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My top 10 Jazz piano players

As I mentioned in my Countdown Post 247 and 248 I have come to really enjoy certain jazz. Late 50s, early 60s cool jazz and bop. i also like jazzy Brazilian music and some modern jazz.

Miles Davis, Charley Parker, “Big” Bill Patton, Stanley Turrentine. Chet Baker, etc. are all folks I’ve listened to more on this journey than ever before.

Here’s my list of best jazz piano players. I may be out of my league judging fine jazz but here I go anyway.

  1. Erroll Garner. I had not heard of him until I found for a $2 bill a 10″ 33\ 1/3 record by him. Soon as I heard record I knew it was someone special. He was 5-feet -2-inches tall and never learned to read music — which at first kept him out of some good music schools. They relented and he came one of the best pianists of all time in the Jazz real.
  2. Bud Powell his music is precise and yet it still swings like it has that boppity bop.
  3. Art Tatum. I’ve heard him on several things; would like to hear more.
  4. Thelonious Monk. I recognize his great skills. I haven’t listened that much to really ‘know’ Monk. I have a couple of 78s with Monk, Bud Powell and Charley Parker.
  5. Keith Jarrett. Bought a box set of his music, mostly solo. I’d heard his name before, but the man can seriously play

6) Duke Ellington — The master leader could also play.

7) McCoy Tyner Everything I’ve heard has been good but haven’t heard much.

8) Keith Emerson. This is a little controversial because he didn’t play jazz per se but he played classical in a rock setting thus I think he was often ‘Jazzing up the classical bits). He as an amazing pianist. He performed Scott Joplin music and for one album. (Or half).

9/10. Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea. I recognize their talent but I was never a big jazz fusion fan beyond some home cookin’ bands, Sea Level and Dixie Dregs.

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Bud Powell, Oscar Peterson & others –246, 245, 244

ALBUMS: The Amazing Bud Powell (1967 RE 1986); Oscar Peterson Solos (1950)

MVC Rating: Bud 5.0/$$$$$; Oscar, 4.5/$$$$

The longer I’ve been doing my countdown, the more I’ve come to appreciate jazz.

This Amazing Bud Powell record I’ve had since my 20s but didn’t play it much. It’s a 1986 re-issue of a 1967 album and now a regular on my turntable.

Oscar Peterson, a three record album of the great pianist’s solos, also gets playing time. Although as a 78 it needs extra work to go turn Over that thick piece of shellac over. One side, one track. It keeps you moving.

Although I like a variety of jazz, I’m especially impressed by the pianists.

See my post above this one to check my Top 10 piano players.

I have several musical people in my family but I have no training and no rights to be a judge. except for a seemingly passionate love of music. Here’s some Bud and Oscar.

Mike Oliver is an opinion columnist who written much about his own fatal illness, Lewy body dementia.

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Big John Patton — 268, 267

Album: Blue John (Recorded 1963, released 1986)

MVC Rating: 4.5/$$$$

If you are introducing someone to good jazz, Blue John is a good place to start. Because it is so much fun. What do you expect from an album that starts off with “Hot Sauce.”

This record has an odd history. It was recorded in 1963 but didn’t see its release until 1986 on Blue Note.

Allmusic.com says this: “There may be something of a novelty element to (George) Braith‘s (saxophone) playing, but bluesy, groove-centered soul-jazz rarely sounds this bright and exuberant, which is reason enough not to dismiss his contributions.”

In addition to Braith’s funky sax sounds, Grant Green’s guitar throughout is tasty. Many people get introduced to good jazz with ‘Kinda Blue’ by Miles Davis or John Coltrane’s “Giant Steps” or “My Favorite Things.” Great albums and must haves for a jazz collection. But Blue John by Big John Patton is an instant like with its laid back tempo and bluesy swing.

Links to Wikipedia bios of these musicians below.

John Patton – organ

Tommy Turrentine – trumpet (5, 6)

George Braith – soprano saxophone, stritch

Grant Green – guitar

Ben Dixon – drums

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Harry James — 405

ALBUM: Trumpet After Midnight (1954)

MVC Score: 4.0/$$

Harry James album

Interesting background here for a trumpet player.

He was a contortionist in the family circus at age 4. Based in Albany, Ga., he did fancy trick horseback riding up until some horses tried to trample him, only to be saved by his mother’s pony. All this on his Wikipedia page.

He went on to become a band leader and his band was the first to back a young singer named Frank Sinatra.

Musically he was well-respected for his technical prowess on the instrument. My album is great. I have to admit that when I play jazz it’s usually one of my Blue Notes or Chet Baker or even Teo Macero. But I’ve had my James record on the turntable for several days now, and it is fabulous. It is sweet sounding, transports you to another time without being maudlin. It’s the sound of tinkling glasses, a post-war giddiness and a Cold War caution.

The liner notes give an interesting history of the trumpet itself and its place in music.

The vinyl is rigid and thick and says “unbreakable” on it. It’s sort of in the mode of the heavier vinyl used in new pressings. For you old-timers who may remember, the circus he grew up with was called the Mighty Haag Circus.

