TT 557: The Greatest Jazz Piano Albums of All Time

or really: from 1921 to 1990

The website Everything Jazz recently offered “The 25 Greatest Jazz Piano Albums,” a list that includes several expected classics and a few hot takes.

Below is my own expanded selection of “Greatest Jazz Piano Albums.”

The point of such an overview is to manage scarcity, so each pianist generally gets one album that I deem “best,” although a few players appear twice or thrice. Much of my list aligns with conventional wisdom—but not everything! Indeed, divergences from the herd are one reason to make such a list. In addition to a few surprising choices…

(not to keep you in suspense: I’ve chosen Bill Evans Explorations over Sunday at the Village Vanguard, Oscar Peterson Very Tall over Night Train, Erroll Garner Plays Misty over Concert By the Sea, and Duke Ellington Reflections over Money Jungle)

…I indulge myself with gateway records first heard and loved as a young teenager. The heart wants what it wants, and those inchoate desires are always informed by whatever was experienced first.

The timeline stops around 1990 for two reasons: 2) I recuse myself from weighing in on my peers or those I regularly say hello to around town today, and 2) the number of important players double or triple with every generation. Getting the lay of the land is an ever-greater struggle: I don’t envy the jazz critics trying to assemble a best-of-year list as 2025 draws to a close.

My organizational conceits were spontaneous and undoubtedly superficial. (Are Stanley Cowell and Jaki Byard really filed under “avant-garde” next to Cecil Taylor? Where is Hank Jones if not under “bebop?”) I ruefully accept all criticism in advance, although perhaps search the complete text before sending angry missives about who is not included. Final caveat: While the choices for main selections were carefully considered (the albums that are pictured), the additional context sides and tracks (without pictures) were more casually chosen.

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THE EARLY YEARS: JELLY ROLL, JAMES P., FATHA, THE LION, FATS

Ragtime melded with the blues and begat jazz. The dominant style from the first decade of recording is now called stride, although the patriarch Jelly Roll Morton didn’t use that term.

Jelly Roll Morton 1923/24 Unaccompanied solos from the dawn of the idiom; something like the upright yet groovy “New Orleans Blues” (probably composed several years before recording) is about as early in the timeline as we are able to hear. Magnificent composition and magnificent piano.

James P. Johnson The Chronological James P. Johnson 1921-1928 Ten of the finest James P. solos, including the first and best recording of quintessential Harlem stride test-piece “Carolina Shout.” If Jelly Roll was the relaxed South, then James P. was the bustling North.

Earl Hines The Chronological Earl Hines and his Orchestra 1928-1932 The first dozen tracks are solos from 1928 including jaw-dropping “Panther Rag” and “57 Varieties.” Hines is improvising more than Jelly Roll Morton or James P. Johnson, although at this early stage Hines is still playing multi-strain forms in the manner of ragtime. Hines’s ability to create something out of nothing is even more apparent on early sides with Louis Armstrong including “Weather Bird”and “Savoyager’s Stomp” (both 1928). Of the pianists who made their mark in the 1920s, Hines had the longest and most creative career; after his comeback in 1964, he tracked something like 100 terrific and outlandish LPs in the 60’s and ‘70s.

Willie “The Lion” Smith The Chronological Willie “The Lion” Smith 1938-1940 The Lion acted tough but he was actually the most gentle and impressionistic of his peer group; Duke Ellington considered Smith to be a crucial influence. His 1938 solos including “Morning Air” and “Echoes of Spring” are charming and intimate. Later LPs with the Lion talking and espousing a point of view document the history.

Fats Waller Piano Solos 1929-1941 Waller wrote hit songs and sang them too; he was poised to be the Louis Armstrong of the piano before his tragic early death. A class act and frequently hilarious. The medium blues “Numb Fumblin’” offers stunning virtuoso pianism.

other killer stride tracks:

Eubie Blake “Sounds of Africa” (aka “The Charleston Rag” (1921) syncopated delight with an unusual “reversed” bass line. Later “ragtime revival” Blake LPs are numerous, the best might be The Marches I Played on the Old Ragtime Piano from 1959

Fletcher Henderson “Unknown Blues” (1921) although famous as an arranger, Henderson tracked a brilliant early example of jazz piano, the other side of James P. Johnson’s “Harlem Strut,” issued by the first black-owned record label, Black Swan

Lil Hardin Armstrong “Cornet Chop Suey” with Louis Armstrong (1926) a delicious and substantial piano break is included on one of the greatest tracks from the decade

Mary Lou Williams “Night Life” (1930) one take magic, the scroll unrolls

Joe Sullivan “Little Rock Getaway” (1935) the white Chicago cats were important to the history, and this charismatic number was a hit (and eventually covered by rock star Keith Emerson)

Bix Beiderbecke “In A Mist” (1927) one could buy a sheet music transcription of this surprising impressionist piano performance, which meant that literally everyone played through “In a Mist.” If Bix hadn’t died so young, he could have easily taken on George Gershwin as a composer of formal music for piano in the American idiom

Cliff Jackson “Limehouse Blues” (1944) takes a moment to get going, but then: look out!

Luckey Roberts “Railroad Blues” (1946) surreal and wonderful

Paul Lingle “Yellow Dog Blues” (1951) notably abstract treatment of W.C. Handy

Donald Lambert “Anitra’s Dance” the studio recording from 1941 is gold, but there is also lo-fi video from 1960 at Newport. There are no words. Humans do the impossible

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bevy of boogie woogies:

Perhaps boogie woogie relates to stride like hip-hop relates to R ‘n B? At any rate, there is no rock ‘n roll without boogie woogie.

Meade “Lux” Lewis “Honky Tonk Train Blues” (1927) after all these years, I’m still shocked by the rhythm, the poetry, and the virtuosity

Albert Ammons “Shout for Joy” (1934) my nomination as the single greatest boogie of all time

Pete Johnson “Roll ‘Em Pete” (with Big Joe Turner) (1938) Cecil Taylor said nobody played better boogie woogie than Pete Johnson. “Roll ‘Em Pete” was a big hit and includes the rather shocking lyric, “You’re so beautiful, but you’re gonna die someday”

Jimmy Yancey “State Street Special” (1939) tell your story

Pinetop Smith “Pinetop’s Boogie Woogie” (1929) trope namer and still a terrific listen

Avery Parrish “After Hours” (with Erskine Hawkins, 1940) the starting gun for a certain urban approach for the slow blues; for a time they called it “The Black National Anthem”

Note: While any record by a jazz master is valuable, it is generally important to find the earliest versions of the most famous stride and boogie compositions. Do not put in “Carolina Shout” or “Honky Tonk Train Blues” or “Echoes of Spring” into the search box of the streaming services and expect to be automatically rewarded the first versions from 1921 or 1927 or 1938. Fan-curated YouTube uploads are recommended when streaming early jazz.

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AMERICA’S BANDLEADERS, ELLINGTON AND BASIE

The big two also played great piano.

Duke Ellington Piano Reflections aka The Duke Plays Ellington (with Wendell Marshall and Butch Ballard, 1953) Over the course of a lifetime, nobody was more creative than the Duke. For trio, many would choose Money Jungle, but overall I much prefer this set (not that there aren’t amazing things on Money Jungle, especially “Fleurette Africaine”). Marvelous vibe and quite a lot of bebop harmony, plus a few stately/mysterious Ellington pieces not recorded anywhere else including “Melancholia” and “Reflections in D.”

Count Basie and the All-American Rhythm Section The Kid From Red Bank (with Freddie Green, Walter Page, and Jo Jones, 1938-1947) Basie played stride and jump blues even better than Ellington as a young man, but then give up all that in order to focus on providing perfectly placed piano interjections within his band. There is about an hour of quartet sides from the original epochal Kansas City heroes with Green, Page, and Jones; it may be the most relaxed music on this whole page. Please don’t arrest me! but this CD offers perfect background accompaniment to dining or socializing.

