After nearly two years of livestreaming, teaching classes remotely, and performing solo concerts from the comfort of his home, Hungarian-born pianist and longtime Berklee College of Music professor Laszlo Gardony decided enough was enough. It was time to go back into the studio with other musicians face-to-face and play together again. Just like in The Before Times. // And so, on January 14th and 15th of 2022, Gardony gathered in Boston's WGBH studio with his longstanding deep-listening gestalt crew of bassist John Lockwood and drummer Yoron Israel to perform some new compositions and improvise with a clean slate. The result is precisely what the title of Gardony's 14th album implies, as the three kindred spirits exhibited an uncanny Close Connection over the course of these twelve tracks. With Laszlo's preferred rhythm tandem returning once again, following their simpatico work together on 2003's Ever Before Ever Again, 2006's Natural Instinct, 2008's Dig Deep, 2011's Signature Time a

La Marseillaise is Gardony's third solo piano album in seven years. That recent productivity is all the more remarkable considering that in the three decades of his career prior to that, he had recorded without accompaniment only once, on his highly regarded 1993 Sunnyside debut Changing Standards. Why the shift in emphasis? "I don't know," Gardony admits. "But I like the possibilities of energy, orchestration, and vibe when playing in solo, and obviously it's a very personal statement. I'm doing what feels natural to me at the time, and that joyful focus creates the music."

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