Mike Nock - 1978 - Piano Solos

Mike Nock

1978

Piano Solos

01. California Country Song

02. Polyhedron

03. Fallen Angel

04. Break Time

05. Elsewhen

06. Enchanted Garden

07. Soliloquy

08. Jacanori

09. Dolphin Dance

Piano – Mike Nock

Recorded at Columbia Studio, NYC, Sep 10, 1978

Mike Nock has long been one of the top modern jazz keyboardists to emerge from his part of the world. Nock began taking piano lessons from his father when he was 11. He began gigging four years later and at 18 moved to Australia. After heading a trio that toured England in 1961, Nock went to the U.S. to attend the Berklee College of Music. After a year he dropped out of school to be the house pianist at a Boston club and had opportunities to work with Coleman Hawkins, Pee Wee Russell, Phil Woods, and Sam Rivers, among many others. Nock gained some recognition during his period as a member of Yusef Lateef's band (1963-1965). He led his own combos, gigged for a short period with the Jazz Messengers, and eventually moved to San Francisco, where he worked with John Handy. During 1968-1970 Nock was involved with fusion, leading the Fourth Way, a pioneer in the idiom. After a few years he became a studio musician in New York (1975-1985) and then returned to Australia, where he has been busy as both an educator (teaching at the N.S.W. Conservatorium of Music) and as a musician, occasionally revisiting the U.S. As a leader, Nock recorded as early as 1960 (Move, which was recorded in Australia) and has made records for Capitol (with the Fourth Way), MPS, Improvising Artists (in a band called Almanac), Laurie, Enja, Timeless, Tomato, ECM, DIW, Naxos Jazz, Birdland, and Jazzhead.

Beautiful solo work from pianist Mike Nock -- a set that's got some of the dark edges and dynamic energy of Nock's previous 70s recordings -- but an album that also shows some newly lyrical elements as well! Some passages have Mike hitting the keys with the sort of frenzied creation he reached on fusion recordings -- but with wonderful results on the acoustic piano -- and other moments have this enhanced sense of melody that makes for very beautiful, expressive passages -- maybe a touch more sentiment than the younger Nock would have allowed himself, but never in a way that's soppy or overdone. The balance in these modes is great -- and reminds us that Nock can be equally compelling a solo performer as he is in a group.