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DEAD CENTER: SAINT TEDDY, PEERLESS HANK J., DEVOTED ROWLES, SWINGING BRYANT, HISTORIAN MARY LOU

Jazz was honest-to-god popular music during the swing era, which lasted about a decade starting about 1935. The associated piano style retained elements of stride but took on more of the American songbag.

Teddy Wilson Solo Piano: Keystone Transcriptions c. 1939-1940 Wilson played on the best small group records from Benny Goodman (Trio and Quartet) and some of the greatest music ever made with Billie Holiday and Lester Young. Keystone Transcriptions only came out recently, and what a wonderful release, for there was not so much solo available from those halcyon Swing Era years. He kept returning to the studio for the duration of his long life, and we can take it as given that there were no bad records made by Saint Teddy Wilson. My youthful introduction was the still-delightful Three Little Words (1976) with Milt Hinton and Oliver Jackson.

Hank Jones Have You Met Hank Jones aka Solo Piano (1956) Teddy’s Wilson’s greatest disciple was Hank Jones, and Jones’s first solo recital on Savoy is still as fresh as tomorrow. Jones would always be a swing pianist and took on bebop as a second language, even making awesome records in the 70’s addressing the topic of 40’s bop composition, Bop Redux and Groovin’ High. The breadth of Jones’s artistry earns him two spots on this list, the other is Kindness, Joy, Love, and Happiness from 1977, discussed below.

Jimmy Rowles Plays Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn (1981) Not every major player “got” Ellington, but the poet Jimmy Rowles put that kind of mysterious thinking deep inside his style; his eventual solo piano tribute record is a masterpiece.

Ray Bryant All Blues (with Sam Jones and Grady Tate, 1978) Ray Bryant is more from the Count Basie side of things, and this trio date is as happy as it gets. Dig Bryant’s swing-to-bop lines all over the keyboard on Lester Young’s “Jumpin’ for Symphony Sid.” One of the best of numerous Pablo dates produced by mainstream connoisseur Norman Granz.

Mary Lou Williams Free Spirits (with Buster Williams and Mickey Roker, 1976) Williams was a big band arranger of note, helped the beboppers, and then started carefully assessing the history and the ongoing progression. It all comes together on Free Spirits, which is the most advanced trio record extant made from anybody who was already cutting important sides in 1930. One of the best of numerous SteepleChase dates produced by Nils Winther.

(Due credit to Sam Jones and Grady Tate or Buster Williams and Mickey Roker on these above Ray Bryant and Mary Lou Williams sides. My slender annotations will not say enough about everybody, but from this point on, my choices of “this is the best record” are absolutely informed by the full personnel of any given album.)

additional Swing tracks from the Era:

Jess Stacy “Sing, Sing, Sing” with Benny Goodman at Carnegie Hall (1938) impressionistic ramble sounds like nothing else. Whitney Balliett called jazz “the sound of surprise” and he could have meant this Stacy moment

Mel Powell “I Got Rhythm” with Benny Goodman sextet (1945) the kid had chops!

Eddie Heywood “Begin the Beguine” (1944) hit toe-tapper suitable for young and old

Johnny Guarnieri “Just You, Just Me” under the leadership of Lester Young (with Slam Stewart and Sid Catlett, 1943) if you don’t dig this I can’t help you

Herman Chittison “Where Or When” (1945) almost a classical feel, major Tatumesque facility

Ralph Sutton “Christopher Columbus” (1949) romp and stomp

Nat “King” Cole sings and plays “Just You, Just Me” on the Nat King Cole Show (1957) in the first chorus, when he’s comping for himself, his hands and body are dancing even when not playing. Swing!

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SUI GENERIS X 2: TATUM AND MONK

One played a lot of notes. The other played comparatively few.

Art Tatum Standards (1938–1939) There’s a tremendous amount of Tatum on record and all of it is beyond amazing. Standards is a selection from the Standard transcriptions, originally meant to go directly to radio.

God is in the house—and on inexpensive magnetic tape, direct mail from Glendale, CA

Tatum is relaxed and casually masterful—making this set a good choice for those sinners that think the pianist overdoes it—but I mainly chose this collection because it was my first Tatum, a budget cassette tape issued as Marvellous Art.

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Thelonious Monk Trio (with Gary Mapp or Percy Heath and Max Roach or Art Blakey, 1952/1954) The great composer at his most exposed and pianistic. Simply perfect, out-of-tune piano and all. A desert island disc. (As with the Tatum, I had this Monk early and never found an occasion to change my mind.)

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BY “BEBOP,” I MEAN BUD POWELL

Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Max Roach, a few others: Bebop suddenly made jazz an art music: insular, proud, almost inexplicable. The real bebop only existed for a short time in before relaxing into gospel-influenced hard bop of the '50s; it was diluted further by the deluge of modal language after Bill Evans and McCoy Tyner.

Thelonious Monk was an architect of bebop, but his own piano style was not exactly bop. Indeed, Monk would not have had such a popular success if he had played true bop piano.

Bebop pianists looked to the burning discontinuous single-note lines of Bud Powell as the ideal.

Bud Powell Jazz Giant (with Ray Brown and Max Roach, 1949/1950) The magnificent trifecta is “Cherokee,” “Celia,” and “Tempus Fugit.”

You either get it or you don’t. It took me some time to appreciate Powell properly. Even someone the level of Oscar Peterson never really understood Bud.

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Horace Silver Trio (with Percy Heath and Art Blakey; additional tracks feature others, 1955) Although he would become famous for soulful hard bop hits, Silver displays rare bebop know-how on his first record. “Opus de Funk” is especially great.

Red Garland under the leadership of Miles Davis Round about Midnight (with John Coltrane, Paul Chambers, and Philly Joe Jones, 1955/1956) Miles Davis’s groups of the 1950’s and 60’s would go on to define the idiom. Garland’s piano solos here on “Bye-Bye Blackbird” and “All of You” occupy the top table. Of course, all the Garland trio dates with Chambers and Art Taylor are also great; Groovy has an epic “C Jam Blues.”

Wynton Kelly Kelly Blue (sextet and trio with Nat Adderley, Bobby Jaspar, Benny Golson, Paul Chambers, and Jimmy Cobb, 1959) Another crucial Miles Davis pianist; indeed, for “the best jazz piano list” one could submit “Freddie Freeloader” off of Kind of Blue and call it a day. The Kelly Blue sextet tracks are cool, but the trio tracks are even better. Paul Chambers!

Sonny Clark Cool Struttin’ (quintet with Art Farmer, Jackie McLean, Paul Chambers, and Philly Joe Jones, 1958) A definitive Blue Note date from the definitive Blue Note pianist.

Bobby Timmons This Here is Bobby Timmons (with Sam Jones and Jimmy Cobb, 1960) Like Horace Silver, Bobby Timmons was famous as a composer of bluesy themes, but his lines at tempo had authentic bebop mystery. While This Here is Bobby Timmons offers flawless takes of his most familiar compositions, another option for Timmons would be the trio with Ron Carter and Tootie Heath live at the Village Vanguard. Tootie thought that was one of his best records, and he told me that (many years after the fact) he brought up the record to the bassist. “Hey, Ron, I listened to the Timmons record. We sound good! Do you ever listen to that one?” “Yeah, Tootie. I listen to that one all the time.”

Phineas Newborn The Great Jazz Piano of Phineas Newborn Jr. (with Sam Jones or Leroy Vinnegar and Louis Hayes or Milt Turner, 1962) Newborn was possessed of frightening quicksilver genius; I chose this LP simply because the opening “Celia” might be the best performance of a Powell composition not played by Bud himself. A splashy signature Newborn effect, the bop line doubled in the left hand, is integrated well on this track. Many others would nominate We Three with Roy Haynes and Paul Chambers, another truly great record. (There’s also a Newborn Celia from 1956 that is even faster.)

Three of the boppers, Barry Harris, Tommy Flanagan, and Cedar Walton, started recording in the ‘50s but hit their stride in the 1970s.

