The intimate solo piano improvisations and gently stirring "sound paintings" John Boswell performed on The Painter are among the most evocative and emotionally relevant compositions in his repertoire. There's a freshness to the twelve selections featured that stems from the timeless images and emotions that originally inspired Boswell to create this music. The ultimate test of a recording's worth is not how far it climbs the charts during the first six months of its release, but how people react to it five or six years down the road. With tastes changing and technological innovations developing at a feverish pace, many recordings that hit the mark the moment they left the factory sound dated, often laughably so, as time goes on. The reason is quite simple: when the glossy veneer of the latest fad tarnishes and wears away, the artistry, inspiration, and emotional substance of the music - or lack thereof - are mercilessly exposed.
JOHN BOSWELL's album, The Painter, has passed this difficult test. When the warm, richly romantic solo piano album was recorded back in 1988, listeners fell in love with it - those who were able to find it, that is. As the first of two Boswell discs released on the short-lived independent label Scarlet Records, The Painter didn't get the distribution or national attention it deserved. Even so, the lyricism, grace, and sincerity Boswell exhibited on The Painter, and his subsequent Scarlet release, Kindred Spirits, garnered a growing following of ardent fans despite the music's lack of mainstream exposure. It also brought Boswell's highly appealing style to the attention of Hearts of Space Records, leading to a pair of ensemble-based HOS recordings that provided a showcase for Boswell's talents as a band leader as well as a pianist/composer.
Yet after all these years, the intimate solo piano improvisations and gently stirring "sound paintings" Boswell performed on The Painter are among the most evocative and emotionally relevant compositions in his repertoire. There's a freshness to the twelve selections featured that stems from the timeless images and emotions that originally inspired Boswell to create this music.
Now that Hearts of Space has remastered and repackaged it to '90s standards, Boswell's first effort will at last find the audience it has long deserved. The Painter is one of those rare piano records to live with and savor again and again.