Leo Genovese: Solo Brooklyn

A wide, expressionist streak courses throughout the Brooklyn-informed impressionism of Solo Brooklyn, Argentinian pianist Leo Genovese's latest, and possibly most fearless solo effort for 577 Records. Recorded live at the 2024 New York Forward Festival, Solo Brooklyn ranges through all of Genovese's risk-tolerant ideas; manifesting into an hour-long concerto deftly defying and redefining the line between through composition and improvisation.

Like a staying flurry on a December day in the city, "Brooklyn de Noche" emerges from the hushed downtown air, unraveling finely. It is a stately, street-kilned piece. An opening prelude to perhaps rival the preludes of the Masters and settle the beasts that reside. "Algo Ritmos" breaks through as the Grammy-winning Genovese pursues the full and fractured rhythms in his head: his angular horizons, his sharp acoustics; his muscular insistence.

A spectral, dream-sequence illumination, "Resonancias Desobedientes," unfurls like an allied flag with a resonance that far surpasses Manhattan Isle. Roiling, resting, rolling, Genovese's abstractions coalesce into what could very well be argued stand as one of his grander statements. Time and memory will tell. The aptly titled "Trotamundos" (globetrotter) rushes to and fro; Genovese simultaneously exercises his rage at the speed of life and his thankfulness for being able to keep up with it and create a substantive oasis with "Harps for Hope." Wildly romantic and raw, "Walking Sombra" closes the concert and Solo Brooklyn becomes a minimalist opera of high measure—a triumph, in other words.

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