THE HISTORY OF JAZZ PIANO
As the premier solo instrument of western classical music--it could be said that the piano is to classical music what the guitar is to rock, folk and country--and, as the sole proprietor of jazz's immediate ancestor, ragtime, the piano forte was always likely to have a serious impact on jazz. It's subtlety--"piano"--and power--"forte"--has communicated both soft romance and percussive rhythm.
Yet, as jazz developed, the double bass eventually came to assume prime responsibility for the beat or pulse, and the piano began to shift roles from that of a purely rhythm instrument to that of a punctuating harmony instrument inserting mid-range tones. Thus, the stride of the early players became, in time, the rapid melodic licks of the beboppers or, later, the impressionistic chords of the {{Bill Evans = 6592}} school. Now, dynamic "hard melodic" stylists such as {{Matthew Shipp = 4290}} and {{Vijay Iyer = 7901}} seem to be taking the instrument into areas that include the influence of more modern Western music and world music.
The close relationship between improvisation and composition in jazz has meant that the leading pianists are often also leading composers... as well as unique stylists. For example, Duke Ellington's chord voicings are even a kind of compositional motif, unique to him.
Jazz piano can be said to have begun with the ragtime take on older piano styles--{{Eubie Blake = 5060}} remembered his mother telling him not to play ragtime, when he was a child in the 1890s. Stride piano arrived next, while soon {{Jelly Roll Morton = 9632}} was forging his own take in New Orleans.
In the 1920s, {{Earl Hines = 7642}} had to adopt a "trumpet style" in the right hand to enable himself to be heard at venues over the other instruments and the crowd. Then by contrast, in the 1930s, {{Teddy Wilson = 11457}} was able in the quieter Benny Goodman Trio to adopt, in the words of pianist {{Dick Hyman = 7852}}, more of a "clarinet" sound in the right hand.
Wilson also introduced, here and there, dissonances that caught the ear of the young beboppers. {{Bud Powell = 10393}}, nicknamed "Hammerfingers," was the prime bebop pianist, but, within five or so years of the advent of bop, {{Ahmad Jamal = 7955}} had brought a softness and openness to jazz piano that had not existed before. (Lenny Tristano had, before Jamal, played relatively soft and impressionistic music, though rather angular and "avant-garde"). Jamal himself has said that he took the idea of the open feel from Errol Garner. {{Miles Davis = 6144}} leapt at the sound, and his first quintet opened the music even more by introducing long pedal pauses between choruses, enabling crisp ringing piano chords and figures to be heard in a quasi modal, suspended sense--a good example is the quintet's version of "Dear Old Stockholm," from 'Round About Midnight (Columbia, 1957).
Jamal's sound contrasted with bebop, where the modus operandi had been to take an established tune and recompose it and (usually) play it rapidly: bebop piano was often fast and attacking, not only to match the speed and virtuosity of the horn soloists but also to set up the sharp tacit moment before a solo break, by the horn player, ushered in another frenetic chorus.
The Davis pedal points also allowed hooks or riffs to be formulated (though not necessarily by the piano), that helped even more in pushing jazz piano towards freedom: open spaces always allow room for invention. Wilson had had to fit into a vertical harmonic structure, but now pianists could think more horizontally and stretch out.
Thus, the stage was set for Bill Evans to throw away root notes completely (Powell had pioneered abbreviated chord voicings, using at times the inner voices of the chord, then perhaps the root and another note--{{Barry Harris = 7439}} also uses this approach). Evan's piano contributed the stellar, floating almost pristine effect on Davis' "Kind Of Blue," perfect for the solo voices on the album.
Evans had spent years as a child reading classical piano music, and so he was not wedded to the idea of a root and a conventional, "must be played" chord. He was keen to point out in interviews that he had rebuilt piano, for himself, from the ground up. His misty, occasionally Debussy-like sound has influenced countless pianists since, including {{Keith Jarrett = 7984}}. Jarrett, who like Evans is wildly popular with his fans, almost "crossed-over" into classical music in his famous improvised solo concerts of the '70s and '80s.
The only place for piano to go after Evans seemed to be to introduce what were hitherto non-jazz elements into the music: and so funk, gospel and other influences, already present through the earlier efforts of {{Horace Silver = 4328}}, came more and more into jazz piano. Silver's father was from Cape Verde, and so Portuguese-African influences arose. Also, the Evans contemporary {{Wynton Kelly = 8317}} had been born in the West Indies, so he had a different take too--he was soon of great use to Miles Davis. Then, in 1962, {{Herbie Hancock = 7381}} brought out the funky "Watermelon Man," and also joined Davis' "second" great quartet.
{{Chick Corea = 5920}} took over from Herbie Hancock in Davis' quintet when Davis was embarking on his electric fusion era: Corea played the Fender Rhodes, and the electric piano had begun. In the early 21st century, pianists are introducing more world elements, while both the funk of "hard bop" and more avant-garde playing such as that of {{Cecil Taylor = 4823}} continue to influence new generations of players.
It is interesting that some of the changes in jazz piano can perhaps be seen as a series of responses to needs, to circumstances. For example, Hines had to play louder in the top line to be heard, and so developed his "trumpet" style. Wilson was mainly playing with a leader who also recorded Mozart (Benny Goodman) and so a more lyrical "clarinet" approach was possible live. Similarly, he had to decreased the extreme jumping left-hand stride style of his predecessors and played an implied stride, using smaller intervals between the bass notes.
