Jessica Williams
In The Key of Monk
And Then, There's This |
Lots of fabulous suggestions. I will add two that I did not see here....
Billy Taylor - he’s my favorite. The only word I can use to describe his playing is, well, “happy”... “A Touch of Taylor” would be a good place to start.
Mary Lou Williams ... one of the most influential jazz pianists that gets overlooked in conversations like this. Her conception is fabulous. Check out “Live at the Cookery”
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I absolutely love great piano players in the trio format. My favorites:
Marilyn Crispell
Russ Lossing
John Taylor
Paul Bley
Myra Melford
Masabumi Kikuchi (if you can get past the groaning!)
Bill Evans
Keith Jarrett
Vijay Iyer
E.S.T. (Esbjorn Svensson trio)
Brad Meldau
Marcin Wasilewski
Stefano Bollani
Stefano Battaglia
Julia Hulsman
...there are hundreds more. But really, if you want a treat check out Crispell's piano trio stuff on ECM
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2nd Gene Harris
Charles Brown
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Lots of good choices on the Three Blind Mice label. My favorite is Midnight Sugar, a studio recording by the Tsuyoshi Yamamoto Trio. Great performance, excellent sound.
Bill Evans at the Montreux Jazz Festival. A fine live performance that has Evans playing a bit more lightheartedly. Recording puts you in the hall with them.
Yuko Mabuchi Plays Miles Davis. A lovely, inspired session recorded with holographic clarity.
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Brad Mehldau
Marcin Wasilewski
Bobo Stenson - Cantando is a spooky good recording.
Julia Hulsmann
Esbjorn Svensson
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A modern recording with excellent sound and music equal to any contemporary performer is Cyrus Chestnut on Atlantic. HDCD encoded to boot! An all around superb disc that belongs in any jazz fan's collection. |
Here are some good-sounding piano jazz titles. Note that these are not always the best performances from these artists, but all have what I consider to be good or better sound quality and content. Recordings marked with a * are my personal favorites.
Tommy Flanagan
-Nights at the Vanguard
-Lady Be Good*
-Confirmation
-Moodsville*
Andre Previn
-My Fair Lady (w/Shelly Manne)
-Gigi
-Like Previn
-Plays Songs of Jerome Kern
-Plays Songs of Harold Arlen
-Plays Songs of Vernon Duke
Phineas Newborn
-Here is Phineas
Pamela York
-Blue York
Toshiko Akiyoshi
-Remembering Bud
Kenny Barron
-The Moment*
-The Only One
-Green Chinmeys
Duke Jordan
-Fight To Jordan*
-Flight To Denmark
Hank Jones
-Upon Reflection*
Kenny Drew
-Pal Joey
John Lewis
-The Bridge Game
Ellis Marsalis
-Heart of Gold
-Ellis Marsalis Trio
Red Garland
-Groovy
-All Kinds of Weather
-Red Garland's Piano*
Hampton Hawes
-Trio, Volume 1
-All Night Session Volumes 1, 2, 3
Benny Green
-These Are Soulful Days
Lynne Arriale
-Melody
Wynton Kelly
-Piano
-Full View
Eric Reed
-Manhattan Melodies
Barry Harris
-At The Jazz Workshop
Ramsey Lewis
-Appassionata
Richard Wyands
-Half and Half
-Reunited
George Shearing
-Walkin'
-Grand Piano
-More Grand Piano
-Piano
-Jazz Moments
Jessica Williams
-Higher Standards
-Arrival
-Some Ballads, Some Blues
-Momentum
Jazz label "Reservoir Music" has a fantastic series of recordings they call the "New York Piano" series. Rudy Van Gelder is the recording engineer for most of the sessions. The artists are generally unknown outside the NYC area, but both performances and sound quality are superb on each of the dozen or so titles I have purchased by pianists Hod O'Brien, Steve Kuhn, Rob Schneiderman, Pete Malinverni, and Dick Katz. |
I am glad to see Marian Mc Partland and Dick Hyman given their "props" in this thread.
Try:
Marian Mc Partland's "Reprise"- excellent sound, beautiful playing. Also
"Live at Yoshi's"
Also you can try a number of her Piano Jazz CD's, which are recordings of her NPR radio show. I particularly like the one with bassist Milt Hinton and the one with Dave Brubeck.
Dick Hyman on Reference Recordings:
"From the Age of Swing"
"Recital"
"Plays Duke Ellington"
"Plays Fats Waller"
"Swing is Here"
(I ordered the Dick Hyman recordings from best to worst, IMO. However, all or excellent and worth owning.)
Cyrus Chestnut:
"Blessed Quietness"
For piano playing, but not for singing:
Diana Krall, "Stepping Out"
This is an excellent recording, also. Very dynamic.
If this category can be extended to blues:
Jay Mc Shann's Hybrid SACD "What a Wonderful World". This is dynamic, excellent musicianship all around. Again, he is not a great singer.
