Mirrors - Louis Stapleton (https://louisstapleton.bandcamp.com/album/mirrors)

Historical article recovered from a Wayback capture dated 2018-02-24.

Louis Stapleton is an award winning (Sparda Jazz Award,Young Munich Jazz Prize) gifted Australian pianist, composer and arranger who studied under the German heavyweight jazz musicians Hubert Nuss and Florian Ross, and this recording was funded with prize money from the above awards. Stapleton’s music contains influences from his hero jazz artists, John Taylor, Aaron Parks and Alan Broadbent, and is emblazoned with his tight, clean and virtuosic pianism. Composed during his time in Germany, with a definite nod to his previous advanced classical piano studies, Stapleton is accompanied on this outing by some extremely talented musicians from Cologne, bandleaders in their own right: Oliver Lutz on bass, Fabian Arends on drumset and the prodigious Philipp Braemswig on four of the tracks on guitar. A more simpatico quartet of musical explorers is difficult to imagine; and evident throughout is Stapleton’s dedication to serious musical discipline. On the track 13th Floor an up-tempo Stapleton establishes the active conversational sound of the trio with the guitarist, the pianist often writing long lines which the other players follow while weaving in and out.The standout ballads Rialto and Departures are compositional gems, with the improvisation sufficiently songlike, melting into the melody, and showcasing Stapleton’s high distinction skills

The trio and guest guitarist deliver the sound of modern creative music, attaining a beauty and personality too rarely heard in contemporary jazz, with impressive playing and solos from Lutz throughout and the impeccable restraint and technique of Arends on drums

Barry O’Sullivan