Ellington had learned from piano rolls of {{James P Johnson = 8102}}, so percussive stride had been an influence on his style--yet, being the great orchestral composer, he adapted the bassy sound into his own unique voicings and figures, and his slashing right hand cascades of single and multiple notes continued to heard in his recordings, up to and including those with Charles Mingus and John Coltrane.
Davis wanted pedal sections filled, so his pianists employed open moods on the modes. Faced with this history, a young Evans, fortuitously steeped early in classical piano literature, perhaps felt compelled to rebuild from scratch. The advent of electric instruments opened the way to further pianistic styles. More recently, the influence of world music has been more strongly felt, as has that of classical composers--particularly modern ones--and the use of rock era tunes as improvisatory vehicles.
Eubie Blake
James P Johnson
{{Willie "The Lion" Smith = 4460}}
Jelly Roll Morton
Earl Hines
Duke Ellington
Fats Waller
{{Joe Sullivan = 4712}}
{{Count Basie = 3676}}
{{Art Tatum = 4818}}
Teddy Wilson
Jess Stacey
{{Mary Lou Williams = 11401}}
{{Nat King Cole = 5805}}
{{Errol Garner = 6955}}
{{Thelonious Monk = 9507}}
Bud Powell
Lenny Tristano
{{Hank Jones = 8166}}
{{Duke Jordan = 8209}}
{{Al Haig = 7327}}
{{Tommy Flanagan = 6729}}
{{George Shearing = 1961}}
{{John Lewis = 8729}}
{{Oscar Peterson = 10250}}
Ahmad Jamal
Horace Silver
{{Red Garland = 6951}}
Wynton Kelly
Bill Evans
{{Dave Brubeck = 5391}}
{{McCoy Tyner = 10958}}
Herbie Hancock
Barry Harris
{{Harold Mabern = 8941}}
{{Andrew Hill = 7627}}
Cecil Taylor
{{Ran Blake = 5065}}
Chick Corea
Keith Jarrett
{{Randy Weston = 11286}}
{{Brad Mehldau = 9313}}
Matthew Shipp
Vijay Iyer
Eubie Blake
The composer of the timeless "Memories of You," Blake was born in 1883 and lived to exactly 100. Blake's comments in the following clip serve as a great introduction to the world before jazz piano (including stride): ragtime
James P Johnson
James P Johnson was the father of stride piano, the early style of loud piano playing that developed later into boogie woogie. However, it was also the major basis of training for the major stars of pre-modern jazz such as Duke Ellington, Count Basie and Fats Waller. Ellington, for example, learned piano by placing his fingers over the notes that were activated by the piano roll "recording" of Johnson's classic "Carolina Shout," a hugely catchy solo piano piece. "Carolina Shout" was also an influence on Count Basie.
Here is "Carolina Shout," a recording by Johnson from 1921:
Willie "The Lion" Smith
Willie "The Lion" Smith, cigar in mouth and hat on head, was a custodian of the history-telling of early jazz piano just as much as a maker of that history: his Library of Congress recordings are an invaluable re-telling of the 19-teens in jazz history. He came out of the stride tradition. He talks about stride, in 1964:
Jelly Roll Morton
Morton, "Mister Jelly Lord," was the legendary New Orleanian who claimed to have "invented" jazz. His Red Hot Peppers (his band) records of 1926 are as classic in the jazz pantheon as Armstrong's Hot Fives and Sevens of about the same time. "Doctor Jazz" is a great example, even selected by Eric Clapton on an (English) BBC radio program in 1996 (the weekly show of British jazz and boogie pianist Jools Holland) as an most important influence on him as a teenager.
Morton fused all the music of New Orleans (blues, latin and Creole--including the famous "Spanish tinge" that he spoke of on his Library of Congress recordings of the early 1940s, and liked so much) and is the embodiment of early jazz, if not its inventor as he liked to claim. Like Smith (above) he made lengthy tapes for the Library of Congress. His major compositions include "The Pearls" and what came to be a swing classic, "King Porter Stomp" (a breakthrough swing hit for Benny Goodman). And a listen to "Blue Blood Blues," of 1926, will even reveal a template for Duke Ellington, in terms of style.
This is Morton playing "Hesitation Blues":
Earl Hines
Earl Hines was perhaps the most highly visible ambassador for pre-modern jazz piano. Active into the 1980s, he made his name in the {{Louis Armstrong = 3483}} Hot Seven (and some Hot Five) recordings of the mid and late 1920s. He is a household name in jazz, and his tune "Monday Date" was not too early in the week to be a jazz "standard." Another noteworthy record is his duet with Louis Armstrong of 1928, "Weather Bird", which even includes a relatively avant garde-sounding single note shooting out of nowhere, in the middle of the more traditional sounding music. In the 1960s, Hines was much celebrated in Europe, as jazz artists began to hit television en masse and conduct the inevitable "master classes".
Here he details his style and its development:
Duke Ellington
The Duke was a major piano stylist simply because he was a major composer-his chord voicings alone are distinctive. He learned jazz piano essentially from James P Johnson's piano rolls. He once said he wasn't satisfied with his left hand, as a pianist, but noone else was complaining. His piano work was of course designed for accompanying as well as soloing, given the mostly band-driven nature of his music--his "instrument" was really his orchestra.
