| Jazz |
Summary: Franco Italian pianist and composer Milena Granci delivers a richly cinematic jazz album with To Some Place New, blending orchestral sophistication, European melancholy and fluid storytelling in a work inspired as much by Michel Legrand as by Maria Schneider.
Milena Granci’s To Some Place New Turns European Jazz Into Cinematic Storytelling
There are albums that introduce themselves immediately, and others that unfold slowly, almost cautiously, revealing their architecture one emotional layer at a time. The work of Milena Granci belongs unmistakably to the second category. A Franco Italian pianist and composer who openly cites Maria Schneider as an influence, Granci nevertheless inhabits a musical universe that feels emotionally closer to Michel Legrand, though filtered through a far more expansive and structurally ambitious form of writing.
One only needs to listen closely to the purely instrumental passages to understand where the true center of gravity lies. The compositions are dense without becoming heavy, emotionally detailed without falling into sentimentality. Beneath the apparent softness of the melodies, the harmonic writing is remarkably sophisticated, and the arrangements reveal a composer thinking several movements ahead at all times. Every transition feels intentional. Every orchestral color appears chosen not simply for beauty, but for narrative purpose.
Even before the first note begins, the album announces its cinematic ambitions. The cover artwork, showing the pianist running through the countryside, seen from behind, immediately evokes movement, memory, escape, perhaps even reinvention. It is difficult not to interpret the record as a conceptual work designed to be experienced as a continuous emotional journey rather than a collection of isolated songs.
Her voice carries traces of the atmosphere that once floated through The Umbrellas of Cherbourg. There is the same fragile melancholy, the same suspended elegance, the same impression that emotions are arriving slightly ahead of words. But beyond these echoes, listeners are invited into something far more organic and fluid, a musical form that resists traditional categorization.
At the heart of the project lies Granci’s desire to free herself from the conventional architecture of jazz. Rather than returning repeatedly to rigid thematic structures, the music evolves continuously, almost like a stream of consciousness unfolding in real time. Themes reappear, but altered, transformed by what came before them, much in the way memories shift shape as stories progress.
“ I wanted the music to feel as close as possible to a continuous composition, with very little repetition,” she explains. “ When ideas return, they come back transformed, like chapters in an unfolding story.”
The album’s title track, To Some Place New, embodies that philosophy perfectly. The piece begins in quiet introspection, nearly fragile in tone, before gradually opening toward something warmer and more hopeful. The transformation is subtle rather than dramatic. The music does not rush toward resolution. Instead, it reveals itself patiently, layer after layer, allowing emotion to accumulate naturally.
Elsewhere, the record offers moments that feel almost cinematic in their precision. One composition drifts delicately between chamber jazz and impressionistic classical writing, the piano moving like hesitant dialogue between characters who never fully say what they mean. Another expands into lush orchestral textures before suddenly retreating into near silence, as if the arrangement itself were breathing. These shifts give the album an unusually human quality. The music feels alive, unpredictable, unwilling to settle into formula.
The influence of Maria Schneider remains visible in the breadth of the orchestral thinking and in the ambition of the compositional framework. Schneider’s writing reportedly left a profound impression on Granci during her conservatory years. Yet where Schneider often constructs her works around a strong central thematic axis, Granci approaches composition differently. Her pieces resemble interconnected scenes from a film, linked less by recurring motifs than by the emotional continuity of her voice and perspective.
One of the album’s most striking moments arrives in Paris Gagne, where the accordion work of James Pettinger almost transports the listener into the smoky dance halls and narrow streets of postwar Paris. The atmosphere feels intensely visual, nearly tactile. One can almost imagine faded streetlights reflecting on wet pavement while distant conversations disappear into the night.
The intimacy of the record is equally important to its success. Despite the richness of the orchestration, Granci never allows the arrangements to overpower the emotional core of the music. Even at its most expansive, the album retains the sensation of hearing a personal confession unfold quietly in the corner of a room. That balance between scale and vulnerability becomes one of the defining strengths of the project.
This is precisely where the album becomes fascinating on several different levels. Granci now enters a London jazz scene already crowded with internationally celebrated figures such as Ezra Collective, Nubya Garcia and Shabaka Hutchings, artists who have helped redefine contemporary British jazz through rhythmic experimentation and multicultural influences. Yet Granci moves in a noticeably different direction. Her music is less urban, less groove oriented, more concerned with atmosphere, orchestral color, and emotional continuity. That distinction may ultimately become her greatest strength within an increasingly crowded landscape.
In Britain, this type of European infused orchestral jazz may well feel refreshing, even innovative. In France, however, audiences may perceive it differently, perhaps as part of a longer artistic tradition already deeply woven into the cultural landscape.
Anglo Saxon audiences have historically shown a particular fascination for European jazz aesthetics, perhaps because the harmonic structures and narrative sensibilities often feel more impressionistic and less rhythmically predictable than their American counterparts. Having lived within both European and American musical cultures, one can easily understand both perspectives. Listeners will ultimately respond according to their own musical sensibilities.
What remains undeniable is the listening pleasure the album provides. This is music that invites immersion rather than analysis, even if its compositional depth rewards close attention. For audiences drawn to jazz that leans toward classical textures, cinematic storytelling, and carefully sculpted emotional atmospheres, To Some Place New offers an experience that feels elegant, intelligent, and quietly transporting.
Long after the album ends, what lingers most is not necessarily a melody or a lyric, but a sensation. The feeling of having crossed through a landscape of memories that never fully explain themselves, yet somehow remain emotionally precise. Like the figure disappearing into the countryside on the album cover, Milena Granci seems less interested in arriving somewhere specific than in capturing the fragile beauty of movement itself.
Thierry De Clemensat
Member at Jazz Journalists Association
USA correspondent for Paris-Move and ABS magazine
Editor in chief – Bayou Blue Radio, Bayou Blue News
PARIS-MOVE, May 8th, 2026
Follow PARIS-MOVE on X
::::::::::::::::::::::::
To buy the album
4 panel digipack, contains beautiful pictures by Camille Lemoine, and amazing design by Giulia Cavillini, with credits and liner notes by Milena Granci.
Musicians :
Milena Granci: piano, compositions
Aitzi Cofre Real: vocals
James Pettinger: accordion
Harry Toulson: alto sax
Ali Watson: double bass
Ollie Peszynski: drums
Track Listing :
1. Floating
2. When You Feel Like It
3. Maria’s Song
4. Different Road
5. To Some Place New
6. A Journey Home
7. Remembering John
8. Lament
Choir track 1: Everyone
Backing vocals track 4: Aitzi and Milena
Photography: Camille Lemoine
Graphic Designer: Giulia Cavallini
Recorded at Porcupine Studios by Nick Taylor
Mixed and Mastered by Alex Killpartrick