Solo Piano at Schloss ElmauACT ***

Polish-born and classically trained, Sendecki came late to jazz, and since the 1980s his career has included the Brecker brothers, Joe Henderson, Charlie Mariano, Jaco Pastorius, Billy Cobham and the NDR Big Band. Surprisingly, with that impeccable jazz pedigree, this part-live, part-studio album feels more like a classical recital. He's a brilliant, exuberant player, full of flourish and playful, almost quixotic shifts of mood, with the abundant wherewithal to carry them off with dazzling aplomb; the forceful A Kind of Song, Obertasand the un-psalmlike Evening Psalmepitomise his sometimes extravagant approach. But he's also capable of great delicacy; the classical romanticism of the traditional Mein Mädchenand Wiegenliedsuggests a hint of Robert Schumann, as does the impressionistic Sledge Ride.

But jazz is somewhere backstage. See actmusic.com