Luca Flores
For Those I Never Knew

"I love those musicians who sing, write, and play every note as if it were the last" Luca Flores, 1990

I could end here, but since no one knows this pianist, I'll waste a few more words. Luca Flores was born in Palermo in 1956, lived 8 years in Mozambique, then moved to Florence where he graduated from the Cherubini Conservatory. In 1974, he fell in love with jazz and began playing in various formations, eventually collaborating with names such as Lee Konitz, Dave Holland, and Chet Baker.
This album is from 1995, solo piano. The album starts with How Far Can You Fly? (Ladder), a song worth an entire album. It's not jazz, it's not classical music, it's the very language of the soul. Every note is pure melancholy, memory, sadness; Luca creates for the listener, but his dialogue with the piano is not aimed at us: it's aimed at himself. This perhaps is jazz, giving others beauty and keeping the pain inside. And Flores is the greatest at doing so: I don't think I blaspheme by comparing him to a Thelonious Monk or a Chet Baker.
The album continues and every note is a boulder. Not all the pieces are his, the album includes space for Gershwin and Kern. A small interlude is the voice of Michelle Bobko, at the time Flores' girlfriend, who sings in Kaleidoscopic Stars (Tyner's Mirror): "I flew through endless dreams, until clouds covered my way, kaleidoscopic rays, a guide you sent me". And then poetry, brilliant, poignant poetry.

I wanted to remember something, just to clarify that I'm not talking nonsense. The conclusion of the recordings was on March 19, 1995. Ten days later, at the age of 38, in his home in Montevarchi, Luca Flores took his own life. He left no farewell letter. This album, perhaps, is the words he never wanted to write down.

Happy Listening