El Arte de la Vida

Album Review

Spanish pianist Alvaro Is Rojas recorded these alluring pieces for solo piano at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm, Sweden in June, 1999. The artist admirably empties his soul into this presentation consisting of jazz and pop standards, along with two original compositions. And while Rojas demonstrates a finely honed and well-schooled technique, he also excels at providing the listener with tenderly executed and emotive aural canvasses of time honored classics such as Duke Ellington's "In a Sentimental Mood," Hoagy Carmichael's "Manhattan in the Spring," Thelonious Monk's "Evidence," and more. Through it all, he crafts unadulterated elegance via animated lines, mood evoking passages, deft expressionism, and swirling chord clusters, while breathing new life into familiar themes. On guitarist John Scofield's "Easy for You," the pianist pursues a subtle approach yet displays a flair for the dynamic along with a penchant for perceptibly raising the intensity level during climactic developments. Simply stated, Alvaro Is Rojas is a communicator who artfully conveys his impressionistic touch, through the magic of his astute and deeply personalized jazz vernacular.