Barry Harris Live in Tokyo (with Sam Jones and Leroy Williams, 1976) Hampton Hawes, Sonny Clark, and Barry Harris are the closest to Powell in terms of the real deal. However Harris is the one who stayed alive and stayed the course and let his lines deepen for decades. In terms of bebop truth, there’s nothing more profound than this 1976 recital.

Tommy Flanagan The Magnificent Tommy Flanagan (with George Mraz and Al Foster, 1981) Surprisingly hard to choose a top Flanagan! I like the tunes and the playing on The Magnificent (what a sensational take of “Good Morning Heartache”), but the one I listened to the most as a kid is one of the best Monk tributes, Thelonica. Flanagan’s early sides are also tasty, including a definitive bop blues with Elvin Jones on brushes, “Relaxin’ at the Camarillo” from Overseas (1958). However, I may buck conventional wisdom and not automatically sign off on Eclypso, the 1977 reunion with Elvin, even though many might choose that as Flanagan’s best.

Cedar Walton A Night at Boomers, two volumes, most tracks issued on CD as Naima (quartet with Clifford Jordan, Sam Jones, and Louis Hayes, 1973) Quite a few classic jazz records were made with an out-of-tune upright piano: it’s almost part of the texture of the music. Walton could play all sorts of elegant stuff, but it seems like the workhorse at Boomers made him dig deep. This is a great band with Louis Hayes, but the connection between Walton and Billy Higgins is also notably important: Manhattan Afternoon, trio with David Williams, is a worthy document of Walton and Higgins together.

Hampton Hawes At the Piano (with Ray Brown and Shelly Manne, 1976) The early bop trio sides with Red Mitchell and Chuck Thompson are wonderful, and I listened to Here and Now with Chuck Israels and Donald Bailey the most as a kid, but if forced to choose one Hampton Hawes LP I’d have to go for the final valediction.

others who spoke or incorporated the language:

Tadd Dameron A Study in Dameronia, four terrific pieces, also collected on Clifford Brown Memorial (ensemble with Benny Golson, Percy Heath, and Philly Joe Jones, 1953) Dameron was not always a featured pianist but he did marvelous work as a composer, arranger, and teacher: a bigger influence than is generally realized. On this 1953 “Dial B for Beauty” Dameron takes a lovely solo piano cadenza

Al Haig Jazz Will-o-the-Wisp (with Bill Crow and Lee Abrams, 1954) Bud Powell, Charlie Parker, and Dizzy Gillespie admired Haig, whose slender discography as a leader begins with this nice trio date

Walter Davis Jr. under the leadership of Jackie McLean on Let Freedom Ring (with Herbie Lewis, and Billy Higgins, 1962) one of the greatest records of all time

Horace Parlan Movin’ & Groovin’ (with Sam Jones and Al Harewood, 1960) first record from an associate of Charles Mingus, has a smoking “C Jam Blues” with astonishing Sam Jones

Walter Bishop Speak Low (with Jimmy Garrison and G.T. Hogan, 1961) first record from an associate of Charlie Parker, especially relevant for Jimmy Garrison fans

Randy Weston Live at the Five Spot (quintet with Coleman Hawkins and Kenny Dorham, 1959) Weston was working on synthesizing Powell and Monk early; his numerous ‘50s records are engaging bop, later on he settled into a more purely African approach. Fabulous to hear Hawkins, “the man who invented the tenor saxophone,” improvise on Weston’s major contribution to the repertoire, “Hi-Fly”

Junior Mance Happy Time (with Ron Carter and Mickey Roker, 1962) like Horace Silver, Bobby Timmons and Horace Parlan, Mance had a blues-based style but understood bop. Good accompanist for Dizzy Gillespie

Kenny Drew Talkin’ & Walkin’ (quartet with Lou Maini, Leroy Vinnegar, and Lawrence Marable, 1955) these days Drew is best known for smoothly helping pilot the waters of Coltrane’s progressive Blue Train, but he was a solid bebop cat overall. The title track of this West Coast date is a superb minor blues

Buddy Montgomery Live at Maybeck Vol. 15 (1992) hard to know where to file Wes’s talented brother; he was bebop of course, but this later solo recital (which I think is probably his best record) is more like Hank Jones or Ellis Larkins. Great pianist

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ALTERNATIVES X 2: TRISTANO AND NICHOLS

After jazz left the streets and entered the academy the esoteric philosophies of once-semi-obscure ‘50’s geniuses have become more and more relevant. Neither Tristano or Nichols recorded that much: each track is important.

Lennie Tristano Lennie Tristano (1956) Tristano prepared a lot for his pure improvisation and the gambit paid off. “Line Up” is a classic of American music. Bebop as science fiction.

Herbie Nichols Herbie Nichols Trio (with Al McKibbon or Teddy Kotick and Max Roach, 1955/1956) Nichols was a great pianist but an even greater composer, offering a quirky and engaging genre unto himself. If he had gigged more and lived longer, perhaps he would have had a chance put it all together and take it to the next level. Still, what we have is sublime.

three other alternatives from the ‘50s:

Elmo Hope under the leadership of Harold Land, The Fox (with Dupree Bolton, Herbie Lewis, and Frank Butler, 1959) Hope’s esoteric concept was somewhere between Monk, Bud, and Herbie Nichols; he was also a notable composer, supplying four themes for The Fox, a truly terrific LP. In recent years Kurt Rosenwinkel disseminated Hope’s ballad “Eyes So Beautiful as Yours” (from Hope’s own Homecoming!) to the point that it gets called at jam sessions

Hasaan Ibn Ali Reaching For The Stars (solos, duos, trios, circa late ‘50s/early ‘60s) according to Kenny Barron, Hasaan Ibn Ali’s biggest influence was Elmo Hope. “After You’ve Gone” on this recently discovered/released set is unbelievable

Oscar Dennard I first heard about Dennard from Jason Moran, and twenty years ago Moran hosted a few killer Dennard tracks on his personal website. There is no official Dennard album as a leader, just a few bits and pieces, including an amazing home recording from 1957

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PERFECT FOR YOUR ‘50’s HI-FI: GARNER, JAMAL, BRUBECK, SHEARING, PETERSON, MJQ, GENE HARRIS

Mad Magazine, 1958

The LP surfaced properly in the ‘50s alongside Eisenhower-era optimism. People started buying platters by the cartload: Even if they were not a serious jazz fan, Garner, Brubeck and Jamal would often be represented in the record collection of an average American.

Erroll Garner Plays Misty (anthology released 1962) Garner was a great pop pianist, maybe the greatest of all time, and therefore I find the famous Concert By the Sea to be almost too discursive (not that it isn’t great). For me Garner is more like a stride master, where three minutes is all that is needed to tell a riveting story that you want to hear again right away. Plays Misty was my first Garner—this anthology LP of relatively short tracks has always been easy to find, and even has a literal stride piece, “Frantonality”—and while I have heard a lot more wonderful Garner over the years, I still think whoever was on staff on Mercury put this collection of awesome tracks together just right…with one exception, the personnel was not listed. According to the Lord discography, it is:

“Frantonality” with Red Callender and Nick Fatool, 1946
“Where or When” with Callender and Lou Singer, 1946
“What Is This Thing Called Love,” “Through a Long and Sleepless Night,” and “Again” with Leonard Gaskin and Charlie Smith, 1949
“Misty,” “Exactly Like You” and “You Are My Sunshine” with Wyatt Ruther and Fats Heard, 1954
“That Old Feeling” and “Love in Bloom,” Garner solo, 1955

Dave Brubeck Time Out (quartet with Paul Desmond, Eugene Wright, and Joe Morello, 1959) How many fans and players of this music began their journey right here? Brubeck’s themes are earworms, and Desmond plays like an angel. I love it.

