Italian-English pianist Demian Dorelli’s reinterpretation of Nick Drake’s ‘Pink Moon’ had convinced everyone. Critics and public alike. It wasn’t easy to add new colours to the final chapter of a triptych of albums – one more beautiful than the other – by the English singer-songwriter, an artist of crystalline talent. A talent that went incredibly unnoticed for as long as he lived.

By Luca Testoni

What goes around comes around. And so it was that Dorelli and his lifelong friend (and producer) Alberto Fabris, after ‘Nick Drake’s Pink Moon – A Journey On Piano’, delighted us with a chilling encore: ‘Five Leaves Left – Echoes on solo piano’, recorded at Peter Gabriel’s Real World Studios in Bath, England, and now fresh off the Ponderosa Music label.

It was a real challenge to ‘translate Drake’s 1969 debut masterpiece, Five Leaves Left, into a piano-only setting’, as Dorelli put it. Also because on that record, his unmistakable guitar and voice sound, minimalist and essential, was enriched by arrangements and orchestrations that were decidedly richer and more articulate.

However, it can be said without fear of denial that the reinterpretation was perfectly successful. Don’t believe it? Try first to listen to the original version of ‘River Man’, one of the most beautiful songs in terms of lyrics, melody and harmony written by the great master of atmosphere when he was still an English literature student in his early twenties at Cambridge University, and then listen to Mr Dorelli’s soft, almost jazzy version. You will not be disappointed at all. Far from it. Rather, you will be thrilled. Also because the piece played and rearranged on the piano takes on unexpected nuances and suggestions. All very beautiful.

It is thanks to the clean and imaginative pianism of the good Demian who, in reviewing the 10 compositions of that extraordinary debut record, succeeds in restoring the greatness of the enigmatic and brilliant Burmese-born singer-songwriter, whose art was already resoundingly ahead 50 years ago and, according to many, still is today.

So, credit to Demian Dorelli and his – well-deserved – work of bringing Drake’s music to the younger generation. Because such beauty deserves not to be lost.

While waiting for the tour in Italy, Dorelli will perform on 13 March in the heart of Paris at the Sunset Sunside Jazz Club.

Info & Tickets: https://ponderosa.it/artist/demian-dorelli/

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