'Solo' shows 'other side' of jazz pianist

Jazz pianist Michel Camilo is a musician at the peak of his game. His last CD, "Live at the Blue Note," won a Grammy for Best Instrumental Jazz Album. His current CD, "Solo," has achieved critical acclaim.

Currently, Camilo is engaged in a yearlong-plus world tour.

He's playing his own original concerto in the Hollywood Bowl this fall, performing with the Los Angeles Philharmonic under the baton of Leonard Slatkin. Early next year, he'll release an album recorded in Barcelona, Spain, with the Barcelona Philharmonic — which followed three sold-out performances there.

Does it get any better than this?

" 'Solo' is the other side of Michel Camilo, let's put it that way," Camilo said cheerfully during a telephone interview. "It's the more romantic, more intimate sound, which has always been there, always been present in my albums — in the ballads, especially. But this time I wanted to delve more into the pianism. And it's an album that is full of colors and textures and dynamics and contrasts."

He added that it's also a trilogy of sorts. "It takes me through three different musical universes, which have been very influential in my music in my career," he said. Four of the songs are Brazilian standards, four are jazz standards (with two Gershwins) and the last four are his original compositions. "So it's four, four and four, but they are not separated like that on the album. They are interlocked."

Camilo said he wanted to make a personal statement with this album. "I took my time in doing the solo piano album. I took seven years conceptualizing this one, trying it in front of different audiences around the world and just taking notes. Every jazz pianist that respects himself at some point has to tackle the solo-piano language, and if you want to really do it conscientiously, you really have to put your heart and soul into it, otherwise it will end up sounding like somebody else's or just one more. And I didn't want that. I wanted it to be about me, about how I feel about the piano and about how I have evolved with all this palette of colors."

"Live at the Blue Note" was pretty much the climax of his trio endeavors, he said. "It was a portrait of my trio sound, what I had been working on and developing so many years, so it was perfect that it won a Grammy."

But rather than tour with the "Solo" album, Camilo said that his world tour includes all aspects of his musicianship. "So I'm switching hats from solo to duo to trio to quartet to big band to symphony orchestra," he said. "And it's a lot of fun, but it's really hairy. It's what I've been doing since the beginning of the year. It's fun, but it's quite challenging."