Ahmad Jamal Live at the Pershing: But Not For Me (with Israel Crosby and Vernel Fournier, 1958) Not every hit jazz record possesses impeccable African-American rhythmic know-how. Brubeck’s Time Out is only passable, and some musicians actively dislike Brubeck in general. However, nobody can complain about Jamal with Crosby and Fournier, the pocket is as deep as it gets. Jamal even plays the enormous hit “Poinciana” in a completely straight and un-syncopated fashion, but, still, the groove remains undeniable. Whole LP is stunning.

Oscar Peterson and Milt Jackson Very Tall (with Ray Brown and Ed Thigpen, 1962) Generally Peterson’s Night Train makes the best of lists. I like Night Train, especially the more Basie-styled numbers, and it is undoubtedly a good selection for a novice listener. However, Peterson can be just too bluesy and busy for me, with all that fancy “soulful” filigree becoming a kind of kitsch, an aspect of his work highlighted on Night Train. On this quartet date with the great Milt Jackson there is a bit more space and mystery.

Gene Harris with Stanley Turrentine and the Three Sounds Blue Hour (with Andy Simpkins and Bill Dowdy, 1960) There’s nothing better than this sweet album of soulful blues ballads. Gene Harris and Oscar Peterson is an interesting comparison: In some ways they come out of the same bag, but I trust Harris more than Peterson.

John Lewis as part of MJQ, The Best of the Modern Jazz Quartet (with Milt Jackson, Percy Heath, and Connie Kay, 1956—1964) Keith Jarrett told me he thought John Lewis was underrated, and Jarrett is probably right. Certainly few people talk much about the MJQ anymore, a terrific group that had a plush high-level career for over 40 years. Admittedly, some of the MJQ albums sit on the turntable without making a very strong impression. The purists be damned: A good “best of” album is actually really great, and the Atlantic selection of MJQ tells the story very well, starting with the mournful bells of “Fontessa” and including fabulous takes of “Bag’s Groove” and “Django.” Gorgeous writing and playing.

from HOPSCOTCH by Brian Garfield (1975). The paragraph defines something of classy mid-century middle-brow taste, and closes with, “MJQ but not Brubeck.”

more generous music for anyone:

George Shearing My Ship (1974) Bill Charlap told me about this jaw-dropping record. Not all of Shearing is to my taste, but he was undoubtedly one of the masters, especially a master of harmony, and a big influence on so many big name players of the ‘50s and ‘60s. On this complex solo recital, “Happy Days Are Here Again” offers an extraordinary journey. Some of my peers like Jazz Moments, especially for the Jamal rhythm section of Israel Crosby and Vernel Fournier

Don Shirley Trio aka Water Boy (with Ken Fricker and Juri Taht, 1960) The recent movie Green Book was an unexpected shot in the arm to Shirley’s languishing reception. In his day, Shirley was a pioneer, although calling him a jazz pianist was a stretch then and now. “Water Boy” was the hit; perhaps the more intriguing album overall is the unaccompanied recital Orpheus in the Underworld (1956), which foreshadows certain things Keith Jarrett would play in solo concerts over two decades later

Nina Simone Little Girl Blue (with Jimmy Bond and Tootie Heath, 1957) Simone would go on to be singer who dominated the American consciousness. However she was also a hell of a pianist, and on her first disc plays little fugal entries “a la Bach” amidst blues and bop

Andre Previn under the leadership of Shelly Manne, Modern Jazz Performances of Songs from My Fair Lady (with Leroy Vinnegar, 1956) Previn had an extraordinary career in both jazz and classical music. He is not in the jazz conversation anymore, but the piano playing on this hit record is very good. (For more on Previn and jazz, read Matthew Guerrieri)

Ellis Larkins Blue and Sentimental (with Skeeter Best, Joe Benjamin, and Jimmy Crawford, 1958) Sadly I got to the city too late to go to a piano bar in Manhattan and hear the very great Ellis Larkins for a price of a drink. In addition to being a superb saloon pianist, Larkins accompanied star singers and tracked memorable duets with Ruby Braff

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THIS IS MODERN JAZZ: BILL EVANS + THE BIG FOUR (McCOY, HERBIE, CHICK, KEITH)

Bill Evans Explorations (with Scott LaFaro and Paul Motian, 1961) A famous trio! Most would opt for Sunday at the Village Vanguard, but I always found the aggressively conversational bass on swingers like “Solar” to be a bit much, although “My Foolish Heart” and “Jade Visions” have an unearthly beauty. Paul Motian told me that Explorations was his favorite Evans album, and I witnessed Charlie Haden playing along with Scott LaFaro’s bass part on “How Deep Is the Ocean,” so I follow the lead of Paul and Charlie: they would know. (In terms of this trio playing at tempo, “How Deep is the Ocean” may be as good as it gets, it is swinging and oh so romantic.) Truthfully, certain sideman appearances will always be my favorite Evans: Miles Davis Kind of Blue, Oliver Nelson Blues and the Abstract Truth, Lee Konitz/Warne Marsh Live at the Half Note.

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McCoy Tyner, Herbie Hancock, Keith Jarrett, and Chick Corea. There are other pianists who are just as great but those were the four, and I believe most of my generation would concur. Three were in that crucial lineage of Miles Davis pianists (although Keith never played with acoustic Miles, which makes a difference) while Tyner helped John Coltrane innovate a whole new template.

good selections in this Atlantic anthology, including amazing early Tyner not available anywhere else, although they missed a bet by not including “Everything I Love,” the best thing from Jarrett’s Atlantic trio years

The four divide into two twos: McCoy and Herbie are greater than Keith and Chick. It’s totally obvious, in terms of true command of the true jazz language.

Between McCoy and Herbie, I give it to McCoy. Something about the big four is simply about burning jazz at a quick tempo over interactive bass and drums. There’s no comparison: McCoy all day long. Also, McCoy is a founding father. None of the other three exist without McCoy.

Between Keith and Chick, I give it to Keith. At times Keith channels something so spontaneous, surprising, yet also truthful. He’s a huge virtuoso but always puts the music first. Plus, Keith is the most “two-handed” of the four, he actually might sound better without bass and drums.

Chick knows a lot more about bebop and latin music than Keith, so therefore at a molecular level is simply a better jazz player than Keith. However, Chick’s spontaneous blowing thing can be frantic and one-dimensional, while the Corea appropriations of Monk can be distractingly “cutesy.” Of course, Chick also made an appalling number of terrible, even unlistenable, LPs.

On the plus side, Chick can sit in with anybody and take it to a whole ‘nother level. Herbie can do that too. But when surveying Joe Henderson and Christian McBride records from the ‘90s, it turns out Chick’s guest appearances can be even more awesome than Herbie’s.

In terms of a track record in the studio, Herbie has the fewest duds (and of course many are masterpieces). Almost every Herbie record as a leader (or even as sideman) does what it is supposed to do. This is not true of the other three.

What about the blues? McCoy is the most relaxed blues pianist. It goes from Jimmy Yancey to Monk to McCoy, just back porch casual goodness, strumming a guitar. Herbie is more like Oscar Peterson, a blues thing that (while great) is more studied and notey.

Chick’s blues thing is metallic and abstract, Keith’s blues thing is white boy gospel. Both those approaches are also very cool…but neither have that extra level of unforced blues truth that McCoy has.

McCoy has one final advantage: He was not just John Coltrane’s pianist: Coltrane’s music would be unthinkable without McCoy’s contribution. In the end, John Coltrane is the greatest musician, so this is another reason to nominate McCoy the head of the table.

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If you polled quality jazz players there would be near-universal agreement about my selections for McCoy (The Real McCoy) and Chick (Now He Sings, Now He Sobs). The choices for Herbie (Empyrean Isles) and Keith (Standards Live) would also be well within the range of conventional wisdom.

McCoy and Herbie were really band pianists first and foremost, so it makes sense that The Real McCoy and Empyrean Isles are also extraordinary sessions for Joe Henderson or Freddie Hubbard.

