Tina May and Enrico Pieranunzi hit the road and the studio

The duo released their first album, Home is Where the Heart Is, on 33 Jazz Records last year and due to their busy individual schedules have had to put any live promotion activity for it on hold until this month. Now they are planning a follow-up, this time with bass and drums, to be recorded during a two-day break in the middle of the upcoming tour.

As with Home is Where the Heart Is, the new album will feature a song writing partnership that began when Pieranunzi and May were introduced by London-based Italian drummer Enzo Zirilli, in 2011. “Tina is a great lyricist as well as a great singer,” says Pieranunzi, who became Chet Baker’s favourite pianist during a 10-year spell of touring and recording in the 1970s and 1980s. “I gave her one of my albums the first time we met and in next to no time she’d turned several of my tunes into songs with very hip, very smart lyrics. So this is a really exciting new direction for me.”

Having accompanied a succession of horn players including Johnny Griffin, Lee Konitz and Art Farmer, as well as Baker, over a long period when he was also teaching classical piano in various conservatoires, Pieranunzi’s main focus these days is his trio work. His European trio, with Dutch bassist Jasper Somsen and veteran French drummer André Ceccarelli, appeared at Ronnie Scott’s Piano Trio Festival in August and in the US he often works with bassist Marc Johnson and drummer Joe La Barbera, the survivors of one of Pieranunzi’s heroes, Bill Evans’ final trio.

His tour with Tina May opens at the Buccleuch Centre in Langholm, in Dumfries and Galloway (27 September) before calling into the Universal Hall, Findhorn (28 September); the Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh (29 September); the Tolbooth, Stirling (30 September); the Royal Clifton Hotel, Southport (2 October); the Bear Club, Luton (5 October); Seven Arts, Leeds (6 October); and the Capstone Theatre, Liverpool (7 October).

­– Rob Adams