The Billy Strayhorn theme "Take The "A" Train" was the signature of the Ellington band from 1941 on--this is a color clip from 1962:
A particularly enlightening view of Ellington's keyboard music was found in the long medleys of his song hits (as opposed to the band's other instrumental explorations) that he would have the band play: this can be first heard on the famous December 1943 recording of the orchestra at Carnegie Hall: Duke Ellington At Carnegie Hall 1943 (Prestige, 1977). This is sheer excitement. Ellington's highly visual piano introductions for the medley almost amounted to an orchestral backdrop for the music.
Here Ellington plays "Perdido" with Willie "The Lion" Smith and leading pianist {{Billy Taylor = 4821}}, on a television show:
Fats Waller
Fats Waller was once described as "one of the most massively gifted musicians of history." He began piano, in Harlem, playing in movie theaters for silent movies (this can be clearly heard on the extraordinary version of "Twelfth Street Rag," where, in addition, classical music "quotes" abound--it is on the excellent compilationA Handful Of Fats (Naxos, 1992). The compilation includes his take on James P Johnson's "Carolina Shout." His style was rooted in stride, but went far beyond it. His musical "feel" was incomparable.
As a composer, Waller was also extremely important; he wrote the swing standard jam tune "Honeysuckle Rose, and "Ain't Misbehavin,'" the coiled-spring instrumental "Alligator Crawl," "Crazy About My Baby," "Honey Hush" and "Just Squeeze Me." Waller's sound and approach was even surely essential in the development of the Beatles: his cover of the novelty song "Your Feet's Too Big" was a live staple for the band in their Hamburg days, and there were many other influences.
As a character, Waller was widely famed. Even his radio interviews were colorful and revealing: in one he said he had written "Ain't Misbehavin'" (probably his biggest hit) while "in the alimony jail--I wasn't misbehavin,' see." He also described seeing Duke Ellington live in Cincinnati a few nights before the radio show: he said, "That cat really came on with the come on!"
Waller plays "Ain't Misbehavin":
Joe Sullivan
Sullivan was from Chicago, and was, along with {{Bud Freeman = 6838}} and {{Gene Krupa = 8500}}, a member of guitarist Eddie Condon's famous early group (The) Chicagoans. He was a master of stride '20s jazz piano, and shows how this approach was the basis of the swing pianists such as Count Basie and Teddy Wilson. The tunes recorded at this time by the band (such as "Liza," "Sugar" and "China Boy") were an indicator of what was to some with Benny Goodman's trio and quartets. These tunes were all of course to be recorded by Goodman, with Krupa at the drums again. For a camera-eye's view of Sullivan playing Waller's "Just Squeeze Me," see this clip form '60s television:
Count Basie
Basie's first major records were with Bennie Moten's band in Kansas City in 1932. Many of the eventual members of Basie's own famous band were in the Moten band. it is interesting to hear his piano at this time, before the mid and late '30s: it is fluid and strong. Hitting it big in 1936, Basie became, with Ellington, one of the two premier bandleaders of jazz. His piano is frequently characterized by blues riffs, (for example, the beginning of "Jumpin' At The Woodside"), and colorful licks and key shifts, as in his most famous tune "One O'Clock Jump." The latter also reveals a possible Gershwin influence in Basie's playing, as Basie's repeated top-back-to-top scale lick in the piano introduction echoes an orchestral passage in Gershwin's "Rhapsody On Blue."
Basie once tried to reprise his early rapid stride skills on a television show: his comment, after a reasonable attempt, was "I'll leave it right there!" Of course, he was also famous for the other extreme: his repeated "one note solos," as if to contrast with the busyness of the orchestra as much as possible. The latter style was particularly evident from the 1950s, when the band became more broadly based (in popular appeal) with the efforts of arrangers such as {{Neil Hefti}} (for example, "Li'l Darlin'").
The smoothness and swing of the Basie sound was also inevitably well matched with that of {{Frank Sinatra = 4364}} on the album Sinatra At The Sands (Warner Bros, 1966). There is even a successful album entitled Basie Meets Bond (Blue Note, 1965) where Kansas City meets 007. With the possible exception of Fats Waller, no pianist has swung more than Basie.
Here is a clip of the Basie band, from 1941 (Don Byas is the tenor player soloist, and there is a typical Basie and bassist match up at 1:30):
Art Tatum
The title of greatest ever jazz pianist is surely held by Art Tatum. Almost totally blind, his speed and technique dazzled classical composers like Stravinsky and Rachmaninoff (the latter one of the best classical pianists of all time).
Tatum grew up in Ohio, and a brilliant example of his playing is an "airshot" of five tunes he played on a radio show out of Toledo in 1934: from the solid ethic of "When Day Is Done" to the ringing octaves of "ChIna Town, My China Town", you hear something special. His 1932 recording of the first jazz jam tune "Tiger Rag" is considered by many to be his best record. Tatum recorded with a trio at times in the '40s, and for Verve in the '50s. Everyone has heard about the famous quote from Fats Waller made at a club when Tatum was there too: "I play piano but tonight God is in the house".
Here is film of Tatum playing his take on Dvorak's "Humoresque," proving that he is the greatest pianist of jazz. His mastery and fluidity in flowing "from" classical to jazz and back speaks for itself:
Teddy Wilson
People may see Tatum as a kind of bridge from older jazz to bebop, no doubt quoting his speed and key shifts. But Teddy Wilson had a way of playing chords that attracted beboppers too. He played "just the right chord" for the right situation, while his right hand tripped out beautiful single note lines. Wilson came to fame with Benny Goodman's trio in 1935, and then the clarinetist's quartet. His playing on these records is virtually "perfect," and he also made many records with Billie Holliday's small group in the late 30s, many of these records featuring Lester Young. On the very first trio recording with Goodman, "Who," in 1935, he plays a dissonant chord under Goodman's accapella breaks at 1:49, on the way to the dominant chord, that is a classic bebop harmony. There are also recordings of Charlie Parker (once released on the Stash label) jamming over Goodman trio recordings such as the similarly open "China Boy."
