Developing a program of solo piano music is the ultimate challenge for any improvising pianist. Lucian Ban’s mesmerizing new recording of solo piano improvisations, Ways of Disappearing (release date: 5/13/22 on Sunnyside Records), represents a daring addition to the genre and is a powerful and uncompromising statement for his first unaccompanied solo album. Click here to pre-order Ways of Disappearing on Bandcamp.

Watch: 'Ways of Disappearing’ album trailer, RUSH (excerpt)

In Ban’s view “improvisation is just composition in real time” where the performer is utilizing elements developed in practice and applying them in a natural way that fits the emotional, structural, and thematic parameters set by the artist. “If structure (i.e. the tradition) can be learned, freedom is more of an instinct” says the pianist and one has to pose musical questions and, especially when improvising solo, answer them in the act of the performance.

Years of studying the art of the solo piano have made Ban particularly devoted to radical pianists who approach the piano in unique stylistic ways. Ban: “I have always felt closer to a line of jazz pianists that I see as radical, people like Ellington, Monk, Paul Bley, Keith Jarrett, Andrew Hill and a few others who challenged the ways piano can be played both in a group or solo setting … for me they pushed the language beyond its defined borders”.

This performance is made possible with the support of Jazz Road, a national initiative of South Arts, which is funded by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation with additional support from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Photo by Elmar Lemes

Tickets: $20