Peter Nero - How Were HIs Later "Jazz" Albums?

[Teasing the Korean]

Before everyone rolls their eyes and groans, I have a serious question about Peter Nero.

It seems that Nero tried to reinvent himself with his jazz (or jazz-like) albums on Concord circa late 1970s or early 1980s.

How were these albums regarded at the time, and did the jazz world (whatever that is or was) accept him to any degree?  

I ask this question as someone who owns exactly one Peter Nero album - the soundtrack to "Sunday in New York" - which I own more for Marty Gold's arrangements than the piano playing.  

Seeing him over the decades on TV and YouTube, Nero always struck me as a player with enviable technique, yet one whose style was built almost entirely on technique and not much more.

[JSngry]

You tell me.

Sounds to me like Oscar Peterson without the "sweat".

Oh, fwiw, I can only find one album on Concord, released twice.

[Teasing the Korean]

10 minutes ago, JSngry said:

You tell me.

How were these albums regarded at the time, and did the jazz world (whatever that is or was) accept him to any degree?  

[JSngry]

Nobody I knew paid any attention to him or them. Nobody cared. The only way Peter Nero "mattered" was when he'd do a gig in the area and hire lab band players for the backing orchestra.

[JSngry]

Well,Nero himself didn't hire anybody. It was a contractor.

[sgcim]

1 hour ago, JSngry said:

You tell me.

Sounds to me like Oscar Peterson without the "sweat".

Oh, fwiw, I can only find one album on Concord, released twice.

He should be shot for those square triplet lines.At least he started on the bV-7-5 on the last eight. Sounds like we should be glad we got Sunay in Nueva York out of him, and leave it at that.

[JSngry]

Ok, when I talk about how making an MOR album is no excuse for making a shitty record, here's what I mean:

I mean, yeah, Peter Nero began life as a "real" jazz pianist, but this MOR thing seems more like what he was cut out for. So...if Peter Nero & Marty Gold could do this, provide some interest inside the cheese, then Bill Evans and Claus Ogerman have no excuse, none, zero, zilch nada.

[Teasing the Korean]

3 hours ago, JSngry said:

Ok, when I talk about how making an MOR album is no excuse for making a shitty record, here's what I mean:

I mean, yeah, Peter Nero began life as a "real" jazz pianist, but this MOR thing seems more like what he was cut out for. So...if Peter Nero & Marty Gold could do this, provide some interest inside the cheese, then Bill Evans and Claus Ogerman have no excuse, none, zero, zilch nada.

I have often felt that "easy listening" albums by jazz artists tend to be far less interesting than those by the the best EZ artists.  

[sgcim]

Evans just wanted to get money for his next fix. He didn't even look at the music Gary McFarland gave him for the LP they made together. He just came in and sight read the whole thing. They have tapes of him practicing classical pieces when he was a kid. He'd play an entire piece sight reading, then turn the page (which you could hear) and sight read the next piece. And so on... Gunther Schuller said he was the only musician who could sight read Milton Babbitt's "All Set' with all the dynamics, out of the entire band, and we're talking about top readers like Hal McKusick, Art Farmer, etc...

When he made that POS LP with Ogerman, he was probably completely junked up, and looking forward to spending the paycheck on some more. The whole session probably took less than an hour. 

IMHO, they were probably going out of their way to NOT provide a note's worth of interest, so they could sell it to the supermarket/elevator music people.

I liked that arr. of JSM. I agree that they were trying to provide some interest there.

The moral is, "stay away from drugs kids, m'kay?'

[JSngry]

Sorry, but not even drugs are an excuse for making a shitty record. Especially one that gets released. That requires multiple levels of complicity, and somebody in that chain should know better. That they don't is one of the indelible stains on humanity.

[Gheorghe]

I think the uncle of a schoolfried of mine was a bar pianist and had an album with Peter Nero, a jazz trio album with jazz standards. Sounded solid, as you say, a bit like Peterson without overdoing it. Sure a very very good pianist.

[sgcim]

20 hours ago, JSngry said:

Sorry, but not even drugs are an excuse for making a shitty record. Especially one that gets released. That requires multiple levels of complicity, and somebody in that chain should know better. That they don't is one of the indelible stains on humanity.

Ultimately, the blame with any financial decisions with Evans career falls on Helen Keane. After becoming a junkie, he let her take over all his decisions concerning his playing career.

She told him who to record with, what to record, where to play and probably tied his shoes for him. How else would you explain the record with Herbie Mann? 

OTOH, if not for HK, he would've wound up dead before the age of thirty. It was a miracle that he made it to the age of 50. She brought his music to a wider audience, even if she did get him crap record dates like this one, where it was decided that he make what was meant to be the epitome of an anonymous easy listening record.

There's no mention of Evans trying to take his name off the record, or stopping the release of it (like he insisted on with the first Stan Getz record, and the first solo record), so he might have figured that it would never hit the jazz buying public, and would be marketed to the easy listening crowd.

There's also a possibility that it was made during the period when Evans' hand was so swollen up from infected needles, that a friend of mine saw him play at a club in NYC with his left hand left on his lap for the entire gig.