1978 · Album
Montreux Concert
Recorded 1977, Montreux Jazz Festival · Atlantic · Produced by Not specified in available sources
Pullen's Inside-Outside Mastery at Montreux
A masterful inside-outside pianist whose percussive solos made his music sound more accessible than expected.
Don Pullen was not a household name in 1978, but Montreux Concert (1978) arrived with enough critical attention to matter. AllMusic reviewer Scott Yanow awarded it four stars, recognizing immediately what made Pullen distinctive: a pianist who could navigate atonality and outside playing without losing his swing or his audience. That's rare. Most free players alienate the listener; Pullen invited them in.
The recording captures him live with Jeff Berlin on bass, Steve Jordan on drums, and Raphael Cruz and Sammy Figueroa on percussion, stretched across two side-long explorations. This is a group working in genuine conversation—not reading charts, not playing around changes, but listening hard to what the others are doing and responding. Pullen's left hand is busy, percussive, almost violent at times; his right hand floats above it all, finding melody in unexpected places. Berlin and Jordan lock in tight enough to give the music shape, while Cruz and Figueroa add texture without cluttering the space.
This sits somewhere between Pullen's avant-garde work and his soul-jazz roots—he was never entirely one thing or the other. By this point in his career, he had already navigated multiple jazz worlds, and Montreux shows a pianist fully formed, comfortable enough with freedom to know when to pull back. It remains essential listening for anyone interested in piano jazz that swings and thinks at the same time.
Who's playing
