mehldau was then the great promise. A light to music piano students, he paved the way for the generation of that time. Dominic J Marshall may have the honor to pave the new path. And Spirit Speech is already a very good start.