Dave Brubeck has a double hybrid SACD of two live performances done, I believe, for his 80th birthday called "From the USA and the UK". There is some excellent jazz improvisation on here. I absolutely hate the alto sax work on these recordings, though. Paul Desmond, where are you when we need you? |
Eddie Higgins has at least one well recorded disc (I have it but the name escapes me and my CDs are all out of order at the moment), great playing on this.
also try Dick Hyman's playing on reference recordings, awesome sound there! |
Good list espcially from Frap. Here's a few more, most of them are well recorded some on electric piano:
Gonzalo Rubalcaba
Pat Coil
Remsey Lewis
Alphonse Mouzon
Joanne Brackeen
Antonio Carlos Jobim
Bobby Lyle
Gregg Karukas |
Gene Harris man! Mostly on Blue Note, Concord. Unbelievable player, fronted the Basie Band. A real pounder with great ideas and a style reminiscent of Errol Garner. Good luck. |
Ditto to all previous postings! To throw a few different names into the mix, one of the best from-every-perspective recordings I've come across in recent history is "McCoy Tyner with Stanley Clarke and Al Foster," - Telarc 2000. On a decent playback system, it really gives you that intimate jazz club, you are “there” live, experience. Also, check out Lyle Mays’ (of Pat Metheny Group fame) “Fictionary,” with Marc Johnson and Jack DeJonnette,
- Geffen 1993; an excellent virtuoso performance most closely aligned with mainstream classic jazz. Mays’ “Lyle Mays,” – Geffen 1986, on the other hand, is actually a “suite” of original works showcasing an amalgamation of styles that is Lyle’s alone. To me, it’s a work of pure genius. Finally, anything by Eliane Elias. |
KENNY BARRON
JAKI BYARD
CHICK COREA
KENNY DREW (on STEEPLECHASE!!)
BOBBY ENRIQUEZ
BILL EVANS
TOMMY FLANNAGAN
RED GARLAND
HERBIE HANCOCK
KEITH JARRETT
HANK JONES
WYNTON KELLY
MARIAN MCPARTLAND
MULGREW MILLER
THELONIUS MONK
TETE MONTOLIU (on STEEPLECHASE!!)
OSCAR PETERSON
MICHEL PETRUCIANI
BUD POWELL
ART TATUM
MCCOY TYNER
MAL WALDRON
CEDAR WALTON
Want artistry that will last. This is it.......Frank |
All the aforementioned are wonderful jazz giants each and everyone. Here's two more great jazz pianists on exceptionally well recorded releases. Ahmad Jamal's "I Remember Duke, Hoagy, and Strayhorn" Telarc (1994) is filled with very lively keyboard work that will test your speakers. He's accompanied by bass and drums on some tunes but it's mostly him playing great piano. Telarc did it's usual great job in recording. Second suggestion is Tommy Flanagan's "Alone Too Long" a solo recording made in Japan and available only as an import. Ella Fitgerald's accompaniest for many years has a jazz pedigree that's a "Who's Who of Jazz" and deserves the spotlight among jazz's great piano players. Well recorded featuring gorgeously long reflective keyboard pieces. Wonderful music for a quiet evening. |
Slick2: There are some good suggestions above, but here are a few more that you should add to your list:
1. Michel Petrucciani -- a French player who suffered from osteogenesis imperfecta (also known as china bone disease). He's now deceased, much too young, but a marvellous player with some excellent group and solo recordings.
2. Chucho Valdez -- a Cuban pianist with a lot of Latin fire. Check out his recent solo album recorded (I think) at the Village Vanguard.
3. Abdullah Ibrahim, the jazz pianist formerly known as Dollar Brand -- a South African pianist with a wonderful swinging lilt to his style. One of my favorites recordings by him is "Water From An Ancient Well".
4. Erroll Garner -- one of the truly great American pianists. His recording "Concert by the Sea" is a classic, and truly deserves to be.
5. Marian McPartland -- originally from England, Marian is the real deal. She hosts a NPR show called "Piano Jazz" which features a lot of great players.
6. McCoy Tyner -- the piano player for many years in John Coltrane's great quartet of the 1960's. Tyner has a lot of fine recordings, but I'd start with "New York Reunion" on the Chesky label. |
His last name is Garfinkle. (See previous post) |
Check out titles by Red Garland and Wynton Kelly. |
I would also look at Earl Hines Live at the Village Vanguard. Shirley Scott's piano work is often overshadowed by her brilliant organ playing and of course almost anything by Monk,Evans and Brubeck. |
Anything by Bill Evans, Keith Jarrett's "Standards Trio", Thelonious Monk, Michel Petrucciani at the Village Vanguard, Jacky Terrasson, Red Garland w/ the Miles Davis Quintet. Good start. |
Although not your typical jazz, listen to the MA record label. I can't remember the guy's name, but he's the one that started the label. All their recordings are outstanding! |
Try any solo Ray Bryant(Alone At Montreux, Montreux 77, Somewhere In France). Not always the best recordings, but He cooks. Also solo McKoy Tyner( try Warsaw Concert 1991). Can't listen to piano without something by Oscar Peterson (anything on Pablo label). Dave Grusin is very pleasing (try the Gershwin Connection). Dick Hyman is precise(try Fats Waller or Duke Ellington). From left field, try Dr John Play MacRebeneck.. |
Bill Evan Trio-At the Village Vanguard ----also a classic |
A classic - Dave Brubeck's Time Out. |
So much to choose from, so little disk space...
My instantaneous picks will be :
- Bill Evans (Walz for Debbie)
- Keith Jarett (.... Concert) - ... being the city
- Bred Meldau (Art of the trio Vol 3) |
Anything by Keith Jarrett; Bill Evans; also (for more upbeat) I like Horace Silver. Good luck- there's lots more! |