McCoy Tyner The Real McCoy (quartet with Joe Henderson, Ron Carter, and Elvin Jones, 1967) Recorded shortly before Coltrane’s early death and released shortly after. Tyner is not quite using the Coltrane template; his themes are doubled with tenor (Coltrane rarely did this) and there’s something freshly precise and contained overall.

Chick Corea Now He Sings, Now He Sobs (with Miroslav Vitous and Roy Haynes, 1968) Of the top four LPs, this was the one that shocked the community. Corea was coming up fast, and then dropped a bomb. “Matrix” is surely one of the most-transcribed solos of the whole idiom.

Herbie Hancock Empyrean Isles (quartet with Freddie Hubbard, Ron Carter, and Tony Williams, 1964) “One Finger Snap” is the track; it doesn’t get better than this. The all-stars also play the funky radio hit “Cantaloupe Island” to perfection.

Keith Jarrett Standards Live (with Gary Peacock and Jack DeJohnette, 1985) My favorite Keith is with the ramshackle Dewey Redman/Charlie Haden/Paul Motian ensemble, but those thrilling sides are less about the piano playing. For solo, many musicians (including myself) would choose Facing You (certainly not The Köln Concert, not that that hit record isn’t great). But Standards Live has an aura that cannot be denied; it also includes several lyrical cadenzas offering Jarrett’s unmistakable ringing, singing piano sonority.

The trio had done it all, from free to trance, and then the three geniuses played that life experience casually through the tried-and-true vehicle of the Great American Songbag. Placing this album in top slot is also a tribute to the recently passed Jack DeJohnette, who is in truly inspired form. (The Standards Trio took a bit of a nosedive when DeJohnette got dry cymbals, starting with The Cure; maybe the drummer was trying to explain to loose Gary Peacock where to put the beat, an argument that was never resolved further over the course of the trio’s long later history.)

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ORGANISTS X 2: JIMMY SMITH AND LARRY YOUNG

Organ is a different topic than piano, but a few examples seem notably relevant to the history.

Jimmy Smith The Incredible Jimmy Smith at Club “Baby Grand” Wilmington, Delaware (with Thornel Schwartz and Donald Bailey, 1956) On “Sweet Georgia Brown” Schwarz and Bailey throb syncopated uptempo rhythm as the organist levitates higher and higher. The feeling is perhaps comparable to what happens inside baptist revivalist’s tent, or within a circle of Sufi whirling dervishes. Coltrane played with Jimmy Smith before Smith was famous, and the connection of this “Baby Grand” set with ‘60’s Trane seems clear enough.

Larry Young Unity (with Woody Shaw, Joe Henderson, and Elvin Jones, 1965) Larry Young and Woody Shaw were both from Newark, where they grew up studying Coltrane and Bartók. Joe Henderson and Elvin Jones are also in superb form.

and one other founding father of harmony

Milt Buckner is considered very important to the development of the “locked hand” chordal style used by George Shearing and others. I just love the 1976 videos with Illinois Jacquet and Jo Jones. Many of the true jazz cats are deeply hilarious people that resonate on a frequency just outside the understanding of the squares.

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AVANT-GARDE BEAUTY: HILL, BLEY, CECIL, JAKI, STANLEY C.

Andrew Hill Black Fire (quartet with Joe Henderson, Richard Davis and Roy Haynes, 1965) Hill was a superb composer with a complete vision of music. Thankfully, Alfred Lion of Blue Note recorded far more Hill sessions than the marketplace demanded. My choice is still the first, Black Fire, an album beloved by a cross-section of musicians from reasonably conservative to resolutely experimental. A pair of later Hills are also in my personal pantheon, the totally free Strange Serenade and the more-or-less inside Shades: two diverse panels of mysterious illumination.

Paul Bley Footloose! (with Steve Swallow and Pete LaRoca, 1963) Bley studied the conceits of Lennie Tristano and Ornette Coleman before putting it all together on this very influential album. (There is no Keith Jarrett without Footloose!) I also dig the more renegade Paul Bley With Gary Peacock, the mellow avant stylings of Ballads, and the ‘60’s closing statement Mr. Joy. In an unprecedented situation, Bley specialized in the fabulous music of composers he married, Carla Bley and Annette Peacock.

Cecil Taylor (originally filed under Gil Evans) Into the Hot (with Archie Shepp, Ted Curson, Jimmy Lyons, Roswell Rudd, Henry Grimes, and Sonny Murray, 1961) Three of Taylor’s most charismatic pieces, “Pots,” “Bulbs” and “Mixed,” were on an LP first issued under Gil Evans’s name. Other choices: The World of Cecil Taylor has the superb deconstruction of “This Nearly Was Mine” while the trio with Jimmy Lyons and Andrew Cyrille was one of Taylor’s best working groups. For Olim is a comparatively accessible solo record.

Jaki Byard The Jaki Byard Experience (quartet with Roland Kirk, Richard Davis, and Alan Dawson, 1968) A warm esoteric glow suffuses this rambunctious confab of peers. Byard played the whole history with an avant lean. On “Parisian Thoroughfare” the pianist starts with tough swinging bebop, gets cheerfully “lost” in a motive, shakes the piano with an atonal nosedive, and resolves into a stomping shout chorus.

Stanley Cowell Musa: Ancestral Streams (1973) Jaki Byard and Stanley Cowell saw it in a similar way, accepting the whole lineage as valid. Unlike anyone else in my “avant” pile, Cowell could play comfortably in cutting edge modern groups led by Bobby Hutcherson or with repertory stalwarts like the Heath Brothers or J.J. Johnson. But I am most moved by Cowell when he is at his most experimental and esoteric. Musa: Ancestral Streams is one of the greatest solo piano albums.

further expressions:

Alice Coltrane Transfiguration (with Reggie Workman and Roy Haynes, 1978) Coltrane is mostly on organ for this generous serving of transcendence. Her piano playing with John Coltrane was great; total flow, especially in Harlem, captured on The Olatunji Concert: The Last Live Recording

Lowell Davidson Trio (with Gary Peacock and Milford Graves, 1965) Davidson seems to be a rare intersection between Paul Bley and Cecil Taylor. I really like this record

Ran Blake with singer Jeanne Lee The Newest Sound Around (1961) noir and gospel, blues and modern, a legendary LP

Carla Bley European Tour ‘77 (with little big band including Roswell Rudd and Andrew Cyrille, 1977) Carla was much more of a composer/arranger than a serious pianist, but certain piano (and organ) intros and interludes are essential to the full ensemble. If you’ve never experienced European Tour ‘77 you are in for a treat

Muhal Richard Abrams featuring Cecil McBee Roots of Blue (1986) patriarch of the AACM muses in duo; there are lovely harmonies, a hint of blues, even some swing

Anthony Davis with James Newton, and Abdul Wadud I’ve Known Rivers (1982) vital trio digs deep into the nexus of modern composition and modern improvisation

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HIT RECORDS x 2: CHARLIE BROWN ON TV AND McCANN PREACHING IN SWITZERLAND

Vince Guaraldi A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965) Omnipresent in our culture during the holiday season since first the first airing of the TV special: Aren’t we lucky that this music happened and that it is so darn good? “Linus and Lucy” is derived from Guaraldi’s previous hit “Cast Your Fate to the Wind,” a track that influenced all the countrified jazz of the later ‘60s into the ‘70s: Burton, Jarrett, Metheny, and so forth.

