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Bud Powell at 100 · The Piano Maven with Jed Distler

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  This is Jed Dissler and welcome to the Piano Maven, your friendly podcast guide to piano
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  recordings.
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  Although I mainly discuss and recommend classical piano recordings on this podcast, a listener
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  had suggested early on in the first few weeks that we have the podcast up and running that
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  I might also talk about jazz piano on some of these podcasts.
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  I thought that was a really splendid idea because although many of you might know me
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  for my reviews of classical piano CDs, the fact is that I actually came up as a jazz
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  pianist and I played a lot of jazz professionally when I was in my late teens and early twenties.
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  I didn't pursue a jazz career as a pianist.
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  I got into contemporary classical music and composing, but I always kept my improvising
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  chops more or less in gear.
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  I've actually gone back to improvising in public most noticeably with my recitals devoted
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  to the complete songs of Thelonious Monk in one entire program.
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  And Monk connects very strongly and profoundly to the subject of this episode, pianist Bud
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  Powell, whose centenary we recently celebrated.
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  He was born in 1924 and he died in 1966.
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  And it was Monk who was a big champion of his younger colleague, Bud Powell.
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  In turn, Bud Powell championed Monk's compositions at a time when few other jazz musicians were
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  doing so, certainly among pianists.
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  But it was Bud Powell who had the really decisive influence on pianists in the 1940s and early
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  1950s, much as Teddy Wilson and Earl Hines had influenced their jazz pianist colleagues
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  in earlier decades.
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  The melodically and harmonically sophisticated style that evolved to be known as bebop in
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  the 1940s was spearheaded, of course, by alto saxophonist Charlie Parker and trumpeter
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  Dizzy Gillespie.
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  And what they did on their respective instruments, Bud Powell did on the piano.
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  And Bud Powell also was a remarkable composer in his own right.
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  And in fact, many of his compositions still challenge musicians today for their tricky
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  rhythms and their interesting twists and turns of phrase.
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  Think of tunes like Parisian Thirufer, Whale, Dance of the Infidels, Bouncing with Bud,
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  Budo, Glass Enclosure.
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  There are so many wonderful Bud Powell compositions.
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  But for all of his brilliance and intensity, however, Bud Powell was an erratic artist.
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  His struggle with mental illness is usually tied to a severe and violent beating he received
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  in 1945 at the hands of the Philadelphia police.
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  And his volatile and unpredictable behavior led to several periods where he was placed
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  in psychiatric facilities.
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  The longest of these stints happened between 1951 and 1953.
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  And when Bud Powell emerged back on the scene in the spring of 1953, he was still playing
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  really, really well.
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  Yet something was amiss.
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  And the brilliance and the confident virtuosity that we hear in many of Bud Powell's recordings
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  and broadcasts from the mid-1940s through 1951 would only manifest itself in fits and starts
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  throughout the rest of his career.
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  Some of Bud Powell's later recordings are really subpar, and some of them are really
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  painful to hear.
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  But he was still capable of wonderful playing and truly creative music making.
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  Eventually, Bud Powell left New York to live in Paris in 1959.
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  And a young French music lover named Francis Poudras befriended Powell, and he eventually
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  took charge of the pianist's health and well-being.
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  In August 1964, Poudras accompanied Bud Powell back to New York, where the pianist made a
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  highly publicized return playing at the original Birdland Club in New York City.
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  Sometimes he played brilliantly, yet sometimes he would be off form.
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  And when it was time to return to Paris, Bud Powell did not show up at the airport.
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  He decided to stay in New York instead.
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  After two final and sadly disastrous solo performances that took place in 1965, Powell's
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  health continued on a downward spiral, and he died on July 31, 1966.
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  So let's talk about Bud Powell's recordings.
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  I'm not going to go through his discography in big detail.
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  Instead, I'm going to point the way to his most significant or representative recordings
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  as a leader.
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  There are terrific examples of Bud Powell in the role of a sideman, but his first session
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  as a leader may very well be his best.
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  It features bassist Curly Russell and the great and highly influential drummer Max Roach.
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  This 1947 session contains eight perfect tracks.
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  Everything is there, Bud Powell's darting right-hand lines, his intensity, his energy,
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  and his decisive command that influenced generations of pianists to come.
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  Bud Powell's 1949 quintet recordings for Blue Note are on the same pianistic and communicative
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  level, and they feature the brilliant and tragically short-lived trumpeter Fats Navarro
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  and a 19-year-old tenor saxophonist named Sonny Rollins at the beginning of what would
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  be a monumental career.
