Earl Hines

In 1975, when Bluebird brought out a double-LP reissue of vintage Earl Hines big-band recordings, the producers included a chain of beefy instrumentals from 1941. The Classics Chronological series zeroed in and fleshed out an important part of the picture by compiling all of Hines' 1941 material onto one CD 16 years later. What you get are eight terrific instrumentals interspersed with ten vocal tracks and a pair of fine piano solos. Since the vocal performances were aimed at the general record-buying public, they deviate noticeably from the powerhouse home base of big-band swing infused with intimations of the approaching bebop revolution. Eight instrumentals, then, form the backbone of this volume in the complete recordings of Earl Hines…

The Earl Hines Trio - Here Comes Earl "Fatha" Hines (1966) {2014 Japan Jazz Collection 1000 Columbia-RCA Series SICP 4041}
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© 1966, 2014 RCA / Sony Music Japan | SICP 4041
Jazz / Swing / Stride / Piano Trio

Reissue with the latest remastering. Comes with liner notes. Earl Hines has a very cool trio here – a unique group that features Richard Davis on bass and Elvin Jones on drums – both younger modern players who provide a surprising match for his lead work on piano! Hines really seems to step up to the setting, and although his phrasing and tone echo his older years in jazz, there's also a fresh crackle to the record too – one that may also partly come from the way in which Earl was really being rediscovered and re-exposed at the time of the album's recording.

Earl Hines - Another Monday Date (1956) {Prestige PRCD-24032-2 rel 1995}
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© 1955-56, 1995 Prestige Records / Fantasy | PRCD-24032-2
Jazz / Bop / Stride / Piano

Two of pianist Earl Hines's finest recordings sessions of the 1950s are included on this CD. One is a tribute to Fats Waller on which Hines (with guitarist Eddie Duran, bassist Dean Reilly and drummer Earl Watkins) explores songs associated with Waller. The other date is Hines's only solo session of the decade and features him playing his own compositions (including "Everything Depends on You," "You Can Depend on Me," "Piano Man" and "My Monday Date") along with "Am I Too Late?" During the 1950s, Hines was somewhat forgotten in jazz, reduced to playing Dixieland dates, so this two-fer is far superior to his other sessions prior to his "comeback" of 1964.

Between his auspicious beginnings with Armstrong, Jimmie Noone, and Erskine Tate during the late '20s and his proto-bebop big band of the '40s, Earl Hines found his '30s stride with these fine recordings. Part of a clutch of Classics discs charting his solo and big-band sides from 1928-1947, this collection finds Hines in the stellar company of such top arrangers as Jimmy Mundy, Quinn Wilson, and Cecil Irwin. While Mundy was the only one to achieve fame beyond the group (with Count Basie), all these chart-makers flourished under Hines' watch. Mundy's work especially stands out: Four of his contributions here - "Fat Babes," "Copenhagen," "Rock and Rye," and "Cavernism" - count as pinnacles of the form, replete with inventive horn parts and streamlined yet driving rhythm tracks…

This is an unusual and frequently exciting album of duets between the two great veterans Joe Venuti and Earl Hines; despite both being active for over a half-century, they had never played together before. The interplay between the violinist and the pianist is consistently unpredictable and they communicate quite well on these swing standards (three of which were composed by Hines long ago)…

Giants of Jazz presents all of the music recorded in New Orleans, LA by 71-year-old Earl Hines on January 30 and 31, 1975. A consistently surprising pianist whose modernistic impulses began to revolutionize how jazz was played during the late '20s and (in solidarity with those of Duke Ellington) led directly to the innovations of Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk and Jaki Byard, Hines sounds entirely at home among friends performing material from the traditional jazz and Dixieland repertoire. The band is excellent, with a front line of trumpeter Wallace Davenport, trombonist Tom Ebert and clarinetist Orange Kellin. The pianist's rhythm section mates were banjoist/guitarist Emanuel Sayles, bassist Lloyd Lambert and drummer Louis Barbarin. Hines sings on "(I Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Have None Of My) Jelly Roll" and "Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans."

Earl Hines - Spontaneous Explorations (1964) {2017 Japan Flying Dutchman 1000 Master Collection Series CDSOL-45702}
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© 1964, 2017 Flying Dutchman / Solid Records Japan / Ultra-Vibe | CDSOL-45702
Jazz / Stride / Piano

Reissue with the latest 2017 remastering. Comes with a description written in Japanese. Earl Hines had many years of music under his belt when he cut this session in the mid 60s – yet his sense of creative improvisation was more than sharp enough to warrant the promise of the title! The set features Hines alone at the keyboard, in a wonderfully well-recorded setting – working this amazing magic on his solo performances, which really transform the tunes into something new entirely – piano explorations that almost make you feel like you're finding Earl in the back room of some small club, after hours – working out all sorts of new ideas, without having to worry about commercial considerations at all.