He has arguably been better than Bud Powell and Oscar Peterson… and very close to the master Art Tatum.
Phineas Newborn (Jr.) is a great virtuoso for sure. Yet I wouldn’t call him “better” than the other two pianists you mentioned. Unlike sports, music isn’t a matter of winning or losing, is it?
Not my words and kind of agree that it isn’t sport but musician rivalry / competition do exist for good or bad. O. Peterson frequently mentioned « musician intimidation » speaking about his relationship with Tatum and we still keep an ear on the Grammy’s and are intrigued by the best album of the year.
Hi @Julio,
you’re absolutely right. Of course, there’s a lot of competition and rivalry in the music business. As a professional musician, I know this all too well from my own personal experience (more than 20 years!). However, what exactly is “better” supposed to mean when talking about such accomplished artists like Newborn, Powell or Peterson? IMO all three are “giants” of jazz piano. Why decide who wins first, second or third place? Is it really a decision music lovers should be comfortable making? I just don’t think there’s much to be gained from such rankings. I didn’t mean to criticize you or your musical taste. Thanks a lot for your many great recommendations in this thread! Greatly appreciated!!!
I absolutely didn’t feel that from your post. I actually enjoy confronting point of views. Yours are valid and I agree that it sounds silly and wrong put this way:
We shall not think about music this way for sure. In the case of Newborn, I guess what I meant was that the guy had the same level of virtuosity the other giants I failed to emphasize the tragedy and the mystery of his destiny in my post: an unknown true genius who has failed for obscure reasons.
Wow, what a fantastic player. Thanks, I had never heard of him before your post.
There are so many. A couple still playing are Harold Mabern (anything with Eric Alexander on tenor sax) and Ryan Cohan (anything).
A couple examples:
https://i.imgur.com/fmbiHj3.png
First off, thank you to everyone who has posted to this thread, I have been sampling many of the recommendations!
The following song is a solo piano rendition of a Pixies song, I really like the feel of the piano, very moving. Any recommendations inspired by this song? (i.e., simple solo piano)
(BTW, I don’t know anything about the associated movie)
When we moved to the West Coast, we left a ton of stuff with our daughter, including a collection of LPs for which I no longer had a serviceable turntable. As a wonderful Christmas surprise, she used her turntable with ADC to convert all of them and presented me with a small box containing a flash drive will all of the rips. A labor of love! Just got home, and picked from the collection a Paul Bley album that I had not listened to in decades. Very much worth it.
Oh wow. Those guys really play very good music together. I can’t find the Mr. Lucky album in Tidal or Qobuz. Is it a CD rip?
Hi @RobOK!
Speaking of Maxence Cyrin…
Have you listened to this album yet? There are many others available on Tidal and Qobuz…
I have to confess the “Nocturnes” album isn’t entirely my cup of tea, though.
What a thoughtful, personal gift! Very nice!
Yeah. It is a CD rip.
Re Smoke, Mike LeDonne was also there on the B3. Fabulous sets. Closed with “Giant Steps”.
It’s been a while since my last post.
Here is another group which I like very much - GoGo Penguin
Contemporary jazz sound with influences of rock and electronic
I might phrase it that if you haven’t seen her live, it’s harder to full appreciate the recordings, but a few of her albums are legendary in both sound quality and musical awesomeness (Cafe Blue at the top of the list for me). So if ever in Chicago, seeing her at the Green Mill is a must - that’s been her home base for probably 20+ years. But she does tour quite a bit as well so keep an eye out.
I’ve seen her live numerous times and have most of her albums. Some are more accessible than others but all are exceptional.