However, a later recording by Wilson of "On Green Dolphin Street" seems to show the sharp differences between some music of the following decade, the '50s, and the '30s: the pedal, almost modal, chord sequence seems to constrain the flowing classical-like brilliance of the pianist.
Wilson is in the following clip with the Goodman Quartet live (the sound was probably re-recorded by the band in the studio later to match the film):
Jess Stacey
Jess Stacey became well known with Benny Goodman's orchestra. He has the famous moment on "Sing Sing Sing" at the 1938 Carnegie Hall concert where Goodman moved the microphone closer to the piano to pick up better his great mood-setting solo. Stacey had a kind of stumbling, skittering style that was very ear-catching. An example is his solo hit "Daybreak Serenade" in 1945:
Mary Lou Williams
Born in 1910, Williams had an extraordinary early list of jazz connections: she played with Ellington's first band the Washingtonians in 1925 (work her age out!), and was jamming in Harlem the same year when she met Louis Armstrong. In the early '30s she wrote tunes for and recorded with the band of bass pioneer Andy Kirk. She also released a record of two piano solos, in 1930, of her own compositions. Benny Goodman used her tunes, including the swing classic "Roll 'Em." Her skills as an arranger were utilized by Ellington In the '40s.
Then she moved into bebop and became a kind of mentor for Dizzy Gillespie and Thelonious Monk. In the '60s, and in a parallel with Ellington, she wrote sacred music. Williams spanned everything as a pianist and a writer, from ragtime and spirituals to "modern" jazz, and also presented radio shows as a way of spreading education about jazz, like {{Marian McPartland = 9297}} and her long-running piano interview show on NPR.
Nat King Cole
Though chiefly known as a singer, Cole was a brilliant and influential pianist. His trio of piano, guitar and drums made many hits in the '40s, and his light and fleet playing was much admired. The appeal of Cole's piano must surely have worked on Errol Garner, who went all the way in terms of commercial appeal. Garner influenced Ahmad Jamal in the latter's openness, which in turn opened up the accessible sound of Miles Davis' quintets and sextets of the mid and late '50s. Cole's bright pianistic accessibility stood out in the mid '40s.
Here is Cole with trumpeter {{Roy Eldridge = 6511}} and tenor saxophonist {{Stan Getz = 7013}}, on a Jazz At The Philharmonic television show in the '50s:
Errol Garner
Even more ear-catching was Errol Garner's sound. Garner's left hand seemed to lag behind his right, in terms of time. The effect was record sales! It is possible to play Garner's records anywhere anytime, and people will like it. Garner began recording in the mid 1940s, and played with Charlie Parker on his "Cool Blues" session in 1947. Later, he would typically begin a tune with a grand introduction that would suddenly segue into the melody. One of the best Garner albums is his live album The Concert By The Sea: Live At Carmel (CBS, 19 ).
Here he plays "The One And Only"--his left-hand comping can be seen in action:
Thelonious Monk
Monk was a pivotal figure in the development of modern jazz in the early '40s. He was a regular at Minton's in Harlem, where {{Charlie Christian = 5699}} and {{Kenny Clarke = 5734}} also played. From his earlier compositions such as the immortal "'Round Midnight" and "Off Minor," to the classic '50s album such as Brilliant Corners (OJC, 1957), Monk, with his unusual voicings, is a major part of jazz music. His sound is in his bare intervals, and harmonies moving at unexpected angles. "Round Midnight" is of course a classic tune that evokes a whole world and culture.
Monk also recorded, solo and in a small group context, many interesting "covers," such as "Tea For Tea," "Don't Blame Me," and others, presenting a strikingly alternate view of these works.
A story has it that once when Bud Powell returned to New York, he went to see Monk. Monk embraced him, then said solemnly, "I'll do the airplane." He then sat down at the piano and began to make the instrument mimic what sounded like a formation of World War Two Fortress bombers--according to an observer, the sound was spot on. Even an earlier tune like "'Round Midnight" shows Monk's feel for sound.
Monk's unique stature as a composer has also seen the Kronos Quartet record his music, including a smooth combination of "Off Minor" and "Epistrophy." The album is entitled Monk Suite: Kronos Quartet Plays Music Of Thelonious Monk With Special Guest Artist Ron Carter (Landmark, 1994).
Monk's influence is far: in his 1996 BBC radio interview, Eric Clapton also selected Monk's "Crepuscule With Nellie" to be played by the presenter, in addition to the Morton's "Doctor Jazz."
Here Monk plays "Epistrophy"; the clip also has a neat solo version of "Round Midnight" over color footage of Monk walking in Paris:
Bud Powell
Described by a current European pianist as the "main address for bebop" piano, Powell was the Parker of the piano. He began making classic recordings in the mid to late '40s, though all too few with the Bird. "Buzzy" is one with Parker. He is also on the much sought after "Bird At The Royal Roost" gig (available on various labels), and is heard to very good effect on the legendary album Jazz At Massey Hall (Debut/OJC, 1953), in particular "Perdido" and "All The Things You Are". Some editions of this record also include a trio section of the concert where he plays with Mingus and Roach.
