Overlooked pianists

[chris olivarez]

Stafford James

Wasn't he was a bassist?

DOH!!!!!! Right You Are!!!! I meant Hubert Eaves!!! Same Group.My Bad!!!!

[Jazz Kat]

Harry Connick. His singing had overshadowed his piano playing.

[Gary]

Judging only on the one CD I have by him I'm suprised Simon Nabatov isnt mentioned more often.

[Д.Д.]

Judging only on the one CD I have by him I'm suprised Simon Nabatov isnt mentioned more often.

Nabatov is gettting stronger and stronger with years, IMO. His last year duo with Han Bannink ("Chat Room") on Leo is fantastic (much more interesting than Nabatov's (good) trio hatOLOGY disc, for example).

[Joe]

Nabatov is indeed a fantastic player.

Also: Yosuke Yamashita and Sergey Kuryokhin.

Edited January 19, 2005 by Joe

[JamesJazz]

Roland "Hack" Hanna

[Alon Marcus]

Obviously famous company has a big significance on general perception, but I feel both Hampton and Elmo are considered more than just Bud imitators. Red just may just have been in the right place at the right time, although his block chording

did have imitators.

For overlooked pianists who could really play, I would nominate Ronnie Ball from the Tristano school. Another would be Oscar Dennard, who played with Lional Hampton in the 50's, before dying young...

Q

I'm not sure at all that Red invented the block chords. I think that it was George Shearing who first used them extensively but maybe there was someone earlier.

[Alon Marcus]

Michel Petrucciani and Sugar Chile Robinson were easily overlooked, while Randy Weston is not.

Michel Petrucciani - can't agree about him. He is not overlooked by the general jazz community though he maybe overlooked by the hardcore "blue noters".

I knew his music years before I heard Randy Weston's name and so is most of my friends and relatives who listen to jazz.

[Alon Marcus]

Some females!

Marry Lou Williams - she gave lessons to both Monk and Powell.

Joanne Brackeen - hope I spelled the name correctly, she was discovered in Art Blakey's group and was discovered by me ( )with her Maybeck Recital.

Alice Coltrane - I don't like to hear her playing too much but in small doses she is o.k. Maybe more important as a bandleader or composer.

How about Marilyn Crispell and Myra Melford, I'm not familiar with their works?

Some big band leaders were good pianists, Duke and Count are obvious but what about Gil Evans. He has a duo album with Steve Lacy, which puts him in quite a hard competition with the other pianists with whom Lacy recorded duets (like Waldron).

George Gruntz that was mentioned is indeed a fine pianists, he rarely displays it in his big band setting but when he does it's impressive.

[Larry Kart]

Two somewhat different but related things -- block chords and locked hands. I believe that Milt Buckner is commonly regarded as the inventor of the locked hands approach, which Shearing further popularized -- Red Garland's block chords thing is different enough to be a significant personal variation, I think.

[Alon Marcus]

Two somewhat different but related things -- block chords and locked hands. I believe that Milt Buckner is commonly regarded as the inventor of the locked hands approach, which Shearing further popularized -- Red Garland's block chords thing is different enough to be a significant personal variation, I think.

Thanks Larry, I always thought that locked hands and block chords are essentially the same except that maybe the term block chords is more general and also relates to other instruments and orchestra. Can you explain the difference?

Also, there are probably as many different variations on block chords as there are many different pianists, but I'll be glad if someone could add a survey of the technique.

[jazzbo]

Listened this week to a private recording of Keizer playing someone's Wellington in their living room. Awesome.

Also listened to a local Austin/San Antonio player named Robert Winters who had a band that combed this territory (played with the Caceres brothers, etc.) recorded clandestinely by his son Mel who is in fact an even better pianist and less of a mean drunk! I'd say Mel Winters as an overlooked pianist but he's so overlooked he doesn't exist (and that's just his own fault).

[JSngry]

Two somewhat different but related things -- block chords and locked hands. I believe that Milt Buckner is commonly regarded as the inventor of the locked hands approach, which Shearing further popularized -- Red Garland's  block chords thing is different enough to be a significant personal variation, I think.

Thanks Larry, I always thought that locked hands and block chords are essentially the same except that maybe the term block chords is more general and also relates to other instruments and orchestra. Can you explain the difference?

Also, there are probably as many different variations on block chords as there are many different pianists, but I'll be glad if someone could add a survey of the technique.

Buckner & Shearing usually moved the entire chord voicing w/each note. Red usually kept the same voicing in the left hand while moving the line in the right.

That's a pretty broad generalization, and a bit of an oversimplification, but I hope you get the general idea.

[A Lark Ascending]

This is indeed a magical album. Anyone who loves Paul Bley will find a kindred spirit there.

I've only heard one of her Braxton recordings which was tough going for me.

But these two are equally beautiful.

