Romain Pilon Trio

He glides through the music with a great sense of security - never loud, never distorted, never angry, but always unpredictable. That's what the Jazz Times wrote about the Grenoble-born guitarist Romain Pilon. Is it possible to pay a more beautiful compliment to an instrumentalist? To this eulogy one could add that Pilon is expressive, technically sophisticated, but never hardened - his playing has a freshness and curiosity, as if he likes to be surprised by his own actions. When he studied at Berklee, i.e. when he was still very young, he was given the honour of opening a Pat Metheny show; he played on Christian Scott's first album (which was immediately nominated for a Grammy) and at that time was on stage with Esperanza Spalding and Lionel Loueke, among others. Of course, one can only wish for such a start. In the early 2000s, he moved to Paris, was right in the middle of the French jazz scene, and soon released several albums in various line-ups and under his own name. Since 2018 he has been playing in a trio together with Jeff Denson and Brian Blade, the trio's first album was released in 2019 under the title "Between the Worlds". On his latest work "Falling Grace", Pilon dedicates himself exclusively to standards for the first time, with drummer Jeff Ballard and bassist Yoni Zelnik assisting him on the recordings. "Falling Grace" will also be the focus of his performance at the BASF-Gesellschaftshaus - but who knows, maybe there will also be samples from the album "Finding Light", the second trio production with Jeff Denson and Brian Blade, which will be released at the end of September.