Nation Divided [CD]

In his first solo piano release for Whirlwind - ‘Nation Divided’ - George Colligan takes a lead from Duke Ellington’s quoted notion that “this is not piano. This is dreaming”.

The Portland-based pianist and multi-instrumentalist is known for numerous sideman appearances on the bandstand with names such as Jack DeJohnette, Larry Grenadier, Don Byron, Cassandra Wilson, and can be found on over a hundred album recordings (including 2017’s ‘More Powerful’ - WR4708). But, as he elucidates, this is different: “After a lot of trio and ensemble records, I wanted to get back to the piano to clear the air and represent my thoughts again in solitude. The whole session was captured in a single day by respected pianist David Goldblatt in his basement studio”.

Finding a correlation between the written and the spontaneous, some of Colligan’s pieces are fully improvised, others through-composed, or they combine elements of both. “I love Ellington’s idea that it doesn’t matter what it is - it’s just dreaming”, he explains. I like to let things happen, but on ‘the road less travelled’ rather than the familiar; and in musical conversations with myself, I can take as many risks as I wish.

A recurrent restlessness in Colligan’s thirteen originals is validated by provocatively-named title track ‘Nation Divided’, its two different keys and motifs agitatedly attempting to link up but never quite making it.