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ALBUM NOTES BY MALAKOFF KOWALSKI 

On the day of a piano recording, everything begins with the tuning. The pianist’s preferences, the demands of the repertoire, and the piano technician’s approach must all be brought into harmony. Once the instrument is ready to be played, the adrenaline begins to kick in. 

We had scheduled a recording session for my album SONGS WITH WORDS. I had already recorded a few pieces with Igor Levit and Chilly Gonzales. Now, Johanna Summer arrived at my studio early in the morning. As she tried the piano after it had been tuned, I heard something entirely new to my ears: jazz! 

No one had ever played jazz on my upright piano before—a Krauss from the 1920s. The piano had been prepared with felt between the hammers and strings to create an unusually warm, muted sound—somewhere between a Fender Rhodes and a Celesta. Old-fashioned, yet distinctly modern. 

As I stood there, hoping Johanna would like the feel of the instrument, I realized her sound check was actually something entirely different: a fully formed solo voice demanding to be recorded. We talked, and decided to return a few weeks later and dedicate a full day to capturing whatever music came to Johanna’s mind on this particular piano. The nature of the instrument—especially with the felt—naturally lends itself to a lyrical, introspective expression; at the same time, passages that are overly fast or too loud are barely playable due to mechanical limitations. Johanna usually plays modern grand pianos without bounds, unleashing unbridled improvisations on classical repertoire. Placing her under certain restrictions seemed like an exciting prospect—for her as a pianist and for me as a producer. We expected two or three pieces to emerge, hoping they might eventually develop into a larger work. 

Finishing seven complete pieces from scratch on a single day felt almost unbelievable. By the very next morning, as we listened back, it was clear this music formed a cohesive cycle: it opens with two original improvisations. If one were to quietly claim that these pieces were composed rather than improvised, it would speak to a level of craftsmanship rarely encountered in contemporary music. 

GIANT STEPS, STELLA BY STARLIGHT, and I REMEMBER YOU form the heart of the album’s jazz standards. These interpretations—each recorded in multiple takes—achieve something extraordinary. To my knowledge, these pieces have never been approached this way, certainly not on a century-old, felt-prepared upright piano. The free-form introductions might faintly echo Mompou or Bartók—but unmistakably, within just a few notes, one recognizes Johanna Summer’s genuine touch. The standards are distilled to their most essential thematic elements, and Johanns’s brief solos dissolve as subtly as they emerge. 

Seemingly out of nowhere, TEARDROP by Massive Attack was an idea born in the moment, and one of those rare gifts you can’t plan for at a studio session. The final piece is Wagner’s elusive, dissonant ELEGY IN A FLAT MAJOR—likely a discarded theme from TRISTAN & ISOLDE, long considered one of his last surviving fragments. The whole experience took us by surprise. It felt like something that happened TO us, rather than something WE initiated. A process entirely out of time. A meeting of freedom and limitation, spontaneity and intention. Music that’s hard to name—and that is now titled: UPRIGHT.