Visionary works, local talent top year's scales

By Howard Reich
Tribune arts critic
Published December 15, 2002

This year was important not only for visionary recordings by Wynton Marsalis and Dave Holland but also for breakthroughs by several Chicagoans, including singer-pianist Patricia Barber, tenor saxophonist Von Freeman and trumpeter Orbert Davis. What follows is one listener's choices for the best jazz CDs of
2002, though the list easily could have been twice as long.

Jean-Michel Pilc: "Welcome Home" (Dreyfus Jazz): He may not be widely known to American listeners, but Pilc -- who's French -- ranks among the mightier pianists in jazz today, and not only because of his Herculean technique. For all the heaven-storming virtuosity he has brought to
bear on a variety of American jazz standards, Pilc has achieved his greatest distinction through brains, not brawn. By sabotaging rhythmic expectations on Miles Davis' "So What" and exploring rarefied chord changes barely implied by Duke Ellington's "Solitude," Pilc established himself as a master of the musical materials at hand. It is the overwhelming presence of Pilc's sound and the intellectual depth of his improvisations that distinguish this disc
and make one long for the day when Pilc swings through Chicago.