Jazz Review : Dynamic Virtuosity From Pianist Michel Petrucciani

During more than five years based mainly in this country, the French-born pianist Michel Petrucciani has made vast strides from his original stature as a Bill Evans spinoff to a new role as one of the great individualists in creative jazz piano.

Tuesday evening, opening a week’s run at Catalina’s, the diminutive artist, for whom a special gadget has to be attached to the pedals to enable him to reach them, stormed his way through a display of virtuosity so dynamic that even Catalina, who has heard just about everything in this room, declared herself in shock.

Petrucciani, given at one stage in his development to wandering off into over-extended impressionism, today concentrates mainly on succinctly brilliant interpretations of standard tunes. The only originals were “She Did It Again,” a hell-for-leather blues, starting out with a furious eight-to-the-bar left hand and winding up with a lengthy vamp on a C chord; and “13,” a delightful work played in deft unison with the admirable bassist Andy McKee.

For the rest, it was an accessible and technically astonishing hour as the Frenchman’s fingers, looking too delicate to hit an octave, ran through filigreed runs that were at once a marvel of speed, delicacy and, at times, steel-like articulation.

“Giant Steps,” began with unaccompanied carpets of lush chords before McKee and the drummer Victor Lewis picked up the beat. This John Coltrane tune, so harmonically tricky that even some be-boppers have trouble dealing with it, was putty in Petrucciani’s hands. Toward the end, Lewis climaxed the tour de force with a splendid solo using brushes and cymbals.

At 25, with almost a decade of professional experience behind him, Petrucciani ranks among the top four or five contemporary keyboard artists today. He will be at Catalina’s through Sunday.