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R.I.P. ...

Corky Hale: Harp Beat. Affinity AFF 150 [UK 1986]

Actually, the comparison between Hampton Hawes and Phineas Newborn, Jr. is interesting. Hawes had a father who was a pastor and roots in the black church, while Phineas was in his father's blues band in Memphis and performed with B.B. King and others. However, I think from start both of them used more refined and modern harmonies rather than earthy ones. What they have in common is that their styles changed mid-career. I think the early Hawes was heavily influenced by Bud Powell, and he wasn't originally very good at ballads. However, after being imprisoned and pardoned, he became influenced by Bill Evans and began to play lyrically. Phineas's early recordings, such as “Here's Phineas” and his RCA albums, were all about technique and not funky at all. However, on Roy Haynes' "We Three" and various Contemporary label recordings, he developed a sophisticated, unpretentious, yet bluesy style.  I think that style became a model for the younger generation, the so-called Memphis Piano Connection. They're all dead now, though...

There was a jazz club in Yokohama called Mocambo. It was a place akin to Minton's in NYC, serving as a gathering spot for young jazz musicians like Toshiko Akiyoshi, Sadao Watanabe, and Masayuki Takayanagi—who later gained worldwide fame—as well as those who died young, like Shotaro Moriyasu. They wanted to study bebop, the latest jazz style at the time, during the after-hours sessions, but information was scarce. Then none other than Hampton Hawes arrived on the scene, and everyone, not just the pianists, imitated him. The only recording left of those jam sessions at Mocambo is a homemade one from the night of July 27 to 28, 1954, recorded by Kiyoshi Iwami, a 19-year-old college student like Jerry Newman. Hawes does play “Tenderly” on it.   In the 1985 recording of “It Don't Mean A Thing", a solo piano live album, he plays “Hamp's Blues”.  Of course, it gets a bit free here and there, but generally in the Hawes style. https://www.discogs.com/ja/release/15178098-Yamashita-Yosuke-It-Dont-Mean-A-Thing

I never noticed anything like this on my LPs (which are original UK pressings on Vogue-Contemporary). Guess I'll listen to them again during the holidays.