An account of an altercation between the two volatile geniuses, Powell and Parker, has it that Powell asked Parker what key he wanted a tune in. Parker could play in any key whatsoever with equal facility, and so is said to have answered (you hope in his academic voice) "'S,' mother..."
There are excellent trio tracks by Powell from the years 1949-1953, and he is very good on an album with {{Sonny Stitt = 4638}}, Sonny Stitt/Bud Powell/JJ Johnson(OJC, 1950)--an example from the album is a track entitled "Sunnyside Up," which is really a disguised "These Foolish Things." Powell's classic compositions include "Parisian Thoroughfare", the latin "Un Poco Loco", and "Glass Enclosure". Powell is one of those jazz pianists, like Ellington, whose style is, in itself, rich and everlasting composition.
Following the late '50s, he was not at his peak owing to illness. Moving to Paris did not make much difference, and Miles Davis records in his autobiography that he had to go up on the stand and virtually lead him off stage at one point, as his playing had faded, relative to his brilliant past.
Powell died in 1965. It was reported that 10,000 people lined the streets of Harlem on the day of the funeral. The {{Dexter Gordon = 7127}} film Round Midnight was in reality about Powell (and {{Lester Young = 11573}}, who had a not dissimilar personal history), and his time in Paris in the years before his death.
Here is a virtuosic version of bebop vehicle "Cherokee," in a trio setting with {{Ray Brown = 5370}} on bass and {{Max Roach = 10725}} on drums, from 1949:
Powell plays in Paris, with bebop innovator and drummer Kenny "Klook" Clarke, on the Left Bank in 1959:
Lenny Tristano
Tristano had an introspective style, and was a pianist ahead of his time. His early records, from the late '40s, have a shining brilliance. His early recordings were both in group format (with cool progenitors such as {{Lee Konitz = 8463}} and {{Buddy deFranco = 6196}}, and solo. He can even be heard on the Parker bio-film Bird and album of the same name, Bird (Sony, 1988)--where the music producer Lennie Niehaus was able to locate a couple of tunes recorded by Parker and Tristano at Tristano's flat, with a drummer playing a newspaper with brushes.
He was a major influence on Bill Evans, and his impact continues to be felt. Many current pianists listen carefully to Tristano.
Here he plays a version of "Tangerine," in the '60s:
Hank Jones
Jones was one of the three famous Jones brothers, the others being the legendary drummer Elvin and the trumpeter Thad. Jones played with many leading bebop musicians in the mid '40s, and toured with Ella Fitzgerald. He was pianist on some of Parker's last great recordings in 1952, and in 1959 he played on one of jazz's greatest albums, Cannonball Adderley's Something Else (Blue Note, 1959). Davis and {{Art Blakey = 5069}} also played on the latter record. Jones' introduction on "Love For Sale" is surely a peak moment for illustrating the melodic expressiveness of jazz piano.
After the '50s, Jones was CBS's staff pianist. In the 2000s, he frequently toured and recorded with tenor saxophonist Joe Lovano.
Here is Jones at Carnegie Hall with "Willow Weep For Me," in 1994:
Duke Jordan
Jordan was the pianist in Parker's most famous quintet, the group (including a very young Miles Davis) that made an unsurpassed series of masterpiece recordings from 1946 through 1948. His playing on these records, such as the slow and brilliant "Embraceable You", was important in sculpting these timeless records. Parker's series of records made at this time (and from 1994-46 also) are of the same brilliance and importance as Armstrong's Hot Five and Hot Seven sessions of the 1920s, Goodman's trio, quartet, sextet and septet gems of the mid '30s to the early '40s, Ellington's "Blanton-Webster Band" records of 1940-42, and the Beatles' series of classics in the '60s, from 1963 to, say, 1966/67. Jordan later played with Parker's personally nominated "successor" on alto sax, Sonny Stitt, and Stan Getz.
Here, in later times, Jordan plays "No Problem":
Al Haig
Haig succeeded Jordan with Parker's group, having first played with Parker and Dizzy Gillespie in 1944. He was also the pianist on Davis' famous Birth Of The Cool (Columbia, 1950).
Tommy Flanagan
If Haig played on one classic album, Flanagan played on several. Extraordinarily, he is the pianist on most of Coltrane's immortal Giant Steps (Atlantic, 1960), on Sonny Rollin's definitive Saxophone Colossus (Prestige, 1956), and on Wes Montgomery's defining second album The Incredible Jazz Guitar of Wes Montgomery (Riverside, 1960). He was also a major accompanist for Ella Fitzgerald.
Here Flanagan accompanies saxophone pioneer Benny Carter on "Mood Indigo," in 1995:
George Shearing
Locked hands and the romantic "restaurant" sound! On coming to America from the UK, Shearing was immediately playing sessions with Parker and other jazz masters. The very popular George Shearing Quintet made fresh, bright records that provided an important soundtrack to the early '50s. At this time, Shearing wrote the indelible classic "Lullaby Of Birdland." Even in a crowded and noisy North London market, the brightness of these '78s, played as a demonstration by a stall vendor, comes whirling through. Shearing described an early experience where he, as a child in London, heard an empty milk bottle smash in the street... the sound was apparently an influence on his later style, vibes and guitar playing in octaves and all.
