Search - Hampton Hawes :: Blues for Bud

Stunning set from the great Hampton Hawes

Phillip J. Crawford | San Francisco, CA USA | 10/14/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is an excellent set from Hampton Hawes, an amazing pianist who never got the recognition he deserved. Hawes had a distinctive soulful sound that was a mixture of Bud Powell (for whom the title cut is named), Bill Evans, and Art Tatum. This cat could do everything: play the blues, improvise Bird-like lines at breakneck speed, swing like nobody's business, and make old standards like "My Romance" sound like they were just written. He was a talented composer as well. (Check out his jazz waltz "Sonora"). This CD is what great jazz is all about."

Raves for Hawes

Deleauvive | 07/15/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I heard cuts from this CD tonight on a jazz radio show and am ordering it now. It swings in a light vein; made in 1968 it retains its brilliance to anyone remotely connected to straight-ahead jazz. Although Hamp is long gone from the scene his West Coast style of cool jazz lives on and I hope will for many more years."

The Bluesy Hawes

Deleauvive | Paris XIV - FRANCE | 04/29/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"For our pleasure, the field of gifted pianists is rather crowded on the modern Jazz scene during the 50s & 60s. To name but a few : Oscar Peterson, Wynton Kelly, Bobby Timmons...



No doubt about the fact that they displayed considerable technique and control over their instrument, with soul on top. The competition between them would be immensely fruitful, and sometimes the names of their records as a leader would bear the title they had supposedly won (Genius, Giant...). But then, you have Hampton Hawes, too humble to pretend to any such titles, and too quiet to overshadow his contemporaries.



Listening to theses flawless Blues for Bud, one can't help but wonder why the confidence he put in his playing couln't help him more in life. The man pays a restrained, subtle, yet lyrical hommage to Bud, may be superior in grace to the numerous recordings of the same vein (...plays for Duke, plays for Monk...)



To those ears, his delicate and precise phrasé has something in common with Phineas Newborn Jr's.. To follow the metaphor, if Bud had to decide to which of the bop pianists he should have given his crown, it would have been between one of these two Princes; And boy, you wouldn't want to be in his shoes for making such a heart-breaking choice."