Les McCann and Eddie Harris Swiss Movement (with Benny Bailey, Leroy Vinnegar, and Donald Dean, 1969) Funky and empowering; wonderful music and message. Video of this whole Montreux gig is now on YouTube!!! Incredible.

and two more enormous and beloved hits:

Ramsey Lewis The In Crowd (with Eldee Young and Redd Holt, 1965) The crowd noise is part of the good time

Bob James and David Sanborn Double Vision (cast includes Marcus Miller and Steve Gadd, 1986) like everyone else I love Al Jarreau singing “Since I Fell For You.” Overall this genre is not my speciality, but these are all great musicians

and, yeah, let’s give two songwriters their due as well:

Mose Allison Wild Man on the Loose (with Earl May and Paul Motian, 1965) Allison was an influence on Keith Jarrett, and this charming album even has Paul Motian. Not included on this LP is “Parchman Farm” with an unforgettable Allison lyric

Dave Frishberg Dave Frishberg Classics (with Steve Gilmore and Bill Goodwin, 1981) “My Attorney Bernie” and “Blizzard of Lies” are my favorites. As a pianist, Frishberg was influenced by Jimmy Rowles. Intriguingly, both Mose Allison and Dave Frishberg played solid top-tier jazz with the Al Cohn/Zoot Sims group

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MULTIPLICITY x 13, 1970-1990:

Everyone who plays the fool’s game of compiling a “best of” list ends up scrolling through Wikipedia wondering what they missed and maybe even writing down selections the writer doesn’t know very well.

In an attempt to keep it honest and manageable, here are a selection of LPs and early CDs from after 1970 that still resonate. I had them early and would be happy to include them on a “best” list amongst tough competition.

The Great Jazz Trio Kindness, Joy, Love, and Happiness (Hank Jones, Ron Carter and Tony Williams, 1977) Such fabulous chemistry across generations, and what a set list!

Richie Beirach Elm (with George Mraz and Jack DeJohnette, 1979) State-of-the-art circa-1979 trio record features some of Beirach’s most engaging compositions. This is top-flight Mraz as well.

Mal Waldron What It Is (quartet with Clifford Jordan, Cecil McBee, and Dannie Richmond, 1981) Waldron offers a low dark drone and the burbling unnameable. The great Clifford Jordan appears again on this list; previously he was with Cedar Walton (a very different kind of pianist). All praise Clifford Jordan.

Steve Kuhn Life’s Magic (with Ron Carter and Al Foster, 1986) Live date swinging with Ron and Al at the Village Vanguard is my favorite Kuhn, although in the overall timeline he is noted for contributing something a bit more esoteric and obviously innovative in the ‘60s and ‘70s.

Kenny Barron 1+1+1 (duos with Ron Carter or Michael Moore, 1984) Barron is Mr. Consistent, almost to a fault. This intimate set of swinging duos is almost strangely charismatic as Barron’s truly flawless rhythmic feel compensates for the lack of drums. “Beautiful Love” done as a straight swinger rarely gets me excited, but with Kenny and Ron it is hypnotic. A rare Van Gelder session from the ‘80s that is unimpeachable sonically.

George Cables Phantom of the City (with John Heard and Tony Williams, 1985) Cables writes some beautiful tunes, owns the modal burn, and managed to entice the genius Tony Williams to collaborate on this delightful release.

Fred Hersch Sarabande (with Charlie Haden and Joey Baron, 1986) This album literally changed my life, for it was the reason I sought out Fred to be my piano teacher. I’ve seen Fred play live at least once every year since 1992, so haven’t kept up with all of his records, but the all-star ensemble on Sarabande remains one of a kind.

Kenny Kirkland under the leadership of Wynton Marsalis Black Codes (From the Underground) (with Branford Marsalis, Charnett Moffett, and Jeff Watts, 1985) Kenny Kirkland was the great connector of his generation between jazz, Afro-Cuban, soul, fusion and rock. The Kirkland bond with Jeff Watts would go on to define an era and an idiom. Earlier in this list I placed Red Garland with Miles Davis’s Round About Midnight because the piano solos are just too good on such an influential album. Same thing with Kirkland and Black Codes: Kirkland sounds great on anything, but the piano solos on Black Codes are really Kirkland in top gear.

Geri Allen with Charlie Haden and Paul Motian, Etudes (1987) Geri Allen was the great connector of her generation between something more inside and more outside. These days I appreciate her first album, The Printmakers with Anthony Cox and Andrew Cyrille, even more than Etudes, but my “high school heart” is with Etudes, I studied this album like a scientist. It was so fresh for Allen to bring Herbie Nichols and Thelonious Monk references to the classic Jarrett rhythm section of Charlie and Paul. Today Geri Allen is certainly the dominant influence among critic’s-choice pianists.

Joe Zawinul with Weather Report Heavy Weather (with Wayne Shorter, Jaco Pastorius, Alex Acuña, and Manolo Badrena, 1977) A beloved band’s biggest record. Zawinul bears down on the wonderful “A Remark You Made.”

Abdullah Ibrahim Water From an Ancient Well (with small band powered by David Williams and Ben Riley, 1985) The title track is one of the most gorgeous things ever recorded.

Sir Roland Hanna Swing Me No Waltzes (1980) Hanna mostly plays his own compositions on this swinging set of solo piano. An utterly unique and charismatic perspective. For trio, try Hanna’s This Must Be Love with George Mraz and Ben Riley, with serious bop on the title track.

Art Hodes Selections from the Gutter (solos and duo with Jens Sølund, 1970) Innovation is not required, as long as the classic tropes are wrestled to the ground and displayed in a personal way.

Don Pullen New Beginnings (with Gary Peacock and Tony Williams, 1988) Something of Ahmad Jamal graces this outstanding set of mood pieces.

“girl explaining” meme on Twitter

the cats were dealing:

The more people you include, the more you leave out. Still, each player matters to the complete mosaic. Here’s a collection of records I return to; see also the closing addendum, “there’s always more.” Again, the rough cut-off is 1990.

Albert Dailey with Stan Getz The Master (with Clint Houston and Billy Hart, 1975) Dailey always sounds good but there’s something special about this Getz record overall

Kirk Lightsey and Harold Danko Shorter By Two (1983) two pianos plus Wayne Shorter rep is a bit counterintuitive but it really works

Ronnie Mathews Roots, Branches, and Dances (with Frank Foster, Ray Drummond, Al Foster, Azzedin Weston, 1977) some great Frank Foster on this side

Sal Mosca For You (1979) possibly the finest piano student of Lennie Tristano; some of the chord voicings heard on this intriguing album are unique

John Hicks with Ray Drummond Two of a Kind (1986) a swinging snapshot of the famous 80’s-era piano/bass duo room Bradley's

Kenny Werner Introducing the Trio (with Ratzo Harris and Tom Rainey, 1989) an undeniable influence, I listened to this quite a bit when the CD was brand new. I also admire Werner’s deconstruction of “Send in the Clowns” with broadway star Betty Buckley

Eliane Elias with Steps Ahead, Steps Ahead (with Mike Mainieri, Michael Brecker, Eddie Gómez, and Peter Erskine, 1983) classic acoustic fusion; at the time this was a key gateway album for many

Shirley Horn A Lazy Afternoon (with Buster Williams and Billy Hart, 1978) she was one of the great piano players as well as one of the greatest singers

Richard Wyands Half And Half (with Peter Washington and Kenny Washington, 1999) Wyands is on various classic jazz records going back to the early 1960’s; his own mellow and swinging trio style comes into focus on a few late records with the Washingtons

Clare Fischer Alone Together (1975) extraordinary harmonic facility and technical command. For those keeping score, this is the same piano George Shearing used for My Ship

Dave McKenna Giant Strides (1979) Ron Carter told me he liked McKenna’s walking bass lines, which is quite the endorsement. McKenna basically had a mainstream conception, but he understood bebop more than many of his peers and could get a rollicking groove going

Donald Brown Early Bird (sextet with Bill Mobley, Donald Harrison, Steve Nelson, Robert Hurst, Jeff Watts, 1988) wonderful compositions, a classic of the scene and the era

Lyle Mays with Pat Metheny As Falls Wichita, So Falls Wichita Falls (1980) The impressive title track is a long suite of Americana with crowd noise and overdubbing

Dick Hyman Solo at the Sacramento Jazz Festivals (1983-1988) now this is really a great solo piano record! I slept on Hyman until recently

Jim McNeely From the Heart (with Marc Johnson and Adam Nussbaum, 1985) McNeely’s best trio outing, made before he devoted himself to large ensemble writing

JoAnne Brackeen Fi-Fi Goes to Heaven (quintet with Terence Blanchard, Branford Marsalis, Cecil McBee, and Al Foster, 1987) important composer was ahead of her time. Unique date with young lion horns and established rhythm section

Harold Mabern Straight Street (with Ron Carter and Jack DeJohnette, 1989) as insiders know, his real name was Harold Will Burn. This trio date should be better known

Mulgrew Miller The Countdown (quartet with Joe Henderson, Ron Carter, and Tony Williams, 1988) I appreciate Miller more as a sideman than as a leader, but this date with epic ensemble is certainly a worthy listen

Shirley Scott Blues Everywhere (with Arthur Harper and Mickey Roker, 1991) Scott played a lot of organ but also made some really nice records on piano. This live set at Birdland with an all-Philly band includes her beautiful melody “Blues Everywhere.”

