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Art Tatum! Absolutely right, RobE. No one has equaled him, although Oscar Peterson came close. I also like Dave Brubeck's playing a lot. Bud Powell and Teddy Wilson were no slouches either.
Art Tatum! Absolutely right, RobE. No one has equaled him, although Oscar Peterson came close. I also like Dave Brubeck's playing a lot. Bud Powell and Teddy Wilson were no slouches either.
Oooh, Bud Powell! Nice call! Also liked some of Horace Silver's stuff.
"Spider Fingers" himself Bruce Hornsby. He started off good but what he turned into is nothing short of unbelievable.
Super showman. I saw Hornsby in Charlotte a couple of years back and was afraid to breathe for fear of missing something. I didn't know until then that he played keyboards with the Grateful Dead.
Another superb player was the late Nicky Hopkins. He was all over everything in the 70s. I saw him on tour with the Stones in 1972, and at one point during the show he had six cigarettes lit at once and sitting all over the keyboard. He did a lot of work on the Stones albums, but one of my favorites is the breaks he took on John Lennon's album Imagine.
RobE: Yeah, I love Song for My Father. There were/are a bunch of great jazz piano players (Fats Waller, Keith Jarrett, etc.). Rock piano is usually much simpler, although I like Elton John's style. If I may branch out to organ, I liked Matthew Fisher's sound with Procol Harum a lot too.
For technique and improvisational ability, it is hard to top Oscar Peterson. Though he could play with blazing speed and originality, his musicianship was never showcased better as it is on a ballad, "Laura" being a great example.
In many ways, though, my favorite is Duke Ellington. His fantastic song-writing and leadership of his orchestra overshadowed his piano playing. While some might fault his technique, his ability to use unusual chording made his playing unique. Often, this was thought to be because he was usually playing either his own or his "alter-ego" Billy Strayhorn's compositions. That really wasn't true. Listen here, how he treats "All the Things You Are"--not an Ellington or Strayhorn composition.
Another great pianist was Nat King Cole. His singing career overshadowed his piano playing, but he was as great a pianist as he was a singer. Here, his trio plays the lovely ballad, "Moonlight In Vermont."
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