Michel Petrucciani’s Michel Plays Petrucciani is a short 44-minute album of nine original compositions. Nonetheless, it has delightful work from the French pianist. And besides, as Petrucciani joked: “About 20 minutes a side was good… Don’t forget that I’m from the south of France, so don’t ask too much of me… nap time is important.”
Jokes aside, Petrucciani began cutting the Blue Note album on September 24, 1987 (finishing in December that year) using two separate trios for each side of the album. He said he took the idea for the format from McCoy Tyner’s 1977 album Supertrios. There was even some overlap with personnel. Puerto Rico-born bass played Eddie Gómez – who had also toured with Bill Evans, Gerry Mulligan and Chick Corea – played on the second side of Supertrios and did the same for Petrucciani, playing on all Side B compositions: “One Night At Ken And Jessica’s,” “It’s A Dance,” “La Champagne,” and “Brazilian Suite”, which featured samba percussion specialist Steve Thornton. The drummer for that side of the record was Al Foster, best known for his work with trumpeter Miles Davis.
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The pianist had originally also wanted to use Tyner’s drummer Jack DeJohnette in another nod to the original album, but bass player Gary Peacock suggested that Petrucciani instead hire Roy Haynes. Petrucciani was pleased with the choice and went on to work regularly with Haynes in the years afterward. Haynes, whose CV reads like a who’s who of jazz – and includes drumming with Sonny Stitt, Stan Getz, Lester Young, Kenny Burrell, and Cal Tjader – loved playing alongside Petrucciani and later said: “I’m known for putting cats in the pocket [an analogy used by jazz musicians for finding exactly the right tempo] and I put Michel in the pocket. That’s what I do.”
Haynes and Peacock joined Petrucciani for some hard-swinging versions of “She Did It Again,” “Sahara,” “13th,” “Mr. K.J.,” and “One for Us.” On the five-minute delight “One for Us,” they were joined by special guest John Abercrombie, who told NPR in 2012 that “Michel’s sense of swing was powerful… Michel was a serious musician who had a great joy in playing music. It was really what he lived for.”
The album, which was co-produced by Petrucciani’s manager Eric Kressmann, was above all a showcase for the pianist’s compositional skills. Petrucciani, who was born with osteogenesis imperfecta (glass bone disease) on December 28, 1962, had never gone to school – he spent his youth playing piano for 10 hours a day – and brought an eclectic set of influences to his composing. He trained for two years as a classical pianist – and loved Mozart, Ravel, Debussy, and Rachmaninov. He also expressed an admiration for the pop music of Prince, Madonna, and Jimi Hendrix.
In his own compositions, he came up with original fast bop lines (as on “Mr. K.J.”) and also blended in phrases by Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie to his varied compositions. “All musicians borrow. It’s like words: you reorganize them in your own way, and create a style,” he once explained. The pulsating “She Did It Again” demonstrated his ability to come up with driving rhythms and smart hooks.
Michel Plays Petrucciani was recorded at the iconic (and now vanished) Clinton Recording Studios on 10th Avenue in New York. Within the musician’s varied back catalogue, the album is a small gem, but it’s clear that the New York studio brought out the best in him. As he explained after the record came out: “I felt like being in New York was being in the heart of jazz. New York is my energy.”
