Search - Earl Fatha Hines :: Earl Hines 1928-1932

This CD presents Earl Hines's earliest recordings as a solo pianist and bandleader, from a period when he was defining the possibilities of the piano in jazz and engaging in some wonderful collaborations with Louis Armstrong. The first 12 tracks are all solo piano, and there's much of Armstrong's approach to the trumpet in Hines's playing, from the clarion single-note and octave lines of his right hand to the keen sense of architecture apparent in every solo. The pieces are marked by Hines's tremendous rhythmic energy and invention, almost every one filled with sudden shifts and turns in the pianist's bass parts that will trigger a new series of inventions in the right hand. The second version of "A Monday Date," one of Hines's most famous compositions, and "Fifty-Seven Varieties" are particularly noteworthy, with every chorus signaling a major change in direction. Hines was transforming the already traditional elements of blues and ragtime, adding ringing, bell-like high notes to "Chimes in Blues" and slyly dislodging rhythmic expectations in "Panther Rag." The band tracks feature the group that Hines led at Chicago's Grand Terrace beginning in 1928, with recording sessions from 1929 and 1932. A well-rehearsed, hard-swinging group, it was a fine foil for Hines's own brilliant piano, with other notable performances by cornetist George Mitchell and clarinetists Darnell Howard and Omer Simeon. --Stuart Broomer