For the 1 reviewer out of 25 who was hypercritical of Eldar's performances as lacking "soul", either the rest of us are crazy or he should rethink his position. I've been a professional pianist for about 32 years and I have never heard anyone master the piano to the extent Eldar does- he is a combination of Vladamir Horowitz, Oscar Peterson, Errol Garner, Bill Evans, you name it- he can play it, and with his own personal signature as well. After hearing him at Yoshi's, I invited 25 friends (many of them professional musicians with years of experience) to hear Eldar in October at the Legion of Honor Museum in SF and not one of them diagreed with my assessment. A virtuoso like this comes along once in a lifetime and there is bound to be one critic who, unable to dispute the remarkable technique, falls back on the tired comment about "soul". If those same criticss heard the same quality coming out of the old masters' hands, then suddenly it would have soul. I guarantee you, unless Eldar gets in a car wreck or self-destructs on drugs or some other foolish vice, he is destined to become one of the all-time greats in the world of jazz piano.