I wanted to start a thread where I share my most favourite pianists and their recordings, with some fun and useful related information!
First, I’d like to point out how important listening to records is. I feel that with practicing harmony, jazz language, tunes and rhythm is of course crucial, we can’t learn the essence of a particular musical style without hearing at least as many hours of music as we practice. I have many times compared it to a child’s ability to learn to speak; just by listening, going from no understanding to being absolutely fluent, no need for grammar (theory/analysis).
I hope you enjoy this thread, feel free to add comments, questions, album suggestions etc.!
Haha, I was surprised because I didn’t read your entire post before I went to Spotify to listen to the album. I only saw that the album was from 2001, so I was expecting a bit more modern playing. Instead, what came out of my headphones was something much older.
I listened to the song “Celia” first. Thoughts: The intro has an interesting, even slightly oriental rhythm. The melody of the song is interesting, almost as if it were a solo played to a different song. Lots of embellishments and accents. Thanks for the transcription of the solo, it was nice to follow along with while listening.
The solo starts nicely with a break and a piano run. There is so much to learn from in here. Bud accents the offbeats strongly, while I naturally place the accents on the downbeats. The accentuation is really strong in places and the rhythm swings, almost sounding like it’s going to fall apart. The solo phrases are not usually started on the root note of the chord, but he starts on other intervals like 3rd, 7th, 9th. The start of the phrase has been moved to the offbeat. Similarly, he cleverly places the turns of longer phrases on the offbeats, so they don’t sound like 1-2-3-4 arpeggio exercises like mine. In places where the chords change in sequence, Bud uses chromatic patterns that he cleverly modifies as he moves them up or down. He comps very sparingly and surprisingly softly with his left hand. And almost all of them also hit the offbeats. Interesting!
Thanks for the new artist/album recommendation! I really enjoyed the ballad “Make The Man Love Me”. Beautiful melody! It was interesting to hear how much Wynton uses dynamics when playing the melody. It almost sounds like singing. The left hand provides a calm and unobtrusive accompaniment in the background.
Eclypso was released on the Enja label in 1977. This was my first jazz album, and I would say probably shaped my own playing the most.
“His lines, phrasing, and creative solos, plus his interaction with bassist George Mraz and drummer Elvin Jones, won the album rave reviews”. - Ron Wynn, AllMusic
One of Bill Evans’ most notable albums, it is also the first of only two studio albums to be recorded with his famous trio featuring bassist Scott LaFaro and drummer Paul Motian.
“Portrait In Jazz - Evans’ fifth record as a band leader - gets you every which way. At its least great, it is merely brilliant… But what makes Evans extra-extra-special is the way his playing drags you in and shares the vulnerability at its core. Oh, the humanity!”. - Danny Eccleston, Mojo
“Thirty-three at the time of this, his first recording as a leader, pianist Red Garland already had his distinctive style fully formed and had been with the Miles Davis Quintet for a year… Red Garland recorded frequently during the 1956-62 period and virtually all of his trio recordings are consistently enjoyable, this one being no exception.” - Scott Yanow, AllMusic
Phineas Newborn’s Contemporary debut (he would record six albums over a 15-year period for the label) was made just before physical problems began to interrupt his career. This CD reissue has two trio sessions, and finds Newborn joined by either bassist Paul Chambers and drummer Philly Joe Jones or bassist Sam Jones and drummer Louis Hayes. Actually, the accompaniment is not that significant, for the virtuosic Newborn is essentially the whole show anyway. He performs five jazz standards and three obscurities by jazz composers on this superb recital; highlights include “Cheryl,” “Manteca,” “Daahoud,” and “Oleo.”
-Scott Yanow
Personnel
Phineas Newborn Jr. – piano
Paul Chambers (tracks 1–4), Sam Jones (tracks 5–8) – bass
Philly Joe Jones (tracks 1–4), Louis Hayes (tracks 5–8) – drums
Tracks I’d recommend to start with:
Cheryl
Check the masterful block chords
Lush Life
Newborn start this with improvisation on Ravel’s Sonatine M 40 pt. II !!
Oleo
One of the most impressive versions of this much-played ‘ryhmth changes’
Album was released by Columbia Records in March 1963. It was Monk’s first album for Columbia following his five-year recording period with Riverside Records.
“Bye-Ya” and “Bolivar Blues” were recorded on October 31, 1962; “Body and Soul” and “Bright Mississippi” on November 1; “Sweet and Lovely”, “Just a Gigolo” and “Monk’s Dream” on November 2; and “Five Spot Blues” on November 6.
