Stone Rose is one of those rare albums that has no weak tracks. I’m going to be hard-pressed to narrow down a 2008 Favorites list, but “ Stone Rose” will definitely be on that list! I’ve listened to Stone Rose about a dozen times now, and love it more each time. The majority of the tracks on Stone Rose are solo piano, but Gjeilo is joined on several tracks by Tom Barber on horn, and Johannes Martens and David Coucheron on strings. While studying classical composition at Juilliard, Gjeilo decided that he wasn’t composing the music he really loved and returned to his beloved piano. He continued his studies at London’s Royal College of Music and earned his Masters Degree at New York’s prestigious Juilliard School in 2006. The Norwegian-born and New York-based Gjeilo (pronounced Yay-lo) started studying jazz, classical piano, and composition at the age of seven. More classical than pop with jazz influences as well, Geijo’s debut CD is a force to be reckoned with. Gjeilo’s music includes a great deal of improvisation, making it spontaneous and fresh, but it is also very melodic and harmonically rich. With the opening bars of the first track, Gjeilo had my full attention, and it never wavered throughout the album. Just when I thought there couldn’t be any more favorites for the year, along comes Ola Gjeilo’s Stone Rose and blows me away. I have to say again what an incredible year 2008 has been for piano music.
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