Stefano Bollani - Joy in Spite of Everything (2014)

Stefano Bollani is an artist of ebullient virtuosity, with uncommon sensitivity and range. The Italian pianist has proved to be at home on ECM improvising solo or leading a trio, as well as engaging in duos with Enrico Rava, Chick Corea and Brazilian bandolim player Hamilton de Holanda. With Joy in Spite of Everything - an album of new compositions by the pianist for a trans-Atlantic quintet - Bollani has made his most beautifully textured and infectiously lyrical statement yet.

Bollani recorded these nine pieces at New York City's Avatar Studios with the Danish rhythm section from his Stone in the Water trio - bassist Jesper Bodilsen and drummer Morten Lund - plus two prominent American players and ECM intimates: guitarist Bill Frisell and saxophonist Mark Turner. As its title reflects, Joy in Spite of Everything brims with an indefatigable lightness of spirit despite the inevitable shadows of life.

Born in 1972 in Milan, Stefano Bollani began playing with Enrico Rava in 1996, confirming a deeper commitment to jazz. Since then, he has played with Pat Metheny, Martial Solal, Lee Konitz, Phil Woods, Gato Barbieri, Miroslav Vitouš, Richard Galliano, Michel Portal and Roberto Gatto, among others. Bollani has recorded for ECM since 2003, starting with a sequence of albums with Rava: Easy Living (with an all-Italian quintet), Tati (trio with Paul Motian), The Third Man (duo) and New York Days (quintet with Motian, Mark Turner and Larry Grenadier). Bollani made his ECM debut under his own name with Piano Solo in 2007, then released the trio disc Stone In The Water in 2009, followed by duo albums with Chick Corea (Orvieto) and Hamilton de Holanda (O Que Sera). He has also recorded classical concertos for Avie and Decca, composed for big band, and published a comic novel (La Sindrome di Brontolo, 2006). Among his awards is the European Jazz Prize as Musician of the Year for 2007.