Even if comparisons with Lennie Tristano, Al Haig and Bud Powell are inevitable, Dodo Marmarosa's music has a surrealistic imprint essentially unlike that of any other pianist in or out of bop. In honor of this cardinal truth, the Lone Hill Jazz label has come forward with the Complete Studio Recordings of the Dodo Marmarosa Trio (including alternate takes), bringing together three different West Coast sessions from 1946 and 1947, four selections waxed in his home town of Pittsburgh in 1950, and an entire second disc's worth of mature Marmarosa material recorded in Chicago in 1961 and 1962.
When one thinks of altoist/flutist Bud Shank's recordings of the 1950s, it is normally of his work with Stan Kenton's orchestra or collaborations with Laurindo Almeida or Bob Cooper. However, Shank led a superior quartet from 1956-1958 that also included pianist Claude Williamson, bassist Don Prell, and either Chuck Flores or Jimmy Pratt on drums. This typically magnificent five-CD limited-edition box set from Mosaic has the quartet's four albums (including a set that was recorded in Johannesburg, South Africa), a selection by Shank with a sextet that includes vibraphonist Larry Bunker, and three slightly later sets.
This five-CD deluxe set contains an impressive 150-page booklet and reissues every scrap of music that the innovative pianist Bud Powell recorded for Verve. The first disc has the best music, four truly outstanding sessions from 1949-51. The other performances (trio sides from 1954-56) are much more erratic, particularly the alternate takes, with gems followed by completely lost solos. Bop fans will want this set but more general collectors are advised to pick up the Blue Notes first.
Although pianist Bud Powell recorded some great albums elsewhere (most notably his first couple of sessions for Verve), on the whole his Blue Note records were his most significant and definitive. This four-CD set has all of the music from his five Blue Note albums, his two sessions for the Roost label, and all known alternate takes. Powell literally changed the way that the piano is played in jazz, and this magnificent set has more than its share of classics. In addition to the many trio performances, trombonist Curtis Fuller sits in on three numbers, there are a few solo cuts, and one date features Powell at the head of a quintet with trumpeter Fats Navarro and the young tenor Sonny Rollins. Although there are a few faltering moments in the later dates, this essential release (unlike the similar Verve reissue) is quite consistent.
Bud Powell's music has often been described as adapting Charlie Parker's bebop style to the piano. Other jazz authorities maintain that Bud was an originator, along with Parker and Gillespie, of the jazz style known as bebop. All agree that Bud is the father of modern jazz piano. Bud was trained in classical music as a child and his classical background plays a role in the harmonic sophistication of his music. He was also intimately familiar with the early jazz piano style known as stride and one can recognize this element, sometimes quite explicitly, in Bud's playing. But the main characteristic of Bud's original piano style is a lightning fast right hand that expresses on the piano what up to Bud's time had only been possible on a horn.
Bud Powell's playing in the late '50s (just prior to his move to Paris) found the troubled pianist in erratic form, often struggling to make it through songs he had written. However, his three Blue Note recordings from the era (which include the slightly later Time Waits and The Scene Changes) feature Powell in surprisingly inspired form; all of the releases have since been reissued on a comprehensive CD set. Bud! (which is subtitled The Amazing Bud Powell, Vol. 3) has five trio performances with bassist Paul Chambers and drummer Art Taylor (highlighted by "Bud on Bach" and "Some Soul") and three standards on which the group is joined by trombonist Curtis Fuller. This strong bop set is well worth getting.