It's been a long while since Joseph has recorded under his own name, the nearest in living memory being his 2009 duo album with cellist Matthew Barley, Dance of the Three Legged Elephant (reviewed in Jazzwise 135). Here he's all alone with a lively audience, at one of the Vortex's British Piano Festivals assembled by ASC labelowner (and pianist' Steve Plews, and this unedited 45-minute set certainly shows that he's very much on top of his form, unafraid to plug away at a groove while adding fascinating detail. The skilfully assembled programme begins with a loose blues and ends on a rhythm-changes romp, the latter a brief curtain-call after ‘The Reverend (Back Home To Glory)’, originally commissioned by the Conservatoires UK big band (see Jazzwise 97) and here lasting over a quarter-of-an-hour, but so absorbing it seems far less. The next longest track is a 5/4 piece by Bheki Mseleku, but there's also a more straightahead version of Monk's ‘Think Of One’. One moment has Joseph seemingly an E-flat into submission, but elsewhere the piano manages to stay in tune during an exhausting workout – for the listener too.

Jazzwise talks to Julian Joseph about the album

Tell me about the challenges and rewards of playing solo

Playing solo is a big challenge when you mostly play in groups. Just in terms of being a pianist, and trying to find different colours and trying to find your own space in the myriad of styles and approaches and sounds, that is the challenge really, regardless of the technique. Because, by now, one should have technique – hopefully [laughs].

What about the occasion for this recording?

It's not often that I perform in clubs, especially solo piano; normally, I would do that in a recital room or a concert hall. But I just loved the fact that it was a of artists on the British scene in a club that is really one of the great heartbeats of live jazz in London.

How did you come to include the Bheki Mseleku?

I did Bheki's tune ‘Universal Renaissance’ – he also titled it ‘Julian’ – because he came round to my house one day and said “Julian, this is a composition for you.” And he played it for me and taught it to me, and at that time [of recording[ Bheki had just passed away, so I felt it was a fitting tribute.

What's the story of ‘The Reverend’?

Rev. Fitzalan John was like a father figure to me when I was studying in the United States [in the late-1980s[, and so I was trying to express an abstract personality of someone who meant a great deal to me. I presented it in three parts, because it represents three parts of my development when I was in the US.

Are there other projects we should know about?

I'm doing a lot of things with [violinist[ Viktoria Mullova and Matthew Barley, I'm really enjoying that. We did an album called The Peasant Girl, with some jazz and some gypsy, and we also play Bartók and improvisations around that. So it's great.