Peter Friedman

Here are a few more Rowles recommendations. These don't have him as sideman with horns so you get to hear more from Jimmy.

There are many 50's piano trios that I like very much. Elmo Hope - Meditations - Prestige Barry Harris - Breakin' It Up - Argo Tommy Flanagan - Overseas - Prestige George Wallington - Workshop - Verve Sonny Clark - Time Ray Bryant Trio - Prestige Horace Silver Trio - Blue Note John Lewis - Improvised Meditations & Excursions - Atlantic Roy Haynes Trio (Phineas Newborn,Jr.) - We Three - New Jazz Hank Jones Trio _ Savoy Duke Jordan Trio - Signal Hampton Hawes - The trio - Contemporary Kenny Drew - Modernity - Verve Kenny Drew Trio - Riverside Claude Williamson - Kenton Presents - Capitol John Williams Trio - EmArcy Roy Haynes Trio (Richard Wyands) - Just Us - new Jazz Pete Jolly - When Lights Are Low - RCA Bud Powell - May 1,1951 & Aug.14, 1954 - Blue note Thelonious Monk - Unique - Riverside Bill Evans - Everybody Digs . . - Riverside Jimmy Rowles - Rare But Well Done _ Liberty Dave McKenna - The Piano Scene of . . - Epic Carl Perkins - Introducing - Dootone

Pure fun.

There are really quite a few very good CDs under Stanley Cowell's leadership.Perhaps my favorite is this one: Stanley Cowell / Freddie Waits / Buster Williams - We Three - DIW Others I can recommend include: Live At Maybeck Recital Hall - Concord (solo piano) Close To You Alone - DIW (trio) Sienna - Steeplechase - (trio) Departure #2 - Steeplechase -(trio) Are You Real - Steeplechase (trio) Dancers In Love - Venus - (trio)

Sublime Lester Young indeed !!!

Returned late last night from the Vail (Colorado) Jazz Party. My wife and I have attended this event many times. It is a chance to hear a tremendous amount of fine music over 5 days. And being in the beautiful Rocky Mountains is a huge bonus. Some of the many players we heard up close during this years jazz party included George Cables, George Mraz, Lewis Nash, Terell Stafford, Sean Jones, Shelly Berg, Herlin Riley, John Clayton, Joel Frahm, Byron Stripling, Larry Fuller, Sherry Maricle, Marion Haydon, Russell Malone, Howard Levy (harmonica), Jeff Hamilton, Dick Oatts, Bill Cunliffe, Gerard Gibbs, Nicki Harris, Roberta Gambarini, Eric Gunnerson, Wycliffe Gordon, and many others. Each year a 5 day student workshop is held just prior to the jazz party. 12 of the very best high school students from North America work with a group of faculty made up of 6 professional jazz musicians who perform at the jazz party. The students receive a scholarship to defray the costs of attending. The students get to play a couple of sets during the jazz party. This years highlights for me were 2 sets by the George Cables Trio with George Mraz and Lewis Nash; a set led by Russell Malone with Larry Fuller, John Clayton and Herlin Riley; and the truly fine tenor saxophone playing of Joel Frahm over a number of different sets. Though it would be difficult to identify any of the countless sets over the 5 days that were less than good. We are already planning to return to this event next Labor Day weekend.

I tend to agree with Larry with respect to Joe Pass playing solo guitar. Too much embroidery and emphasis on technique. Did not usually swing, and did not reach me emotionally, with just a few exceptions. But in small group setting such as the various Basie Jams ( to select just one example) he could swing beautifully and , to me, was a fine jazz player.

Getz plays outstanding solos on two versions of "Out Of Nowhere" on this CD.

I like Gene Harris, but would rate Oscar Peterson above him. The comment that Gene Harris and Les McCann shared a similar position makes sense to me. Now Junior Mance is another case. He is very blues oriented and I enjoy much of his playing, but would rather hear Horace Parlan. It is impossible for me to explain completely, I hear less depth in the playing of Junior Mance. But Junior is a hell of a nice guy. When it comes to modern jazz piano players with a strong blues orientation, I would rate Horace Silver, Carl Perkins, Kenny Drew and Ray Bryant above Gene Harris, Les McCann, or Junior Mance.

I recall hearing the very good Swedish tenor player Nisse Sandstorm at a club in New York in a small group led by Red Mitchell. Another good Swedish tenor player is Bernt Rosengren.

It is definitely interesting to see the range of opinions being expressed here. As a person who enjoys Oscar Peterson's playing, I find it odd how certain other piano players get high marks while i find much of what they play rather uninteresting / boring / dull. Though it goes against the prevailing opinions here, i much prefer to listen to Monty Alexander than Mal Waldron . A few of Waldron's early Prestige Trio albums are ok, but his later recordings are not for me. Also, his many sideman appearances on Prestige hard bop sessions always puzzled me. With so many other piano players around such as Duke Jordan, Al Haig, Tommy Flanagan,Kenny Drew, Barry Harris, Ray Bryant, Hank Jones, Richard Wyands, and others, why Waldron was on so many records made little sense to me. Also have to admit that while I have a lot of Red Garland's records, I never saw him as an A level jazz piano player. His trio records are pleasant and make for good background music, but I rarely found his solos more that ok. I will take the ones I just listed along with Horace Silver, Cedar Walton, Kenny Barron, Lou Levy, Frank Strazzeri and John Lewis over Mal Waldron and Red Garland every time. Just my personal opinion.