Here is a '50s quintet track, "Swedish Pastry." Shearing's extraordinary ability and Parkeresque flavor are clearly shown--note also the Parker-like runs of guitarist Chuck Wayne, one of the few guitarists to attempt to play actual Parker-style lines:
Shearing has also told the story of how, in his first session with Parker, he asked "What do you wanna blow, Bird?" According to Shearing, Parker responded to the young upstart's query by playing a tune in six sharps!
Here is a great clip of Shearing in 1994 playing Parker's "Scrapple From The Apple." He plays his distinctive locked hands style at 4:00:
John Lewis
The founder of The Modern Jazz Quartet (with vibraphonist Milt Jackson) emphasized "cool" restrained playing and a solid-as-wood Bachian touch. The MJQ's recordings are classics of pure music, and titles such as "Vendome" and "Django" relay accurately the exotic sophistication and occasional Parisian subtext of the records they made. (The MJQ's) Percy Heath was also a very smooth bassist. Lewis' unusual, classical style was successfully matched with Charlie Parker in the early '50s. Lewis style has an ordered, Bachian feel to it.
Here is Lewis in the '60s:
Oscar Peterson
Oscar Peterson's greatest "unknown" moment may be his live concert appearance with Duke Ellington on "Take The 'A' Train," where he plays the whole way through in his extraordinary style, after being introduced by Ellington as "A particularly important aspect of this tune ladies and gentlemen is that the solo will be performed by... our other piano player (Oscar Peterson)...!" But whatever your favorite Peterson record, the giant from Toronto was for many the major fixture in jazz piano for decades. His powerful and brilliant contrapuntal runs were a language in themselves. There was, however, for some the ocassionally voiced objection that he "played like a white man," ie: that he played with less feel than he should have!
Some of his best recordings are from the early 1960's: We Get Requests (Verve, 1962) has bossa nova tune by {{Antonio Carlos Jobim = 8063}} amongst others, where Ray Brown also stands out with occasional arco bass. Night Train (Verve, 1964) takes you on a journey on the adaptation of Ellington's "Happy Go Lucky Local" riff.
There is also, amongst the recordings of Peterson live at Carnegie Hall in 1952, an interesting version of "Tenderly" which displays a more bouncy style, in the direction of Garner, than was evident later. In the same year, the same feel is on "Funky Blues," from a set recorded for Verve with Johnny Hodges and other greats. Peterson seemed to have "leveled out" this aspect of his playing by the late '50s (it was a different time anyway--rock and modal Miles had arrived), and by 1980 was appearing virtually modern-classical in his technique and musical adventurings.
The poster of this clip of an excerpt from "Sweet Georgia Brown" claims the solo to be "the greatest ever"! The watching bassist {{Neils Henning-Orsted Pedersen}} seems to think so:
Ahmad Jamal
A most pivotal figure in jazz history, owing to his influence on the "first great quintet" of Miles Davis and the "modal" Miles, Jamal is a legend who continually adds to his oeuvre of innovation every time he plays. At The Blue Note, New York City, in 2008, Jamal played music of towering invention, inserting absolutely "the right" classical aspects to the underlying jazz tunes. His first recordings in 1951 and 1955 were brilliant, and he has only gone up from there--his influence on Davis is well shown by "Pavane" of 1955: it has the up tempo chop of Davis' "Milestones" and even the sudden semi-tone key shift of his "So What" (from Kind Of Blue (CBS, 1959).
His Ahmad Jamal At The Pershing Room: But Not For Me (MCA, 1958) brought him world-wide attention: for some college students of the time it was apparently typical "drinking music." In the '70s he attracted many funk aficionados who are loyal to that period of his music to this day. One recent post on Youtube expressed gratitude that a Jamal tune from this era had been posted, as the writer had not heard it for years after his father had thrown out all his records from his attic, and he needed his Ahmad fix.
Here is "Poinciana," a 2007 live trio version of the '50s Jamal hit (showing that The Four Freshman and their 1952 version may have influenced more than just Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys). Idris Muhammed and James Cammack accompany Jamal:
Horace Silver
Silver began his recording in the '50s, and introduced a funky style that helped create what many have called hard bop--the music of Lee Morgan and others that began with The Jazz Messengers (formed by Silver and Blakey), and the music that was everywhere in the '60s. He was also the pianist on Miles Davis' breakthrough album Walkin' (Prestige, 1954). Silver's father came from Cape Verde, a Portuguese-influenced island in the Caribbean, and this background helped him to create such Afro-latin masterpieces as "Song For My Father."
His mix of funk, gospel and R&B and his catchy hit tunes made him a major force in creating much music that followed in popular music, including today's music. Rock group Steely Dan, of course, took the signature figure in "Song For My Father" to make their '70s hit "Rikki, Don't Lose That Number."
Red Garland
Miles Davis adapted his wildly popular mid '50s sound from Jamal. The pianist who helped him in this endeavor was Red Garland. Garland played the "locked hands" style, but the effect was a little more brittle than Shearing. This quality came from occasional dissonances, when the fifth played in the right hand was not in a perfect octave relationship with its "parallel" in the left hand.
Garland began to drop out of the Davis picture later in the decade as personal disagreements developed. He returned for the modal revolution of Milestones (CBS, 1958), but was soon replaced by the not dissimilar Wynton Kelly.
