Following the artistic success of Saft’s collaboration with Steve Swallow and Bobby Previte on RareNoise’s The New Standard and Loneliness Road, Solo a Genova provides an in-depth examination of his piano style through a series of 11 well-chosen solo performances. Spreading his net wide, he moves from Curtis Mayfield’s ‘The Makings of You’ through ZZ Top’s ‘Sharp Dressed Man’, Bob Dylan’s ‘Po’Boy’ and ‘Restless Farewell’, Joni Mitchell’s ‘Blue Motel Room’, Charles Ives ‘The Houseatonic at Stockbridge’, Stevie Wonder’s ‘Overjoyed’, John Coltrane’s ‘Naima’, Bill Evans/Miles Davis’ ‘Blue in Green’ plus two originals, including ‘The New Standard/Pinkus’ taken from the first Swallow-Previte collaboration. What emerges is a pianist not given to technical gesture, but one that is willing to undertake the patient journey into the heart of a song in order to expose its meaning. In an age of arbitrary overstatement it’s rather nice to hear someone convincingly prove less is more.