I believe there is a big difference between playing a phrase over and over on purpose to build tension or create a mood, compared to having favorite comfortable phrases and / or licks used in numerous different solos. The complete opposite is outside of (maybe?) free jazz is Warne Marsh. He seems to make it a prime goal to not use pet phrases / licks, and try to create new things in all his solos. But, at least for me, what I am saying is not simply that it is "better" to follow the Warne Marsh example. As I indicated in starting this thread, players such as Sonny Clark and Tommy Flanagan who I hear using certain phrases very often are musicians who I consider strong favorites

Larry brought this up regarding Oscar Peterson. This has long been a topic I have found of interest. Three of my very favorite jazz piano players have certain phrases / licks that I have heard them play many many many times. it can sometimes be slightly annoying, but has not stopped me from considering these musicians to be strong favorites. I am referring to Sonny Clark, Hampton Hawes, and Tommy Flanagan. Wonder if others have any thoughts about repetitive playing by jazz musicians?

I have to take Miles comments about Oscar with a very large grain of salt. Miles also made negative comments about Duke Jordan and Jackie McLean among others, which tells me his judgement is greatly flawed. As I recall, he was not a big fan of Hank Mobley either. I seriously wonder if the many top level musicians who Peterson has played with really do agree with Allen. I am thinking of players such as Milt Jackson, Roy Eldridge, Coleman Hawkins, Dizzy Gillespie, Clark Terry, Lionel Hampton, Buddy DeFranco, Stan Getz, Ray Brown, NHOP, and numerous others? Somehow I seriously doubt that most of them would share Allen's opinion. But whether they do or do not, musical opinions are personal. Allen is certainly entitled to "hate" OP, and there are many who disagree. So be it.

Ted, you have to understand that Allen "hates" O.P. As you said, one may not be an O.P. fan, but Allen, for some peculiar reason, become irrational in his comments about Oscar. Personally, I have always enjoyed Oscar's playing. While I would not call him one of my favorite jazz piano players, he has made many recordings that I very much like.

Don Schlitten's musical taste is very similar to mine. So I tend to agree with Ubu that a large number of the original Xanadu releases were things I particularly liked. The Barry Harris, Jimmy Rowles, Al Cohn, Sam Noto, Teddy Edwards, Billy Mitchell, Ronnie Cuber, Sonny Criss, Jimmy Raney,Dolo Coker, Charles McPherson, and Jimmy Heath sessions were among the Xanadu LPs I bought when they first became available. It has always been disappointing for me that Don was so reluctant to have his Xanadu material reissued on CD. Thankfully I have been able to find some of them on French, Japanese, and a few American labels such as Prevue. Would very much like to see many other now become available.

I don"t recall seeing any mention of the fine Brazilian jazz pianist Helio Alves. He has some good recordings on the Reservoir label.

O Grande Amor A lovely version of this Jobim tune form this CD.

He left the world too young and is missed.

"Midnight Mood" from this CD

What about J.R. Monterose? He recorded a very good album on Blue Note, but actually recorded very little as leader or sideman over the course of his life. Ferdinand Povel and Jerry Weldon are some others.

A lot of really good albums by Dexter have already been suggested. I don't recall this one, among my favorites, being mentioned.

The arrangement was by Stan Kenton. Personally I thought the arrangement sounded just what one might expect from that Band. It has the "classic" Kenton sound. Though I am not crazy about most of Kenton's recordings, and most of the tracks on this particular album are not to my taste, as a feature for John Park I liked this arrangement And as I said before, Park's solo is, to my ears, beautiful.. Anyone at all familiar with Kenton could pick out that this was his band immediately.

Though not as lengthy as some other suggestions, at 13:26 "Funky Blues" might be my choice. It is the only opportunity to hear Charlie Parker, Johnny Hodges and Benny Carter together on one tune. You also get to hear Ben Webster, Flip Phillips, Charlie Shavers and Barney Kessel on that same tune.

Here's a link, Peter: RomanoJFSR108bd.jpg Thanks Marcello. Would be nice if Fresh Sound would reissue it on CD. To hear a very special solo by John Park, try to get hold of this one. Stan Kenton - Birthday in Britain - Creative World Park has an alto solo on "Street of Dreams" on this album that is out of sight!!! A very close friend of mine - Jerry Atkins of Texarkana, TX- died a few years ago. He was extremely close to John Park and they got together frequently. Jerry accumulated a number of private small group recordings by Park taken from sessions in various clubs. The audio quality was not the best, but they give a good indication of Park's talent. Jerry, who played tenor sax himself, might have been John Park's number one fan.