Wynton Kelly
Kelly was born in Jamaica, and may have had a slightly different take on music for that reason. In any event, it is interesting to note that he provided the piano for the "odd-track-out" on both Davis' Kind Of Blue (CBS, 1959) and John Coltrane's '50s masterpiece Giant Steps (Atlantic, 1960). That is, he replaced Bill Evans for "Freddie Freeloader" on Davis' album, providing some contrast to the other (Evans) tracks, and did the same for Tommy Flanagan on a track on Giant Steps. All great music requires contrast, even if this is derived from simply changing the pianist for one of the tracks on the album.
Somewhat in the Garland sound world, but with his own crisp and sometimes funky sound, he played with Davis from 1959-1963, on albums like Someday My Prince Will Come (CBS, 1962) and the set Live At The Blackhawk (Sony, 2003).
Here Kelly performs with Coltrane, {{Paul Chambers = 12455}} and {{Jimmy Cobb = 5772}} (the Davis group without Davis) live, and plays an extended solo. Chambers even pulls out his bow:
Bill Evans
Evans played on all but one of the tracks on Davis' Kind Of Blue, the best selling jazz album of all time. He brought an impressionistic view to jazz piano, perhaps in the Debussy mould, presenting a subtle, almost subdued contrast to more fully throated and percussive pianists. The celestial journey he could provide, via Debussy, was the perfect backdrop for Kind Of Blue. He was also influenced by French composer Darius Milhaud (who taught {{Burt Bacharach = 18837}}), and said that it was useful to play Bach to have more physical control over the notes. Significantly, he cited Tristano as a special influence, as well as Silver, Powell and Nat King Cole. In eliminating the necessity for playing the root of the chord, he mad eit possible for a more even, classical feel to come to jazz. As a composer, he was influential with tunes like "Waltz For Debby." Here he plays "My Foolish Heart":
Dave Brubeck
Composer and pianist Brubeck was an important part of popular music of the late '50s and '60s--and is now for that matter--his "Take Five" (written by his quartet's alto saxophonist Paul Desmond) surely being known by every living individual, even if they don't know who wrote it or where it comes from.
Playing with time signatures seemed as important as playing piano for Brubeck. Genre-crossing was also no obstacle: for example, "Blue Rondo Ala Turk," a jazz re-titling of the famous piece by Mozart. Other titles hint at their content: "Unsquare Dance" and "It's A Raggy Waltz." Obviously, these are not "just" jazz: Brubeck is a composer of simply music--he has written many classical, longer-form works--but most of his well-known music is in the jazz format.
"World" music has also attracted Brubeck: he has frequently played a piece entitled "Koto Song," based on oriental scales. The "Theme From Black Orpheus," from the film Black Orpheus of 1959 that "introduced" Brazilian music to the wider world, is another example.
"It's A Raggy Waltz":
McCoy Tyner
Tyner came to fame with Coltrane's quartet of the early to mid '60s. His powerful and tidal wave-like rolling piano fills up such records as My Favorite Things (Atlantic, 1961), and A Love Supreme (Impulse, 1965). Tyner left Coltrane in 1965, with the advent of Coltrane's progression into free jazz, and has since then recorded many solo albums . His all-encompassing approach to chords influenced Corea, and in the '70s he recorded much world-influenced music. An adjective suitable to describe his sound might be "big." This "bigness" clearly also influenced Keith Jarrett. In 2008 Tyner released a wide-ranging album recorded with five leading guitarists, including Bill Frisell and the rock slide guitar maestro Derek Trucks, entitled Guitars (McCoy Tyner Music, 2008).
Here is a towering version of Coltrane's "Giant Steps" from 1996:
Herbie Hancock
Hancock is an icon of contemporary music. He began with Miles Davis in 1962 in Davis' "second great quintet," and with his funk jazz hit of the same year, "Watermelon Man" (a different version to Hancock's '70s electric version). While with Davis, Hancock made a series of briiliant albums such as Maiden Voyage (Blue Note, 1966). The title track points the way to many things, including, through its chromatic aspects, hooky '70s disco string arrangements. The music is built on chromatic bass links connecting the major and minor chords of the tune, and is overall clearly a new musical vision.
Following his time with Davis, Hancock released the enormous fusion hit album Headhunters (Sony, 1973) which didn't just connect jazz with electric music: the ocarina on the first track is as "out there" as the rest of the record. Hancock has also used synthesisers extensively, made many "crossover" records, and pioneered jazz versions of contemporary tunes. His all inclusive ability may be rooted in his drawing inspiration earlt from the Clare Fischer arrangements for the vocal group The Hi-Lo's, as well as composer Maurice Ravel and the two Evans, Bill and Gil.
After '80s techno explorations, Hancock covered a number of rock tunes, including the hypnotic "All Apologies" by grunge's Kurt Cobain, on his album The New Standard (Verve, 1995). This album has inspired many younger musicians to do the same.
In the early 2000s he toured with a group including {{Michael Brecker}} on tenor saxophone and {{Roy Hargrove}} on trumpet: once again, Hancock was fueling new music, rather than resting on laurels.
Hancock's journey has continued with The River: The Joni Letters (Verve, 2007), which won a Grammy for best album (from all categories) of the year, only the second jazz album to do so.
