Jazz On Wednesdays brings you the magic of world jazz, this week featuring Romanian pianist Lucian Ban. Listen at noon to Jazz Sketches with Robert Vale, and at 7pm to Planet Jazz with Xavier Bichon.
Romanian pianist Lucian Ban is renowned for his amalgamations of Transylvanian folk with improvisation, for his mining of 20th Century European classical music with jazz, and for his pursuit of a modern chamber jazz ideal.
His albums investigate the folk songs of Transylvania (collected by Béla Bartók) with master improvisers Mat Maneri and John Surman, re-imagining the music of famed Romanian classical composer George Enescu for an all-star octet.
They have won critical praise and awards but, more importantly, together, they have revealed “a singular focus that spans the worlds of American jazz and European chamber music, with the freedom of improvisation”.