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Can anyone ID the piano player?


jtaylor

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The four years later shot gave me some ideas -- because it's in the studio with Cole, and Cole didn't play piano himself on most studio dates, maybe it's Cole's regular piano player, whose name understandably wouldn't have been publicized. But looking through the personnel of Cole recordings from those periods, the only names I come up are Jimmy Rowles, Lou Levy, Milt Raskin, John Towner Williams (yes, Mr. "Star Wars") et al., and it's clearly not one of those guys. There is Gerald Wiggins on some dates, but the guy in the photo looks even less like Wiggins than he does like Ronnell Bright.

Quite unlikely that it was Sir Charles. He didn't do West Coast studio work.

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The four years later shot gave me some ideas -- because it's in the studio with Cole, and Cole didn't play piano himself on most studio dates, maybe it's Cole's regular piano player, whose name understandably wouldn't have been publicized. But looking through the personnel of Cole recordings from those periods, the only names I come up are Jimmy Rowles, Lou Levy, Milt Raskin, John Towner Williams (yes, Mr. "Star Wars") et al., and it's clearly not one of those guys. There is Gerald Wiggins on some dates, but the guy in the photo looks even less like Wiggins than he does like Ronnell Bright.

Quite unlikely that it was Sir Charles. He didn't do West Coast studio work.

The second photo is, I believe, from a session at Capitol's New York studio.

Cole didn't have a regular piano player, at least not a guy who toured with him and played all of his dates the way Bill Miller, for instance, was Sinatra's pianist. All of the guys you mentioned did play on his west coast dates, Jimmie Rowles and before him Buddy Cole being the most frequent accompanists. Even John Williams played one or two sessions.

Edited by jtaylor
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Again, just to be clear, the John Towner Williams who played piano on a good many Cole sessions (not just one or two), is the eventual film composer and conductor of the Boston Pops and not to be confused with John Williams the talented/gnarly pianist who was a sideman with Stan Getz and recorded on his own for EmArcy.

West Coast or East Coast, Sir Charles was not a studio date/orchestra guy, AFAIK.

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Again, just to be clear, the John Towner Williams who played piano on a good many Cole sessions (not just one or two), is the eventual film composer and conductor of the Boston Pops and not to be confused with John Williams the talented/gnarly pianist who was a sideman with Stan Getz and recorded on his own for EmArcy.

West Coast or East Coast, Sir Charles was not a studio date/orchestra guy, AFAIK.

Larry: Not to get this too far off course, but John Towner Williams, according to AFM contracts, did in fact only play on two Cole recording sessions, one in 1957 and another the following year.

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Again, just to be clear, the John Towner Williams who played piano on a good many Cole sessions (not just one or two), is the eventual film composer and conductor of the Boston Pops and not to be confused with John Williams the talented/gnarly pianist who was a sideman with Stan Getz and recorded on his own for EmArcy.

West Coast or East Coast, Sir Charles was not a studio date/orchestra guy, AFAIK.

Larry: Not to get this too far off course, but John Towner Williams, according to AFM contracts, did in fact only play on two Cole recording sessions, one in 1957 and another the following year.

Sorry -- you're right, one on 11/20/57 and one on 6/20/58. Must have been off my meds.

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Thanks, Chuck. I can't seem to find any images of Lovett to comapare.

Only one I can find

Lovett%20Orch%20027.jpg

This Leroy Lovett?

The guy in the ad (scroll up just a bit to see it) looks like the man in the picture you posted, but given his baldness in the 1964 ad, I'm not convinced it's the same guy from the Paramount shot.

Edited by jtaylor
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  • 7 years later...

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