Alessandra Celletti + Z-Star

For just one, all-too-brief half hour, Alessandra Celletti played as a guest of English musician Z-Star, in a beautiful venue that, thanks to this show, I discovered in the southern outskirts of Milan.

Z-Star introduces Alessandra, who, smiling, sits down at a keyboard belonging to the talented Neapolitan keyboardist in the band of the Black musician.

The venue is packed with the crowd that fills Milan's trendy hotspots. The clinking of glasses breaks up, with no particular rhythm, the deafening drone of chatter, interrupted only now and then by a louder burst of laughter.

Near the small stage, mats and cushions are laid out for Z-Star's friends, who, some kids tell me, performs at this venue quite often.

Alessandra opens with "The Golden Fly", from her second-to-last album, before letting herself go into a sequence of improvisations accompanied by Z-Star's drummer, genuinely talented, who at times touches on the expressive grace and musical intelligence of a Paul Motian, dosing his interjections with real intelligence, underlining the ecstatic swirls of this highly distinctive music, prompted by a glance from Alessandra or a nod of her head.

Pieces drawn from the recent output of this brilliant Roman pianist, who is increasingly establishing herself as one of the finest performers on the international scene (among other things, a duo performance with Joachim Roedelius is imminent). Looking around, I realize the audience is in a trance: you can no longer hear a single syllable, a single clink of glass. Between one piece and the next, thunderous applause builds in a crescendo, almost afraid to shatter the pathos of the compositions, testifying to how music as engaging as Celletti's, complex and refined as it is, can still draw in and captivate an audience.

Here comes "Chi mi darà le ali", a mystical piece emerging from a liquid cascade of notes worthy of the finest Keith Tippett, almost gathered in prayer. Then "Dear To Me", which, like a sweet confession whispered into a friend's ear, opens her latest album "Way Out". Many of Alessandra's influences are gathered here: Erik Satie, Debussy, Ravel, Gurdjieff, like jewels in a casket. A sense of balance. Then a furtive glance at the drummer for a new free-form performance built on an obstinate piano arpeggio. Far from any shortcut, Alessandra's music is rich in inner grace, in diatonic caresses, while at the same time dense with meaning, steeped in intense communicative power.

Classical, jazz and progressive refractions. Echoes of minimalists La Monte Young and Harold Budd, graceful as the lyre of Wim Mertens and as Meredith Monk, Celletti traces plastic choreographies, imagined through the movement of her hands on the keyboard.

Everything here is transfigured into a renewed essence. Eons of space and time away from chirping new-age pianists. Fast, launched into an oblique modal scale, Alessandra accents the beat with her left hand in a way I've rarely seen, with a noble, jazz-inflected intent at once, giving the impression, to put it in Keith Emerson terms, of when he would throw himself at the piano, eyes closed, into the choral section of the Five Bridges Suite.

Half an hour flies by along with the ecstatic notes of the piano, the shadows cast by the lights on the wall, the warm atmosphere of the venue, and Alessandra leaves the stage to Z-Star while a group of people immediately gathers around her: some fans of her heavily trafficked myspace page, who came especially to hear her from Milan and nearby towns.

Z-Star is a committed and convincing interpreter of her own brand of soul.jazz.rock.folk. A compelling voice. Sky-high energy. Warmly welcomed by an audience that seemed to know her songs. Really good, immediate in style, an IV drip of rhythm. She plays guitar, then keyboards, drums and six-string bass color the sound with fusion touches that - as the room heats up - become irresistible to the feet of anyone who finds enough space to keep time.

She plays for over an hour and a half, joking with the audience, in a steady crescendo. The only question left is how an artist so gifted with such explosive communicative power hasn't found greater commercial success.

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