Some songs: Autumn Leaves, Moanin’ Low, If I Loved You, How Deep is the Ocean.

This is not an expensive record and could probably be ordered online at $5 to $10 plus shipping,

MVC Record Grades Explained

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Joe Henderson — 427

By Guy MacPherson – Joe Henderson, CC BY 2.0, 4 WIKI

ALBUMS: Our Thing (1964, RE  Blue Note 1985)

MVC Rating: 5.0/$$$$$

Another Blue Note reissue. Another great jazz album.

It’s the bop era, late 50s, early 60s. The drumming is always setting pace. –doh doh doh chicka doe.

A little bass, boom boom de boom. Piano, tinkle tinkle.

Then Henderson blows the sax…. whaa whoa whaa whoa whee whah, wha whump.

There you go my note-for-note rendition of Teeter Totter. which is an up B-flat blues, says a Youtuber. It is the only major key track in the set. I’ll try to pull a video of it.

Meanwhile, however many solos Henderson takes, the light but steady and ready Tap Tap Tap Tap continues on the drum and cymbal. This song I can watch the news to. Of course turning the volume off the TV.

Gordon’s music has a way  of putting the daily disasters in their place.

Its  more fun than progressive rock.

So putting that fun aside, this is seriously good jazz from a jazz rich era. The band is tight and Henderson’s keeps it all reeled in, even when it seems it’s not.

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Dexter Gordon — 449

ALBUM: One Flight Up (Reissue 1985)

MVC Rating: 5/$$$$$

Great jazz combo here from 1964. Led by Dexter Gordon, this is a jazz classic. I got as a cut-out reissue from 1985. If I see a cut-out or discounted record with Blue Note on, it I’ll buy, no questions.

The band, which includes Donald Byrd, Art Taylor, Kenny Drew and Niels-Henning Orsted, is tight.

Byrd almost steals the show with his tasteful rapid fire trumpet runs, like automatic fire — pup, pup,pup – landing like marshmallows, soft and sweet. Particularly on his song, ‘Tanya’ which covers all of side 1.

Gordon was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in the jazz movie ‘Round Midnight.’

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Dizzy Gillespie — 454

ALBUMS: New Faces  

MVC Rating: 4.5/$$$$

Now I’m not huge into jazz but I have some good  jazz records.

I have this Dizzy; a Dexter Gordon Blue Note label album; a Harry James record; some Miles Davis; John Coltrane on CD);Teo Macero, another Blue Note special of Bud Powell, one of my favorite jazz pianists along with Errol Garner. I also have some rock/soul/jazz fusion, if that’s a thing, Steve Howe, Dixie Dregs, Sea Level, and Glenn Phillips.

And going A to Z, I also have some Chet Atkins and Frank Zappa that I would consider jazz or jazzy.

And I have Louis Armstrong, one of my favorite old schoolers,  mainly because my father was a big fan of Satchmo, and I heard it at an earl age around the house.

The cool thing about this album is it brings in some newcomers — at least they were new in the 1980s when this was made, including Branford Marsalis, who went on to be the bandleader for Jay Leno for a couple of years and is one of the top saxophonists in the world.

So this has old man Dizzy, he of the bent trumpet and swollen cheeks, has rounded up some youth to make a contemporary jazz record with some old stuff mixed in.

The sound jumps out of the speakers, I must say, which I like on all vinyl productions but especially jazz. I like the trumpet player right in the room with me. I know this seems like my ongoing advice, but this is a good pick in a used record store, high high quality jazz in the ‘bop’ style with an old cheek-ballooning patriarch overseeing some  top notch jazz youngsters.

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John Fahey — 495, 494

  ALBUMS: Volume 1 Blind Joe Death; Guitar Vol. 4;

MVC Rating: Blind 4.5/$$$$; Guitar 4.0/ $$$$

John Fahey’s music is hard to categorize. And he may have been the most influential guitarist you’ve never heard of.

Not a shredder, but a plucker.

He said he considered himself a classical guitarist.  But the category he was usually placed under was ‘primitive guitar, blues, folk.’ It was mostly like nothing you’ve ever heard. Light finger-picking guitar delivered  pieces that lulled you into the deeper recesses of the song. Hypnotized without consent.

You listen and think, I could do that. Then he does something so quick and unexpected that you have to stop and reshape or get lost in it.

By Ellis408 at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=31511739

To continue my metaphorical ways, the music was like a lazy river, no whitewater. Rolling, rolling through small eddys. Lay a  soft whispery vocal on some of these songs and it would sound like Nick Drake.

There are versions of Blind Joe Death that are rare and expensive. When I found Blind Joe Death in used record store in Leesburg, FL, I thought I had hit the jackpot. I had just read an article about Fahey and how he released only 100 copies of Blind Joe Death. But alas, it was not the valuable one. Although this version is being shopped around out there in the $30-40 range.