Here he plays "Air Dancing," in a trio context, in 1987. Typically with Hancock, the sound is much bigger than three instruments would suggest:
Barry Harris
Harris was the pianist on one of the major albums of "hard bop," Lee Morgan's The Sidewinder (Blue Note, 1962). The title track of that album is perhaps responsible for pulling harder jazz into the sixties and cementing a place for group jazz in the post rock and roll era, when much jazz was too avant-garde for "regular" ears. It is, afterall, mainly jazz from this period that is pillaged by hip-hoppers to "sample." "The Sidewinder" sounds good anywhere, and Harris was the pianist knocking out the chords under Morgan's trumpet. Other pianists of the "hard bop" era include {{Bobby Timmons = 10817}} and {{Harold Mabern = 8941}}, who played on Morgan's album The Gigolo (Blue Note, 1965). (Note that Mabern does not necessarily agree with the term "hard bop").
Harris is known for a kind of post-Bud Powell harmonic approach, and has a weekly teaching session in West Manhattan.
Here he plays with the Cannonball Addeley Quintet--Harris' smooth Powell-like solo is at 4:40:
Andrew Hill
Hill is perhaps the last of the line of famous Blue Note pianists beginning with Monk and continuing on through Bud Powell and others. He was active in the '50s (he studied with composer Paul Hindemith in the early '50s), but his main work were his succession of Blue Note albums recorded in the '60s, such as Smokestack (Blue Note, 1963). His album Point Of Departure (Blue Note, 1964) is a masterpiece of forward-looking music that included {{Eric Dolphy = 6340}}, {{Joe Henderson = 7574}} and {{Tony Williams = 11412}}.
Cecil Taylor
Taylor is a step into the avant-garde. His extraordinary album Unit Structures (Blue Note, 1966) is highly coloristic music where the piano is used at one moment as a crash simulator, piano wires rattling, and then in the next to fire up a flurry of notes. Units of sound convey dark bass clarinet tones and other sound snippets two years before Davis' Bitches Brew (CBS, 1968). Taylor also played with the Art Ensemble of Chicago. Strongly percussive, he has been an influence on pianists such as Vijay Iyer and Matthew Shipp, and possibly even on Brad Mehldau. Taylor is almost a Duke Ellington of the avant-garde.
Here he plays solo, as part of a documentary in 1981:
Ran Blake
Blake is a pianist who was associated early with the so-called "Third Stream" movement in jazz, where jazz composers fused the music with classical music structures and other elements. He recorded an album with avant-garde singer {{Jeanne Lee = 8655}} in 1961 that was the first of several collaborations with Lee that almost had a classical art song touch. A more recent example of his classical approach is a version of Antonio Carlos Jobim's "The Girl From Ipanema," from the album Unmarked Van--A Tribute To {{Sarah Vaughan = 11033}} (Soul Note, 1997).
Here is Blake playing an improvisation from 1981:
Chick Corea
Corea has communicated new sounds on the Fender Rhodes with Miles Davis and even Stan Getz, and on acoustic piano, where his Debussy-like aura with The Five Peace band takes jazz to yet another new place--he shared a Grammy with {{John McLaughlin = 9281}} in 2010, for the Five Peace Band's live album. The atmosphere Corea obtains with acoustic piano in the latter band is extraordinary. He also, of course, brought to the world his Return To Forever band in the '70s.
Here he is with The Five Peace Band in Adelaide, Australia in 2009. The small stage very effectively shows the musicians working closely:
Keith Jarrett
Wildly popular, Jarrett has a dense and style that concentrates the minds of his fans (mainly to buy his albums!) He is particularly famous for the album The Koln Concert (ECM, 1975), a brilliant concert improvisation.
This clip shows Jarrett live in 1984, playing "Somewhere Over The Rainbow":
Randy Weston
Weston is a pioneer of a percussive style that echoes Ellington and Monk, but which is fused with African rhythms. He particularly makes use of the rich sound of the deeper notes of the piano. From 1967 he lived for five years in Morocco. His African Rhythms Trio is Weston, bass and West African percussion, and has strongly influenced Vijay Iyer amongst others.
Weston and his African Rhythm Trio play in 2009:
Brad Mehldau
Mehldau is a very percussive pianist: he can sound like Prokoviev on acid, or perhaps even Jarrett. In a way, he is perhaps not solely jazz, more of a musical entity of his own--rather like Jarrett, in fact. He has done many interesting things for jazz already, such as playing cover versions of songs by Nick Drake and other rock writers such as Noel Gallagher of Oasis ("Wonderwall"). Such delving is necessary to bring jazz, and improvised music in general, forward.
Here he plays "River Song" by Nick Drake:
Matthew Shipp
Shipp is seen by some as avant-garde, but his playing is simply another creative progression in jazz piano. He draws on Cecil Taylor in part. His very dynamic performances are almost performance art, in the sense that the passion communicated makes you sit up and think. Shipp is an experience. Here he plays a tremendous live performance, in Budapest in 2008:
Vijay Iyer
Iyer is a composer and innovative pianist who listens to a wide variety of music. He says it is important to know all piano literature, whether it is jazz or classical: he listens to Chopin and Ligeti in particular. Iyer also includes world meters in his work, drawing on, amongst others, Indian and West African concepts of time. His albums have included covers of tunes ranging from Bud Powell to rock, and his album Historicity (Art Music And Vision, 2009) includes music by Bernstein and Andrew Hill, and powerful '70s music by writers such as Stevie Wonder and Julian Hemphill. If a future for jazz piano or for jazz in general can be nominated at present, some pointers can certainly be found in the melody, rhythms and broad architectures of Iyer's music.
The Vijay Iyer Trio plays a version of the title track from his album Historicity, live in 2009:
Today's prominent pianists also include Jason Moran and, in a more mainstream mold, Martin Berejano of the Roy Haynes Quartet.