In a supernova-like burst of inventive brilliance, Harlem-born pianist Bud Powell lit up the bebop jazz scene of the late Nineteen Forties, combining dazzling feats of melodic invention with harmonic ingenuity. By doing so, he not solely helped to create the language of contemporary jazz, but additionally performed a key function in mapping out the style’s trajectory because it moved into the Nineteen Fifties and past.
Many individuals, musicians, and critics alike, regard Powell because the piano-playing equal to saxophonist Charlie Parker, who along with trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie helped start the bebop revolution within the mid-’40s, the place jazz grew to become extra musically advanced and was more and more performed in small group settings. Impressed by Parker’s darting alto saxophone strains, Powell helped to rework the piano’s function in jazz, liberating it from an accompanying place within the rhythm part and making it a viable frontline solo instrument.
Powell’s affect in jazz was profound. Many pianists fell beneath his spell, together with Invoice Evans, McCoy Tyner, Chick Corea, and Herbie Hancock. The latter informed Downbeat journal in 1966: “(Powell) was the foundation out of which stemmed the whole edifice of modern jazz piano.” Miles Davis, in the meantime, as soon as wrote that Powell was “one of the greatest piano players who ever lived.”
Regardless of his significance within the evolution of jazz piano enjoying, Powell’s musical contributions are sometimes ignored – and sadly, his identify isn’t as acquainted to most of the people as fellow bebop pioneers Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, and Thelonious Monk. That’s partly as a result of Powell’s profession being a tragically quick one, lasting simply 17 years; from 1949, when he made his debut recording as a pacesetter, to his demise in 1966. Even so, he was prolific within the studio, recording a plethora of fabric for a number of report labels, together with Mercury, Blue Be aware, Clef, and Verve. From these corporations’ repertoires, right here’s a number of the very best Bud Powell items that present an introduction to his music.
Making His Mark As A Sideman
How Bud Powell developed as a pianist will be gauged by listening to a few of his early recordings as a sideman. In 1943, aged 19, he was having fun with his first noteworthy skilled engagement with ex-Duke Ellington trumpeter Cootie Williams’ orchestra. He appeared on Williams’ “Floogie Boo,” contributing a brief solo that confirmed that whilst a youngster, the muse of his distinctive fashion was already in place; regardless that the music is rendered in a well-liked large band swing fashion, the sturdy, horn-like high quality of Powell’s right-hand melody provided an early indication of the pianist’s distinctive strategy to soloing.
By early 1946, when bebop was within the ascendant, Powell confirmed that he was creating as a songwriter by co-authoring the jaunty “Dexter Rides Again” for tenor saxophonist Dexter Gordon. Characterised by zigzagging melodies, Powell’s quick solo on the tune is very virtuosic.
The next yr, Powell performed with Charlie Parker alongside a younger Miles Davis on a session that yielded the Parker classics, “Donna Lee,” and “Chasin’ The Bird”; on each tracks, Powell impressed with concise however densely concentrated solos filled with melodic invention.
First Solo Flight
Simply as Bud Powell was making a reputation within the bebop world along with his flamboyant fashion and seemed sure to turn out to be a star in his personal proper, in November 1947 he suffered a psychological breakdown and was admitted to New York’s Creedmoor State Hospital. It wasn’t the primary time he had been hospitalized; in 1943, whereas with Cootie Williams’ band, he was so traumatized following a beating by the police for resisting arrest whereas drunk that he was positioned in a psychiatric establishment. This time, he spent eleven months in Creedmoor however after a quick spell of freedom, one other breakdown led to his readmission in January 1949.
Fortunately, his confinement was quick. Studying that Mercury Information wished to report him, Powell efficiently pleaded along with his psychiatrist to be launched for a studio session in February 1949 the place he reduce his first sides as a pacesetter. Sensing that point was of the essence, he waxed a raft of 10” singles in fast succession for Mercury; they included “Tempus Fugue It,” a ferocious piece performed at an insanely quick tempo that justified Powell’s nickname “Hammer Fingers” because of the forceful manner he attacked the piano keys. On the identical session, the much less frenetic “Celia,” named after Powell’s daughter, showcased the pianist’s distinctive mixture of flowing right-hand strains punctuated by prodding left-hand chords.
Traditional Authentic Compositions
Later in 1949, Bud Powell joined Blue Be aware the place he made a few of his most memorable recordings. The label initially captured him fronting a quintet referred to as Bud Powell’s Modernists that included teenage tenor saxophone sensation Sonny Rollins. They reduce the infectious “Bouncing With Bud” and addictively swinging “Dance Of The Infidels,” that with their interaction between virtuosic soloists and a fluid rhythm part presaged the driving exhausting bop fashion that will dominate trendy jazz within the Nineteen Fifties.
