RIOPY: Live at Cadogan Hall

For most of his Cadogan Hall performance, RIOPY (Jean-Philippe Rio-Py) allowed his virtuosic piano playing to speak for him, but singing and speaking to the audience gave us all an insight into the man himself. 

RIOPY at Cadogan Hall (c) Tasha Yourkevich

A couple of times through the Cadogan Hall show, RIOPY spoke to the audience: he was humble and grateful (for most of us, the London tube strike had caused additional time and effort to attend). As he spoke, and as he played, there was both a control and a freedom in equal measure.

Throughout the set, well-known tunes were interspersed with those from Be Love, RIOPY’s fifth album. Explaining the title and concept behind his latest album, RIOPY said: “We do a lot of things subconsciously and the world would be so much better if we all put ourselves in a state of love.”

Explaining why several of the tunes from Be Love feature lyrics and the pianist as singer, he added that music has always been a necessity and he discovered that “singing made me feel good”.

When RIOPY released Bliss in 2021, I was fortunate in interviewing him for Harmonious World. You can listen to that episode here. It remains one of my most downloaded episodes across the last six years of the podcast.

Opening the show was singer-songwriter Marnie Glum, with songs that were melodic and witty. Taking over the Cadogan stage alone is no mean feat and this was a confident, assured performance from such a talented young artist that promises much for the promised new recording. 

It doesn’t matter what box you try to put RIOPY in, performances like this are, in themselves, a definition of music that is … music: jazz, quasi-classical and intensely personal for the performer and each and every member of the audience.

There’s more still to come from live music producers Serious with the Summer of Jazz Series and, of course, the EFG London Jazz Festival