Marcus Roberts The Truth is Spoken Here (varied ensembles with Wynton Marsalis, Charlie Rouse, Todd Williams, Reginald Veal, and Elvin Jones, 1988) Robert’s first album is charismatic and provocative, with memorable originals alongside solo versions of “Blue Monk” and Ellington’s “Single Petal of a Rose”

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CODA: SITTING IN, COMPING, MISSED CONNECTIONS, and ONE-OFFS

a few notable side-person tracks that may be a little less known

Hampton Hawes “Turnaround” on Charlie Haden The Golden Number Pure blues with an experimental edge. My stone favorite for almost 40 years

Bill Evans “Stella By Starlight” with Miles Davis Just a quick reminder! This is almost certainly Evans’s own harmonization, the same set of changes played every day all over the world since. Incredible track

Herbie Hancock “Liberty City” from Jaco Pastorius Word of Mouth Almost a concerto for Hancock, he comments within the band texture for a time and then finally commands center stage

Herbie Hancock “Einbahnstrasse” from Ron Carter Uptown Conversation one of Herbie’s best trio tracks (with Ron and Billy Cobham)

Chick Corea “Inner Urge” from Joe Henderson Big Band Corea’s whole trajectory was inconsistent (to say the least) but this surprising later track demonstrates that he remained an elite

McCoy Tyner ““Fly Little Bird Fly” from Donald Byrd Mustang Um…what??

John Lewis “All the Things You Are” from the The Bop Session (Dizzy Gillespie, Sonny Stitt, Percy Heath and Max Roach, 1975) a perfect moment of melody

Keith Jarrett “In A Mist” from Freddie Hubbard Sky Dive Hub and Jarrett rummage through the Beiderbecke melody and take great solos. Lucious Don Sebesky arrangement with Ron Carter and Billy Cobham

Geri Allen “Blues for Olla” on Oliver Lake Gallery Abstract blues perfection with great Fred Hopkins in support

Kenny Barron “Anthropology” on James Moody Feelin’ it Together Did you say, “bebop in 1973?” Moody and Barron are on the same page, incorporating a hint of modal thinking into bop rhythm changes

Mulgrew Miller “Stardust” on Benny Golson/Freddie Hubbard Stardust An unusually melodic effusion from Miller, graced with some true bebop know-how. I asked him if he remembered this solo; Miller frowned and said, “That’s interesting, and thank you, but, actually, I somehow never liked that particular tune”

Saint Teddy Wilson plays “As Time Goes By” for Frank Sinatra and Ingrid Bergman:

setting the scene

Richie Powell’s suspended chord intro to“Delilah” with Clifford Brown and Max Roach influenced McCoy Tyner. Powell’s intro on “Joy Spring” is also great

Miles Davis embraces Gil Coggins while explaining something to Oscar Pettiford. Note also beer bottle and sheet music. (from the 1952 session that produced “I Waited for You,” photo by Francis Wolff)

Gil Coggins supports Miles Davis on one of Davis’s greatest early ballad performances, “I Waited for You.” Indeed, I think this may be the first Davis ballad that has the full Davis mystique—and Coggins has a lot to do with the charisma

Duke Jordan was not such strong soloist, but he was there for Bird on so many crucial Parker quintet sides. His composition “Jordu” is also just great

Billy Kyle played superb piano for Louis Armstrong, including on Plays King Oliver, my first little Armstrong cassette. What a shame Kyle never made a proper album as a leader

Victor Feldman offers immaculate ballad comping for Miles Davis on Seven Steps to Heaven. In Feldman’s 1963 comping one can hear how the Bill Evans system has been digested and is now essentially “the way to play” for a whole swath of music

Jimmy Jones played for all the singers; a famous record is Sarah Vaughan’s At Mister Kelly’s, where every bejeweled chord is played with crisp rhythmic bite

Norman Simmons, as introduced by the mighty Joe Williams:

there’s always more

Marian McPartland After Dark (with Bill Crow and Joe Morello, 1955) Down the middle and very tasty. Good blindfold test!

Billy Taylor At the London House (with Earl May and Percy Brice, 1956) Both Marian McPartland and Billy Taylor left behind an immense amount of good works beyond their fine playing. My choices here of After Dark and At the London House are not very sophisticated; I’d be curious to learn what was truly their most personal and revelatory work from those that command these discographies

Billy Strayhorn The Peaceful Side (1961) the great composer was only rarely featured as an improvising piano soloist, but his own late in the game album with a bit of bass and strings may suggest the way he played his own music when Ellington wasn’t around

Gil Evans The Individualism of Gil Evans (1964) the great arranger can be heard playing unique harmonies at the start of “Las Vegas Tango.” There are also duo albums with Steve Lacy and Lee Konitz that merit further investigation

Dodo Marmarosa “The Moose” with Charlie Barnet’s band, 1943. The one time I spoke with Ahmad Jamal, I talked about Pittsburgh pianists, citing Garner, Strayhorn, and Jamal himself. Jamal fixed me with look and told me sternly, “Don’t forget Dodo Marmarosa.”

Carl Perkins Introducing Carl Perkins (with Leroy Vinnegar and Larance Marable, 1956) soulful bop from a talent gone too soon

Freddie Redd wrote a significant score for the play The Connection featuring Jackie McLean. The accompanying release on Blue Note is a good listen, as is the quasi-companion album Shades of Redd

Eddie Palmieri Azúcar pa’ ti (Sugar for You) (1965) the Puerto Rican virtuoso made the latin side of Monk and McCoy explicit…and then they danced to these sounds all night long!

Larry Willis under the leadership of Jerry Gonzalez, Rumba Para Monk (with Steve Berrios, Andy Gonzalez, Carter Jefferson, 1989) fancy pianistic know-how is one reason this important record succeeds. Willis’s composition “To Wisdom, The Prize” is showing signs of becoming a modern repertory staple

Sun Ra Monorails and Satellites, Volumes I & II (1966) Ra is even better with his Arkestra, but these solo records are definitely intriguing

Dave Burrell Windward Passages (1979) there’s something of musical theater and cocktail piano in Burrell’s avant conception; this fascinating album is a solo piano reduction of an original opera written in collaboration with Monika Larsson

Horace Tapscott The Giant is Awakened (quintet with two basses and Black Arthur Blythe, 1969) patriarch of L.A. avant scene was a detailed composer with a stark piano style that connects to Andrew Hill, Randy Weston, and Dave Burrell

Dick Twardzik Trio (1955) just a few tracks exist of a searching talent, also heard on a nice record with Chet Baker

Martial Solal The SoloSolal (1968) both the harmonization of the theme and the discursive blowing for “Tune Up” are utterly novel

Joe Bonner under the leadership of Richard Davis, Epistrophy and Now’s the Time (quintet with Hannibal Marvin Peterson, Clifford Jordan, and Freddie Waits, 1972) Richard Davis’s own bands always used a blues head or some other familiar melody as gateway to high-energy madness and loosely-held forms. They are really improvising, and on this record Bonner keeps the exploration appropriately tethered to the jazz of Coltrane and Tyner. Nasheet Waits saw a lot of later Richard Davis gigs as a kid growing up and loved every note. He told me, “When people say to me that something is killing today, I say, ‘Really? You should have heard those Richard Davis bands at Sweet Basil. Now, that was killing.”