A related recent release is also highly recommended. Crispell makes a major contribution to this quite unique recording by bassist Anders Jormin which also includes the superb Swedish singer, Lene Willemark. A brilliant combination of jazz, Scandanavian folk and contemporary classical music:

[DrJ]

I have been thoroughly enjoying a couple of Denny Zeitlin's early trio recordings for Columbia, mid-60s: CARNIVAL and SHINING HOUR: LIVE AT THE TRIDENT. This was a fine trio with Charlie Haden and Jerry Granelli, and Zeitlin has been a revelation for me. There are some inevitable Bill Evans influences, but he sounds very much like his own man, really I have a hard time comparing him to anyone else going at the time. I am hoping to track down the rest of his Columbia LPs - there were 4 or 5 altogether. This collective body of work would make a fine collection (Mosaic Select) although it's probably too little-known to attract much attention in that manner.

I understand Zeitlin just recently did a new recording after some inactive years - I'm glad to hear it and look forward to hearing it!

[Swinger]

Bev:

I listened to some excerpts of Amaryllis at amazon.com a week ago and I got hooked.Really magical stuff! I'm definitely going to purchase it sooner or later.

[A Lark Ascending]

Bev:

I listened to some excerpts of Amaryllis at amazon.com a week ago and I got hooked.Really magical stuff! I'm definitely going to purchase it sooner or later.

I'm not familiar with her non-ECM work which I gather is much more abstract.

On all of these records you get a lyrical melodicism without it ever being gushy. Inhabits the same world as Bley (as I said) and Bobo Stenson.

I'm especially drawn by the way that in the trios the three musicians work together yet seem to be following quite independent lines. There's no sense of a leader with support; and the rhythmic side is extremely delicate which is how I like it. I can do without pronounced swing.

Edited January 24, 2005 by Bev Stapleton

[SNWOLF]

This is who I really like: there's nothing fancy or pathbreaking about his playing, but it's deep and it swings and it has a searching, brittle toughness to it - Mal Waldron.

On those live dates with Eric Dolphy he drives the rhythm section with the same jubilant force that Bobby Timmons does with Cannonball Adderley. Later on Waldron's playing gets more spare, oblique and knotty. I read an interview where he stated that after giving up drugs he went into a severe depression, got hospitalised, and got ECT for it. Unfortunately, he was one of those people who didn't just get short-term memory loss, but experienced massive long-term memory loss, so had to learn the piano again. Hence the difference in the fluidity and texture in his playing.

[Alfred]

I have another one: Roger Kellaway

His Prestige LP The Roger Kellaway Trio (7399) together with Russell George (b) and Dave Bailey (dr) is a real pleasure. Highly recommended!

[MartyJazz]

I have another one: Roger Kellaway

His Prestige LP The Roger Kellaway Trio (7399) together with Russell George (b) and Dave Bailey (dr) is a real pleasure. Highly recommended!

I've always liked his work on Sonny Rollins' soundtrack to ALFIE (Impulse). He and Frankie Dunlop work very well together, e.g., the track "Street Runner with Child".

[SNWOLF]

OK - Horace Tapscott. That's another guy who doesn't exactly have "monster chops", but possesses great depth of feeling and creates a highly individualistic harmonic texture that provokes and inspires the soloists working for him, and stimulates an odd, shifting and celebratory feeling in the rhythm section. Like Mal Waldron, he doesn't get in the way but nevertheless has such a strong presence he subtly transforms the musical character of those that play for him - Tapscott's singularity brings out their singularity, expressed in a powerful and democratic manner.

I can't think of any better definition of what separates journeyman from artist, the way they refract musical light into its most potent creative essence, for themselves and the band. Horace Tapscott has so much great music that's out of print, and that's a crying shame, because for those young pianists looking for a role model in the less-is-more department, he's the man.

[mikeweil]

What do people here think about Geoff Keezer? I know he was kind of a prodigy and all coming up, but he doesn't seem to get to much attention here. I've only heard him as a sideman, but I think he's pretty expressive.

Keezer's one of my top favourites! His precision together with his unpredictable wit and the wide scope of his musical knowledge is pretty exciting. I think he was by far the best of Ray Brown's pianists of the last 10 + years.

His website http://www.geoffkeezer.com/ is very nice! He's one of the few whose new albums I buy as soon as they're out.

[marcello]

I was fortunate enough to hear a test pressing og Keezer's soon to be released new cd, that is recorded live at The Dakota.

I'm not too bold to say it's one of the best piano trio recordings I have EVER heard. It will be on Maxjazz.

His work with the Storms/Nocturnes trio ( Tim Garland, Joe Locke and Geoff ) gives you a good example of his facility and ideas, also.

[mikeweil]

If you go to the links page on Geoffrey's website it will lead you to some live trio recordings available for download on the drummer's website - pretty amazing stuff. I have to admit I like his own trio better than the Storms/Nocturnes, which I think is a trifle too controlled, although I do understand their emphasis on composition. It's just that Keezer the pianist really cuts loose with his own or Ray Brown's trio.

[Son-of-a-Weizen]

[His website http://www.geoffkeezer.com/ is very nice! He's one of the few whose new albums I buy as soon as they're out.

I'm assuming that the live 'Wizard of Montara' clip on that site isn't the one on the 'Vertical Vison' enhanced cd, correct? That live one's the one I'd be interested in paying to download. Is it perhaps available at some other site?

Edited February 6, 2005 by Son-of-a-Weizen