Stefano Bollani - Piano Variations on Jesus Christ Superstar (2020) [Official Digital Download]

Stefano Bollani, the technically dazzling and hugely entertaining pianist, composer, broadcaster and writer from Milan, was once a classically trained piano prodigy with an unexpected teenage obsession. When he was 14, Bollani saw the movie of Jesus Christ Superstar, immediately bought the album that had launched the epic rock-opera in 1970, and fell helplessly in love with Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s story and its genre-busting, pop/classical score. Three decades later, Bollani - who has partnered stars from Bill Frisell and Chick Corea to Brazilian singer-songwriter Caetano Veloso, and tends to treat all musical holy writ as ripe for deconstruction - has returned to his youthful muse, not as a cast-of-thousands extravaganza, but as a heartfelt solo piano tribute.

The fuel for all Bollani’s work is spontaneity and this is no exception – but the pianist has rarely treated his source materials with more respect. His inventiveness soon bursts out with the pounding vamp and pop-melody invitation of Heaven on Their Minds, its intertwined piano lines building to swing and stride-piano euphoria. Strange Thing, Mystifying is a country/gospel ballad with a Keith Jarrett feel, the darting attack of This Jesus Must Die deftly catches the original’s speech rhythms, Pilate’s Dream is hauntingly pensive and troubled, while the taunting King Herod’s Song (“walk across my swimming pool”) uncorks a swaggering Bollani’s affection for Fats Waller. The only vocal is the pianist’s deep-whispered, preoccupied recitation of the opera’s famous title lyrics. An exceptional piece of jazz virtuosity driven by a transformational childhood memory, this is a bountiful celebration of a great Italian artist’s love of music’s life-affirming powers, too.