One other productive Blue Be aware session from 1951 yielded the immortal Powell observe, “Un Poco Loco”; a extremely syncopated Latin-flavored quantity pushed by drummer Max Roach’s insistent cowbell figures, it’s one in all Powell’s definitive items. His penchant for creating blizzards of notes within the track anticipated later developments in jazz in the course of the late 50s; specifically, saxophonist John Coltrane’s “sheets of sound” strategy and the febrile depth of avant-garde pianist Cecil Taylor, who was famous for his swirling keyboard patterns. A whirlwind of notes additionally defines the intro to a different of Powell’s signature tunes; “Parisian Thoroughfare,” a breezy, fast-swinging trio quantity from 1951.
Powell returned to Blue Be aware on the finish of the Nineteen Fifties to chop two albums. The second of them, 1958’s The Scene Adjustments, was totally self-penned and its chief spotlight was “Cleopatra’s Dream,” the place bassist Paul Chambers and drummer Artwork Taylor laid down the right rhythmic accompaniment over which Powell grew to become a font of repeatedly flowing melody.
Distinctive Interpretations Of Bebop Classics
All through his profession, Bud Powell put an indelible spin on a few of bebop’s most iconic songs. With their quicksilver piano melodies, Powell’s gorgeous 1949 variations of Charlie Parker’s “Ornithology” and Thelonious Monk’s “52nd Street Theme” provide vivid examples of the pianist’s absolute mastery of the keyboard.
Powell reimagined one in all bebop’s most unique numbers, Dizzy Gillespie’s “A Night In Tunisia,” as a smoldering mid-tempo groove; reworking the unique’s horn strains into spectacular piano runs. One other Gillespie tune, “Be-Bop,” recorded by Powell on his 1956 trio LP, Blues In The Closet, grew to become a automobile for deft interaction between the pianist and bassist Ray Brown. On the identical album, Powell resurrected Charlie Parker’s “Now’s The Time,” giving it a uniquely pianistic taste.
Curiously, Powell’s ultimate efficiency with Parker was as a part of a short-lived jazz supergroup referred to as The Quintet, whose one-off live performance in Could 1953 in Toronto resulted in one in all jazz’s best reside albums: Jazz At Massey Corridor. Additionally within the group have been Dizzy Gillespie, bassist Charles Mingus, and Max Roach but it surely’s Powell who shines the brightest on jazz composer Tadd Dameron’s tune “Hot House” due to his lightning-fingered piano solo.
The Nice American Songbook
Along with writing his personal compositions and reinterpreting bebop classics, Bud Powell had a present for taking tunes from the Nice American Songbook and remaking them in his personal picture. One in all his favorites was “All God’s Chillun Got Rhythm,” a Nineteen Thirties track initially sung by jazz chanteuse, Ivy Anderson, which he recorded in 1949. It was one of many pianist’s go-to items in live performance; with its driving tempo and frenzied keyboard runs, it proved a wonderful showcase. So too did his 1949 retooling of “Cherokee,” a 1938 Ray Noble track that was a favourite with bebop musicians (its chord adjustments supplied a template for Charlie Parker’s traditional bebop tune “Ko-Ko”). Powell’s model (which later appeared on his Verve album Jazz Big) spotlights the sharp percussive assault of his right-hand melodies contrasting with sparse left-hand chords.
Not every thing Powell performed was taken at full-throttle; he typically confirmed excessive sensitivity with ballads, however generally, he additionally used them as autos to show his complete command of the keyboard. A quintessential instance of that is his dynamic unaccompanied piano model from 1951 of the well-known present tune “Over The Rainbow,” which is distinguished by a welter of cascading melodies and finespun chromatic elaborations.
“Over The Rainbow” arguably captures Powell on the pinnacle of his powers however his battles with alcoholism and psychological sickness in the course of the Nineteen Fifties regularly took a toll on each his well being and artistic powers. He moved to Paris in 1959, the place he appeared completely satisfied for a time, however moved again to the States in 1963 after contracting tuberculosis; he died there in 1966, aged 41, from pneumonia. Regardless of his many troubles, Bud Powell appeared to discover a sense of pleasure and freedom in music that eluded him in his private life. He was by no means happier than when he was expressing himself via his beloved piano; and the memorable performances we’ve chosen right here reveal his genius in all its glory.
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