A re-issue of Keith Tippett's first solo piano double LP from 1980, originally released on the Universal Productions label. The Unlonely Raindancer is undoubtedly a beginning, it is also an enigma. More than its means. The seminal first solo album by Keith Tippett released by Universal Productions in 1980 is a live recording from the previous year's short tour of the Netherlands. The audience applause was edited out, leaving the listener with the intensity of one lone musician literally improvising into composition.
"The re-blossoming of a long dormant rose. Or oak, as Tippett twice visits the folk melody of Tortworth Oak, though he soom transcends the tune with his massive chording, ocean-wide sense of dynamics and wrists of iron that allow him to repeat hot forged figures and trills with an unremitting, unswerving attack. With different pianos at different venues, there is a variation in tonality and ambience, but that adds to the overall richness of the sound quality, the narrative of the tour, as well of each cut. And that is Tippett's gift to the listener, that even in the most expressionistic passages, there's an organic storytelling arc to each piece, even within the epic Steel Yourself. This is improvised but not avant-garde music that disappears up its own arch. It's music with a heart of soul that can barely contain itself. But it does, just." - Andy Robson, JAZZWISE - EDITOR'S CHOICE
Keith Tippett - piano