From a well-sourced Wikipedia page we learn that he bought his first guitar for $17 from Sears, Roebuck. (Hey didn’t Tom Petty buy his from Sears as well?) And Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong have a record together on the Sears label.

Sears slogan: Where your past is about all we have left.

From WIki:

Fahey discovered his love of early blues upon hearing Blind Willie Johnson‘s “Praise God I’m Satisfied” on a record-collecting trip to Baltimore with his friend and mentor, the musicologist Richard K. Spottswood. Much later, Fahey compared the experience to a religious conversion and remained a devout blues disciple until his death. {FROM MIKE: I like that he took record-collecting trips.}

As his guitar playing and composing progressed, Fahey developed a style that blended the picking patterns he discovered on old blues 78s with the dissonance of contemporary classical composers he loved, such as Charles Ives and Béla Bartók. 

Rolling Stone put Fahey at 35th in their Top 100 Guitarists of all time.

Some traditional songs on the two albums I have include ‘Will the Circle Be Unbroken,’ Oh Come, Oh Come Emanuel,’ “Uncloudy Day,’ and ‘St. Louis Blues.’

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Dixie Dregs — 527

ALBUM: ‘What If.’ (1978)

MVC Rating:

4.0/$$

I have a story about the Dixie Dregs. Must have been around 1978 and I was hanging out with Catherine (my future bride), Rose and Carol in downtown Athens, Ga.

We were all high school buddies and happened to be walking past the Georgia Theatre when some folks were loading equipment from a truck into the theater. It was late afternoon.

We sidled, or at least the young women in the group sidled, over  and asked what’s up. They told us they were the Dixie Dregs and were playing that night.

The Dregs members and crew seemed quite chatty, though not to me. Anyway, with me way in the background, they invited ‘us’ to enjoy the show from the front row. (I think at this point they were holding the door open for Catherine, Rose and Carol and I had to practically dive through before it closed in my face.) Anyway free front row show and it was good. An all-instrumental funky band playing music that was hard to pigeon hole.

Ironically, earler that year I had won an award for best high school critical review with a write-up about Sea Level, an all instrumental offshoot of the Allman Brothers, playing the same venue. The award was from the University of Georgia Journalism Department.

Sea Level was playing at the grand opening of the Georgia Theatre as a concert venue. It used to be a movie theater. (It burned down in 2009, but I can attest  it has been re-built and is very much a go-to Athens, Ga. music venue, with the likes of Randall Bramblett and Chuck Leavell frequently playing.}

As for the Dregs’ music, it was musicianship at a high level. A little bit of Mahavishnu Orchestra, a little southern-fried rock, and some Pat Metheny, or Steve Howe-like jazzy guitar-based tunes.  As a guitarist, Steve Morse is about as respected by musicians as you can get.  Since 1994, he’s been lead guitarist for Deep Purple.  

He had big shoes to fill in Deep Purple where the guitar was once wielded by Ritchie Blackmore. Apparently, he has been well received in the group. This from Deep Purple’s website:

Morse brought a funkiness, a depth as guitarist and writer, an unparalleled fluidity as a soloist, a startling aptitude as foil to Lord, and an arsenal of influences – country, folk, jazz, what they’ve sadly labeled “fusion,” and an inherent understanding of blues-based riffs – that meshed effortlessly with the immaculate Glover-Paice sense of swing and Gillan’s seeming capacity to go anywhere at any time, full-throated and eyes ablaze.

On the Dregs’ 1978 album ‘What If,’ which I have, the instrumentals are easy to listen to and sound as if they could be soundtrack miniatures in a way. ‘Take it off the Top,’ the opening song,, sounds so familiar, kind of like a TV soundtrack (in the vein of Rockford Files).

I hate to call it fusion, as well, but the music certainly fuses jazz, blues, rock and some classical conceits into a very listenable sound synthesis. There’s a violin, organ, bass and drums all driven by Morse’s extraordinary guitar.

Counting down my 678 vinyl records before I die of brain disease.

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Miles Davis — 541

ALBUM: Milesones (1958)

MVC Rating: 5.0/$$$$$

ALBUM: Milestones (1958)

MVC Rating: 5.0/$$$$$

I don’t know if it’s a Lewy thing but I’m enjoying this jazz more than ever.  I’ve played this Miles record, both sides about five times in the past two days.  It’s old  new jazz. (Also jumped into a Dizzy Gillespie record,  I’ll review in the G’s.}

It’s modern jazz, sometimes ‘played too darn fast’ Chuck Berry famously complained. It’s modern but it’s 1958, a year before I was born and a year before Davis gave us his masterpiece (IMHO) ‘Kind of Blue.’

But this one with  Cannonball Adderly and John Coltrane burned pretty well. I gave it a ‘5’ anyway. I remember buying this used at some kind of flea market in Anniston, AL.  Would have  been 1982.  I knew who Davis was but upon seeing the cover photo I felt like  I had to have the album. Pretty intense and cool looking dude. And that’s what his music looks and sounds like: Him.

Below, Miles and company play:

Counting down my 678  vinyl records  before I die of  brain disease.