Jacky Terrasson's 2024 album “Moving On” begins pensively, like a close-up of a talented hand sketching under light of an evening lamp. Then it evolves into the recognizable notes of “Bésame Mucho.” Terrasson traces its notes. He explores the sequence while the drummer goes round and round with his brush, creating a spacious atmosphere. We saw this live on Dec 7th 2025 at SF Jazz, and the CD is a reminder, albeit much abridged, of that extraordinary live performance of piano mastery.
“Terrasson must have forty-two fingers,” I told my friend at the SF Jazz show. His jazzy arias are powerful and flight-of-the-bumblebee quick, appearing in his upbeat tracks and adorning groovy track "R&B," ballroom-ready "New York, New York" and the romantic "Love Light." The ornate quality is remarkable. It’s a new way to utilize repetition manually in this digital era, where samples can go ad infinitum. It’s a reminder of the training required in the fine and performing arts and how stunning it is to witness such masterful execution of complexity.
In the title track (Track 3) the trio climaxes with a clatter of instruments played at full blast in a spirited piece that I could imagine world-class ice skaters racing and spinning to, it’s that slick. When the track begins though, you’ll hear a tune resembling Vince Guaraldi’s Peanuts dance music. (When I heard it live at SF Jazz on Dec 7th, I thought it was a tribute to Guaraldi, since he was a San Francisco native; but it’s on the CD like that. Seems serendipitous.) The song builds and morphs into a tour de force of expressive chord progressions that would get all the groovers dancing.
Between high-energy numbers, Terrasson gives some breathing room, and doesn't shy away from poignance. Imagine reflecting on a deep personal journey and stopping oneself short of a descent to depression. It was like listening to that experience: Beating yourself up?...OK for a little, but give yourself grace...then go beyond...achieve peace, receive beauty. The stability of the stand-up bass provides structure for Terrasson's wandering piano notes to return to. And return they do, with expressions delineated by Terrasson over and over again.
While the Dec 7th live show was a trio sans vocals, on the album, female singers are featured in two tracks. In “Est-ce que tu me suis” (Track 2), chanteuse Camille Bertault’s lovely voice poetically punctuates her lyrics in scat style, taming the rapid-fire of Terrasson’s piano, and then augmenting his ethereal layers and emotions with a parallel delivery. Bertault duplicates the exact piano notes with her velvety voice, then explores her own echoes, successfully bringing us to an otherworldly listening state. (I’d like to know if the reverb was captured during recording or post-production).
This Terrasson-Bertault collaboration is a logical historic progression from the Charles Peterson / Anita O’Day standards (“Them There Eyes” for instance); such classy duets now tempered by turn-of-the-century chaos heard in 90’s albums like Tricky’s “Maxinquaye” (1995) and Portishead’s “Dummy” (1998).
Perhaps an era of elegance has arrived again, in the jazz world at least. “My Baby Just Cares for Me” (Track 9) has vocals by Kareen Guiock Thuram, whose voice is so rich she could sing to a burlap sack and it would be gorgeous, with vocals resonating from deep in her chest.
Terrasson remixes pop song "Happy" by Pharrell Williams and spruces it up with his speedy repeat arias. Definitely. Dance. Music. And his rendition of "Solar" by Miles Davis is equally fearless, with its arcs and clusters of piano keys like blasts of flashing lights in a lighted art parade (or fireworks, as his album jacket mentions). To jazz classics and pop tracks, Terrasson adds his force of chords in motion and his transcendent sound.
At first listen, Track 10 “Enfin” was my favorite track on the album. Like a jam band upping the ante, this song brings the listener into the journey. From the intro, we hear that something is building up, with Terrasson’s chords marching upward (reminiscent of “One, Singular Sensation”) and a drumroll like a British army then disarmed to an oboe or harmonica being played in a public plaza… what is that wind instrument? Meanwhile, the rhythm section maintains its tradition. It’s Gregoire Maret’s harmonica? Terrasson takes us on a 3-dimensional journey. Appealing buildings and nature, strolling through a plaza the energy of a city, Paris perhaps? The traveling keys of Terrasson’s hands, hitting the high notes, calling something out… then journeying anew, reiterating musical emotions and then revealing the even-ness of a new plane of reality. Is it elevated from the previous reality, or just a different reality? And then it de-constructs. The rhythm becomes a simple hitting of one drum.
Discord was a feature of the Dec 7th show with mis-match of the drums, bass and piano - purposeful upsetting of the heart, a tension while the instruments find each other. I’ve always liked that in a jazz show. Jacky does some more de-construction in his rendition of “I Will Wait for You” by Michel Legrand (Track 11) – with his staccato, machine gun arias, his confident attack on the keys like a suspense-movie soundtrack. At a few points in the track, the music unfolds into a beautiful array of Jacky's maximum chords, surrounding us and lifting us up to the clouds. It is simply gorgeous.
The benefit of attending live performances is that the musicians have the opportunity to develop some pieces, finding parts of the songs to expand and augment, like a jam band does in rock n roll. I recall a sequence from Dec 7th where Jacky's sublime arias over and over released into a full-on, full-sound piano vibration of 2-handed chords that sounded like an eagle or condor soaring widely and strongly above everything, a masterful triumph of piano and maximization of the sound and energy the instrument can produce.
Eight rows back, we were able to feel the vibration, but I wish I could’ve been closer, because the Grand Piano is a powerful instrument to experience.
