Live At The Montreux Jazz Festival

• Track Listing

2017 release. The discovery of the (49th Montreux Jazz) festival for me was 25-year-old German pianist Lorenz Kellhuber, who won Montreux's Parmigiani Piano Solo Competition in 2014. He took the stage alone to play three long improvisations of astonishing depth and maturity. There were bluesy episodes and forays into gospel, echoes of ambient rock, exploratory passages lit by quivering stacks of fourths and underwritten by dense classic harmony, and burst of frightening virtuosity. Swirling motifs went on for improbable lengths of time and never seemed to waver (Kellhuber clearly has iron technique) and the whole thing was underscored by serious good taste. There was nothing extraneous. No resort to virtuosity for virtuosity's sake. Everything was in the service of the music and, with timely switches between line playing and chordal work, the pacing was bang on. The obvious comparison is with Keith Jarrett, who Kellhuber cites as a major influence. If he goes on to similarly great things I wouldn't be at all surprised." (Thomas Rees, Jazzwise Magazine, UK)... Lorenz Kellhuber shines not only as an exceptional instrumentalist but also as an ingenious improvisator. As the first German musician, he received the first price of the renowned Parmigiani Piano Solo Competition at Montreux Jazz Festival from Monty Alexander in summer 2014 and was invited to the first Montreux Jazz Academy where he played with Lee Ritenour, Charles Lloyd and Eric Harland. In 2016 Lorenz was nominated for the ECHO Jazz as "Newcomer of the Year". Having released four trio albums, Live at the Montreux Jazz Festival is his first solo record.