Erez Dessel - Pro Fake No Reject

One of the most astonishing young musicians to emerge in contemporary improvised music, Erez Dessel (b. 1998) is helping to revitalize the practice. An ace technician who studied at the New England Conservatory, Dessel is in no way conservative. Indeed, his bracing approach to the keyboard and deeply intuitive sense of form can be explosive, uncorked energy summoning references to Cecil Taylor and the Don Pullen/Milford Graves duets, and an almost Russian Romantic darkness – imagine an improvised Mussorgsky – offset by keen emotional intelligence, with joyful melodicism and an airborne quality. And nestled within Dessel's playing there's a perverse streak, a contrarianism that might call to mind Misha Mengelberg or Jim Baker. An active participant in Chicago's current creative music scene, Dessel is a member of Ken Vandermark's Edition Redux and the quartet Ra Bishop; he is an Arts Club of Chicago fellow for 2025.

With ten concise tracks under five minutes each, Pro Fake No Reject was recorded by genius engineer Ken Christianson in his home base at Pro Musica, Chicago. The CD contains liner notes by fellow pianist Sharon Udoh with artwork by Ahmad Haynes.

Erez Dessel, piano