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  As I'm recording these words, Sonny Rollins is still with us at 93, although he no longer
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  performs.
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  The 1949 and 1950 trio sessions for the Verve label are no less important.
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  Powell's 1951 Verve solo session has marvelous things, although in super-fast selections
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  like just one of those things, he's frankly pushing his technique to the limits.
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  And it's mainly because the left hand is mostly doing nothing but jabbing phrases and chords.
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  I think that because Bud was so involved with playing in ensemble settings that he hadn't
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  quite figured out how to adopt his up-tempo playing within a solo context.
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  His ballads, there's absolutely no problem with that.
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  And I know that's a controversial thing to say, but when you listen to just one of those
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  things you get this palpable sense of Bud being in the moment and navigating a speedy
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  course without a rhythm section on the fly.
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  It's interesting to hear this because there have been other absolutely brilliant jazz
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  pianists who are second to none when playing in groups, but they didn't have the opportunity
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  or maybe the desire to truly develop their styles in unaccompanied contexts.
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  For instance, Red Garland's solo albums basically sound like typical Red Garland in a trio setting
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  but minus the rhythm section.
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  And I cannot think of any examples of Horace Silver playing solo piano on record.
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  I don't think he recorded any solo tracks, but his piano style was basically about feeding
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  the soloist with energetic and brilliantly shaped accompaniments, like having big band
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  arrangements behind you.
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  And when he took solos, they were completely contingent on the rhythm section.
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  He was thoroughly interacting with them.
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  It was all of one brilliant, brilliant piece.
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  Anyway, as I indicated earlier, Bud Powell's 1953 studio and live recordings hit and miss,
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  but the hits are pretty much on the level of late 40s and early 50s Bud Powell.
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  And I recommend that you check out a three disc set issued on the ESP Disc label containing
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  all of Bud Powell's surviving trio broadcast air checks stemming from the Birdland Jazz
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  Club in New York City.
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  The sound isn't great, but there's a lot of inspired playing.
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  And you have Charlie Parker sitting in on several selections and also Dizzy Gillespie.
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  It's a really important collection.
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  Now we get to the Verve albums from 1954, 55, and 56, and already one hears a noticeable
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  decline in Bud Powell's technique and his concentration.
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  But there are some strikingly expressive, emotionally fragile, and deeply moving performances
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  in this body of work.
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  I'm thinking of his version of It Never Entered My Mind.
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  I mean, this is just naked, emotionally vulnerable music making.
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  You cannot unhear it after you hear it.
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  However, his two Blue Note releases from the late 50s are much better.
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  Even if they are not on the level of Bud's late 40s prime, you get some marvelous original
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  compositions like Crossing the Channel.
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  In fact, I've always enjoyed the album entitled The Scene Changes.
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  This is one of Bud's strongest late 50s efforts.
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  Bud moved to Paris, as I mentioned before.
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  He lived there between 1959 and 64.
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  And he was quite active during that time, although his playing still remains erratic
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  and uneven.
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  But when he was on form, he was really quite wonderful, you really do have to wade through
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  all of the later Bud Powell recordings to find the jewels.
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  I especially like his contributions to a 1959 Paris jam session where he sat in with Art
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  Blakey's Jazz Messengers.
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  And there's a 1960 live recording from Essen, Germany, where he's playing with the legendary
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  tenor saxophonist Coleman Hawkins.
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  Also, look in this episode description for a YouTube link to a really strong 1962 live
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  performance from the Café Montmontron in Copenhagen.
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  It's kind of a miracle that this video exists.
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  It's been on YouTube for a while.
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  You can easily find all of the recordings I've been discussing through most major streaming
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  and download sites.
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  And with so many reissues and re-reissues on CD, those of you who want to explore Bud
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  Powell on physical discs won't have any problems, except maybe for special editions that are
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  out of print, like certain box sets and whatnot.
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  But I do have to say that no matter what state of mind or state of pianistic command Bud
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  Powell was in, the authenticity and the honesty of his artistry consistently came across.
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  Bud Powell was never one to compromise.
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  He could only play his way.
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  And each and every note he recorded says, this is who I am.
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  And that's something to think about as we observe this iconic pianist's centenary year.
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  This is Jed Disler, and you've been listening to the Piano Maven, your friendly podcast
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  guide to piano recordings.
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  Thank you for listening, and I look forward to being with you next time.