Hal Galper Reach Out (quintet, 1977) the band with the Brecker Brothers had a true impact on the scene

Mike Nock In Out And Around (quartet with Mike Brecker, George Mraz, and Al Foster, 1977) another important early album for tenor Brecker. This LP captures what was breaking open structurally around 1977

Mickey Tucker The Crawl (sextet with Marcus Belgrave, Slide Hampton, Junior Cook, Earl May, and Billy Hart, 1979 ) and also Louis Hayes The Crawl (sextet with Tucker, Charles Tolliver, Gary Bartz, John Stubblefield, and Clint Houston, 1989) two simmering albums of hard hitting truth from disparate collections of the best, both boasting Tucker’s bluesy anthem as the title track

Andy Laverne Serenade to Silver (quintet with Tim Hagans, Rick Margitza, Steve LaSpina, and Billy Drummond) Laverne has a strongly intervallic conception influenced by Corea and Beirach. Nice to hear a Horace Silver tribute, there are not so many of those

James Williams Truth, Justice and the Blues (with varied ensembles, 1996) the gospel tracks with vocalists Miles Griffith and Roger Holland are a standout, really heartwarming music

Don Friedman My Favorite Things (with George Mraz and Lewis Nash, 2003) Important associate of Booker Little and Joe Henderson in the ‘60s; released something like 50 albums as a leader in later years; presumably they are all poetic but also exhibit some bop mastery. I sourced this selection from Facebook, it was Ted Panken’s expert suggestion and has 33,000 views on YouTube

Toshiko Akiyoshi with the Toshiko Akiyoshi—Lew Tabackin Big Band Road Time (1975) One of the first LPs I ever got! Some nice charts and soloists (besides the co-leaders, both Jimmy Knepper and Bobby Shew sound great); however the bassist and drummer could possess a bit more finesse. The young prodigy Akiyoshi seemed to devour Bud Powell whole and impressed Hampton Hawes and Oscar Peterson when they met her in Tokyo, but soon Akiyoshi would work on integrating her own folklore into her language. (The pentatonic “Between Me and Myself” from The Toshiko Trio has Paul Chambers and Ed Thigpen playing in 5/4 in 1956.)

Marc Copland At Night (with Gary Peacock and Billy Hart, 1992) Copland began as an alto player and made the switch to piano quite late in the game. The progression of “dense” harmonies within a post-Hancock/Corea context seemed to be Richie Beirach→Marc Copland→Bill Carrothers. At Night is a nice record with Gary Peacock and Billy Hart; it also reminds me of a terrific gig I saw Copland and Hart play at Cleopatra’s Needle in the ‘90s with Drew Gress on bass. I hadn’t experienced Hart working in a trio yet, and was blown away. “Maybe I could play with Billy Hart someday,” I wistfully thought…

Denny Zeitlin Tidal Wave (with John Abercrombie, Charlie Haden, Peter Donald, 1984) Speaking of Bill Carrothers, it was probably in 1988 or so when I visited Bill in Minneapolis for a piano lesson; he played me Zeitlin’s rather astonishing bitonal “Billie’s Bounce” in his basement. Carrothers is one of many I admire and know personally who started making good records in the 1990s; if were to try assess his contribution from a critical vantage point, I’d start with the epic concept record Armistice 1918

Roger Kellaway and Red Mitchell Fifty/Fifty (1987) Kellaway has enormous chops and insatiable appetite for genre

Ellis Marsalis and Eddie Harris Homecoming (1985) unexpected duo recital with some surprisingly avant-garde touches

Art Lande The Eccentricities of Earl Dant (1977) subtle yet surreal standards, a unique vision

Dick Wellstood One Man Jazz Machine… (undated, probably mid-70s) Wellstood was one of the few who understood James P. Johnson before such a thing became a bit more fashionable. Serious command of the piano but perhaps eclectic to a fault

The late Masabumi Kikuchi doesn’t really fit this list, as his first really strong music was from the 21st century. I heard him live a lot with Paul Motian and grew to love his final form, but even the as late as the first Tethered Moon record (1992) Masabumi was still putting it together. Brief salute to many just a little older than me, perhaps especially Larry Goldings, Kevin Hays, Bruce Barth, David Hazeltine, Mike LeDonne, Michael Weiss, Joey Calderazzo, David Kikoski, David Berkman, Mike Holober, Uri Caine, Renee Rosnes, Benny Green, and Bill Charlap, musicians I think of as the core New York cats; and all of whom I enjoyed on so many gigs since coming to town in 1991.

[tag in two parts]

Richard Tee instructional video:

Hazel Scott’s mesmerizing 1943 novelty act with two pianos, which Alicia Keys saw YouTube and emulated for a performance at the Grammys:

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Recap: The Best 61 Jazz Piano Albums of All Time

Jelly Roll Morton 1923/24
James P. Johnson The Chronological James P. Johnson 1921-1928
Earl Hines The Chronological Earl Hines and his Orchestra 1928-1932
Willie “The Lion” Smith The Chronological Willie “The Lion” Smith 1938-1940
Fats Waller Piano Solos 1929-1941
Duke Ellington Piano Reflections
Count Basie and the All-American Rhythm Section The Kid From Red Bank
Teddy Wilson Solo Piano: Keystone Transcriptions c. 1939-1940
Hank Jones Have You Met Hank Jones
Jimmy Rowles Plays Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn
Ray Bryant All Blues
Mary Lou Williams Free Spirits
Art Tatum Standards
Thelonious Monk Trio
Bud Powell Jazz Giant
Horace Silver Trio
Red Garland (under the leadership of Miles Davis) Round About Midnight
Wynton Kelly Kelly Blue
Sonny Clark Cool Struttin’
Bobby Timmons This Here is Bobby Timmons
Phineas Newborn The Great Jazz Piano of Phineas Newborn Jr.
Barry Harris Live in Tokyo
Tommy Flanagan The Magnificent Tommy Flanagan
Cedar Walton A Night at Boomers
Hampton Hawes At the Piano
Lennie Tristano Lennie Tristano
Herbie Nichols Herbie Nichols Trio
Erroll Garner Plays Misty
Dave Brubeck Time Out
Ahmad Jamal Live at the Pershing: But Not For Me
Oscar Peterson and Milt Jackson Very Tall
Gene Harris with Stanley Turrentine and the Three Sounds Blue Hour
John Lewis as part of MJQ The Best of the Modern Jazz Quartet
Bill Evans Explorations
McCoy Tyner The Real McCoy
Chick Corea Now He Sings, Now He Sobs
Herbie Hancock Empyrean Isles
Keith Jarrett Standards Live
Jimmy Smith The Incredible Jimmy Smith at Club “Baby Grand” Wilmington, Delaware
Larry Young Unity
Andrew Hill Black Fire
Paul Bley Footloose!
Cecil Taylor (originally filed under Gil Evans) Into the Hot
Jaki Byard The Jaki Byard Experience
Stanley Cowell Musa: Ancestral Streams
Vince Guaraldi A Charlie Brown Christmas
Les McCann and Eddie Harris Swiss Movement
The Great Jazz Trio Kindness, Joy, Love, and Happiness
Richie Beirach Elm
Mal Waldron What It Is
Steve Kuhn Life’s Magic
Kenny Barron 1+1+1
George Cables Phantom of the City
Fred Hersch Sarabande
Kenny Kirkland (under the leadership of Wynton Marsalis) Black Codes (From the Underground)
Geri Allen with Charlie Haden and Paul Motian Etudes
Joe Zawinul with Weather Report Heavy Weather
Abdullah Ibrahim Water From an Ancient Well
Sir Roland Hanna Swing Me No Waltzes
Art Hodes Selections from the Gutter
Don Pullen New Beginnings