Search - Bud Powell, Kenny Clarke, Pierre Michelot :: Portrait of Thelonious

Buy This Swinging, Raw, Be-Bopped Treasure

Steven Falk | Lafayette, CA USA | 03/13/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I bought this record twenty years ago on the tip of a friend. When I went all-CD and mothballed my vinyl, this record was an unfortunate casualty. So it was with great joy that I finally got around to re-buying Tribute To Thelonious on CD.This is simple, strightforward, powerful be-bop. It's only a trio -- bass, drums, piano -- but Bud's flying, syncopated fingers fill the space. While playing the tinkling and swinging melodies on the top end, his punching left hand motivates the music from below. I buy a lot of jazz, and this is one of my top ten all time favorites. Buy it now and you'll be happy for the rest of your life."

Fascinating

Stephen Swain | 07/10/2001

(4 out of 5 stars)

"During his years in Paris, Bud Powell continued to struggle with mental, health and substanc problems, emerging numerous times with recordings that occasionally matched his earlier (ridiculously high) standards, but more often, were merely solid. This is one of them. It is fascinating, however, to hear Powell play the music of his longtime friend Thelonious Monk. In his late years, Powell's playing became increasingly spare---and more Monk-like in approach. ON this recording, you can hear how what they had in common, even if their piano stylings were, on the surface, different."

Essential music

Stephen Swain | South California | 06/17/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I first bought this because I wanted to know more about Powell and Monk. I have never been disappointed listening to this and loved it more with each listening. The Monk pieces convinced me to buy everything of his I could lay my hands on but I also reached back to Powell's early albums and one of his last, "Bud Powell in Paris" a few years after this one, produced by Duke Ellington, on Reprise. The best moment I had with this album was sharing it with a college music class. While one jerk kept wondering why people applauded after each tune (to classical purists you never applaud until the end of a concert, not after each piece) the rest discussed how Powell's style cut across classical lines and it encouraged more jazz listening. Not a year has gone by that I haven't played this album so if you don't know bebop or Monk or Powell, this is a great introduction to all."