After many albums and many years performing and touring with my trio and quartet, in July 2021 I went to a recording studio near Florence to record my first piano solo album.
I wanted the music to be as spontaneous and instinctive as when I play at home, so after setting the microphones I just sat at the piano and played for two hours in a row: improvised songs, original compositions but also songs by Paco de Lucía, Violeta Parra, George Gershwin, Thelonious Monk and Chick Corea. Twenty pieces, only two second takes.
Then I selected seven takes that could tell a little bit what is my solo playing about and in October 2021 Secrets of a Kiri Tree was released.
One year later I just realized in that recording session a lot had been left out, at the margin, peripheral songs waiting to be listened to.
Track list:
1 Improvisation #1 (Antonio Flinta) 5:39
2 Cycles and Rhymes (Antonio Flinta) 7:35
3 I Loves You Porgy (George Gershwin) 6:35
4 A Tree a Star (Antonio Flinta) 6:10
5 Let All Be Thanks (Antonio Flinta) 5:28
6 Tilsa (Antonio Flinta) 5:55
7 Crystal Silence (Chick Corea) 5:37
hereImprovisation #1 is the first thing I played in the studio session, it was absolutely necessary to begin with a completely improvised song. Cycles and Rhymes, or haikus, cicadas, comets and seasons, knowing it or not we all rhyme. George Gershwin’s I Loves You Porgy has been one of my favorites since I first heard Bill Evans’ version, and is a great example of how a simple idea-an arpeggio to the ninth-can be the cornerstone of a song. A Tree a Star is inspired by a poem by Turkish poet Nazim Hikmet, and Let All Be Thanks by W. H. Auden’s Lullaby. Tilsa is dedicated to Peruvian painter Tilsa Tsuchiya and the creatures on her magical mysterious worlds. The first time I heard Chick Corea’s Crystal Silence it was not played by him but by Marián McPartland on her NPR Piano Jazz radio show, and since then it has become one of my favorite standards.
About the cover art of this album, click here
