Jazz Piano of a Celtic Soul

Genres cross and blend with amazing frequency in the post-millennium musical universe, so it's little surprise that an Irish pianist named Peter O'Brien would have become engrossed with an American pianist named Fats Waller as a teen. Along the way, O'Brien absorbed ragtime, stride, boogie-woogie, and the blues, styles that he filtered through his own Celtic sensibility. All of these disparate strands merge on Jazz Piano of a Celtic Soul, a lovely outing of solo piano played before live audiences. This eclectic affair is grounded in classic jazz, but hardly limited to it. Old favorites like Bix Beiderbecke's "Davenport Blues" sit beside the sentimental "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?" and classical pieces like Bach's Prelude No. 9 in E. What connects these many shadings together is O'Brien's adept touch at the keyboards. He easily builds bridges between the raucous "Ain't Misbehavin'" and gentle "When Irish Eyes Are Smiling," between a "Fats Waller Medley" and Mozart's Ronda a la Turca. It's almost as though the pianist were paying homage to all of his influences while simultaneously showing how much different genres — classical, jazz, and Celtic — have in common. Jazz Piano of a Celtic Soul seems to challenge players and listeners to reach beyond familiar borders to recognize a more universal language. ~ Ronnie D. Lankford Jr., Rovi