Greatest American piano music ever!
David | Washington DC | 09/09/2006
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Amazing CD! I highly recommend it to those of you interested in new piano music. The piano playing is exquisite and, unlike a lot of contemporary music, Chappell's piano compositions are easily approachable and have a refreshing character and wit. Chappell has drawn on a wide range of influences as both a classical concert pianist and a jazz pianist/composer. You can hear everything from Stravinsky to Copland to Ellington to 90s pop music coming through in his musical ideas. What is truly remarkable is how all these influences are weaved together in a seamless, coherent whole.
His musical ideas are direct, forceful, and palatable. This is some of the most `American' piano music that I have ever heard. And I mean that as the complement that it is, people have been struggling for generations to capture in music what it means to be an American. Chappell does it wonderfully in this CD, with its `melting pot' of ideas and styles. (P.S. Banana Jam is the track that does it for me, but I will let you be the judge!) A+
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