Emanation: Solo, Vol. 2

“Pianist and composer Roberta Piket stands among the elite minds of modern jazz.” -National Public Radio “She’s quietly been working on form and conceptual matters in the spirit of devoted explorers like Chick Corea and Richie Beirach.” –Ben Ratliff, The New York Times “Wonderful and versatile… a strikingly fine pianist and composer.” –Josef Woodard, Santa Barbara News-Press Thirteenth Note Records is pleased to announce the release of Roberta Piket’s second solo piano recording, Emanation (Solo: Volume 2). Roberta’s first solo piano release, 2012’s Solo, garnered high praise, making the “best of the year” list of several jazz critics. The NYC Jazz Record called Roberta a “revelation on the piano”. JazzTimes praised the album’s “emotional honesty, harmonic ingenuity, taste and discipline.” As legendary pianist Richie Beirach points out in his liner notes, solo piano is the greatest of challenges for a jazz pianist, “because all the burden of interest and variety is placed in the pianist’s hands.” In the fire of this challenge, Roberta continues to forge and refine her original voice. Beirach continues, “Her touch is elegant, expressive and musical. Most important, there is an extraordinary emotional intensity that one rarely finds in today’s overloaded recording industry.” The program ranges from free improvisation to reinventions of time-tested standards. Highlights include the mournful ballad Ambience, composed by Roberta’s friend, the late Marian McPartland; the Herbie Hancock Headhunters funk classic Actual Proof; a swinging asymmetric take on Monk’s Ba Lue Bolivar Ba Lues and Dizzy Gillespie’s Con Alma, grooving in 7, a burning Softly, As in a Morning Sunrise, and a re-imagining of Chopin’s second Prelude in A minor;. The daughter of a European composer and a Great American Songbook singer, Roberta Piket is a pianist who loves to swing while exploring the more adventurous harmonic possibilities of jazz and improvised music. Roberta's father was the Austrian composer Frederick Piket, whose works were performed by the New York Philharmonic under famed conductor Dimtri Metropolis. (The elder Piket, who passed away when Roberta was eight, is also renowned for his significant contribution to the musical liturgy of Reform Judaism.) From her mother, Cynthia, Roberta learned by ear the tunes of Porter, Gershwin, Kern, Rodgers, and Berlin (as well as accompanying lyrics). Roberta has played professionally as a sidewoman with David Liebman, Rufus Reid, Lionel Hampton, Mickey Roker, and Benny Golson and was thrice a featured guest on Marian McPartland’s Piano Jazz, on National Public Radio. She has also toured and performed with some of the most interesting musicians in European and American improvised music, including drummers Klaus Kugel and Billy Mintz, and saxophonists Petras Vysniauskas and Louie Belogenis. More on Roberta: http://robertajazz.com/biography