“Bright Mississippi” is the only composition on the album that Monk had not previously recorded. “Bolivar Blues” was originally titled “Ba-lue Bolivar Ba-lues-are” and had been on Monk’s 1957 Riverside album, Brilliant Corners. “Five Spot Blues” was called “Blues Five Spot” and first appeared on the album Misterioso, which was recorded in concert at the Five Spot Cafe in New York in 1958 and released by Riverside. “Monk’s Dream”, “Bye-Ya”, and “Sweet and Lovely” were recorded for Prestige at a session ten years earlier.
“A stunning reaffirmation of his powers as a performer and composer.” -Pete Welding, DownBeat Magazine, gave 5 stars
“The sea has often stirred the imagination of creative minds involved in all spheres of art. There still exists an element of mystery which surrounds the sea and the living aquatic creatures which provide it with its vital essence. Atlantis, the Sargasso Sea, giant serpents, and mermaids are only a few of the many folkloric mysteries which have evolved through man’s experiences with the sea.
This music attempts to capture its vastness and majesty, the splendor of a sea-going vessel on its maiden voyage, the graceful beauty of the playful dolphins, the constant struggle for survival of even the tiniest sea creatures, and the awesome destructive power of the hurricane, nemesis of seamen.” – Herbie Hancock
A Jazz.com review on the title track, “Night Train,”: “By using the basic elements of crescendo and diminuendo, and arranged sections to set off the parts, Peterson turns what could have been a throwaway into a minor masterpiece.”
Night Train’s only original Oscar Peterson composition, “Hymn to Freedom,” was written on the spot in the studio to close the album.
Standards, Vol. 1 is an album by American jazz pianist Keith Jarrett recorded over two days in January 1983 and released on ECM on cassette and LP later that year—a session which also produced Changes (1984) and Standards, Vol. 2 (1985). The trio features rhythm section Gary Peacock and Jack DeJohnette, the first release by the long-standing “Standards Trio”.
In a review for AllMusic, Stephen Thomas Erlewine described the album as “the place where Corea put all the pieces in motion for his long, adventurous career,” and wrote: “There’s an intellectual rigor balanced by an instinctual hunger that makes for music that’s lively and challenging while also containing a patina of comfort… it captures the pianist at the brink: it’s kinetic, exciting, and filled with endless possibilities.”
“Given the play list and the outstanding artists performing it, why any serious jazz collection would be without this classic album is difficult to comprehend.” -David Nathan, AllMusic
“Pianist Hampton Hawes’ 1950s recordings for the Contemporary label are at such a high level that they could all be given five stars. This outing with bassist Red Mitchell, drummer Shelly Manne, and guitarist Barney Kessel (who is a slight wild card) is also quite successful.”
-Scott Yanow, AllMusic
Here’s Hope! is an album which was originally released on the Celebrity label. Elmo Hope is one of the most influential, unsung heroes of bebop/hardbop era, and one of my absolute favourites.
The Allmusic review by Scott Yanow stated “The one flaw of the album is that there are only 27 minutes of music, although the quality is quite high”.
There are many Art Tatum records available, but this is the one to pull out to amaze friends, particularly with Tatum’s wondrous version of “Tiger Rag,” during which he sounds like three pianists jamming together. This album consists of Tatum’s first studio session as a leader (which resulted in “Tea for Two,” “St. Louis Blues,” “Tiger Rag,” and “Sophisticated Lady”) and a remarkable solo concert performance from the spring of 1949. While “Tiger Rag” dwarfs everything else, the live set is highlighted by a very adventurous, yet seemingly effortless exploration of “Yesterdays,” a ridiculously rapid “I Know That You Know,” and the hard-cooking “Tatum Pole Boogie.” This is an essential set of miraculous music that cannot be praised highly enough.
“Bley and his trio understand that with compositions of this nature, full of space and an inherent, interior-pointing lyricism, that pace is everything. And while this set clocks in at just over 29 minutes in length, the playing is so genuine and moving that it doesn’t need to be any longer”. -Allmusic
Down Beat , Ira Gitler praised Coltrane’s solo on the title track while finding Kelly equally exceptional as both a soloist and comping musician. “His single-lines are simultaneously hard and soft. Cobb and Chambers groove perfectly together and with Kelly. The rhythm section, individually and as a whole, is very well-recorded.”
In places where the chords change in sequence, Bud uses chromatic patterns that he cleverly modifies as he moves them up or down. He comps very sparingly and surprisingly softly with his left hand. And almost all of them also hit the offbeats. Interesting!