The art of playing a solo jazz piano recital is undergoing a healthy renaissance but, technically, imaginatively and for sheer exuberant communication it would be hard to eclipse the Italian pianist Stefano Bollani, who began his current British tour with a virtuoso display at the MAC in Birmingham.

Bollani plays with a mixture of total conviction and physical involvement. The furious attack with which he launched into his opening L’Histoire Qui Avance was not only remarkable for its ferocious tempo, but for dazzling displays of crossed-hands playing, forearm smashes, densely packed chords, unison runs between both hands and complex contrapuntal passages, all dashed off with great ease but no lack of commitment. As the evening went on, foot stamps, random percussion attacks on the piano lid, resonant chords struck inside the piano and exemplary use of the pedal added to his creative arsenal.

This was an utterly fearless improviser, totally confident of his inner sense of time and with a harmonic imagination that never flagged.

One of Bollani’s party pieces is to play Beethoven’s För Elise in the manner of a cracked 78 rpm record, complete with needle jumps, repetitions and randomly omitted beats.

In itself this is a tour-de-force, but he wittily conjoined it to On the Street Where You Live, cleverly working in Beethoven quotes to the ballad and teasing his listeners with occasional skips in the tempo and omitted notes in the melody.

His recent ECM album Solo Piano hints at a rather serious player, but the reality is a witty and amusing musician, capable of infectious humour, alongside considerable depth of thought and keyboard skill, on vehicles as varied as a partly reharmonised Body and Soul or a rhythmically elliptical Maple Leaf Rag.

In conclusion he wove ten random requests from the audience into a seamless medley, showing that his gifts as a spontaneous composer match his remarkable talents as a pianist.

The tour continues tonight at Dean Clough, Halifax (01422 255266); tomorrow, Jacqueline du Pré Centre, Oxford (0870 7500659); Sat, Purcell Room, London (08703 800004)

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