Lone piano recommendations...

[number9]

Hey, I'm pretty new to jazz, and I read around the pianist topic on the main board, but I kept finding trios. Not what I'm quite looking for...

So my question is:

Anyone have any good recommendations for just a lone pianist (no trios, very minimal in backing)? Albums, songs, anything I can look into. Preferrably anything that gives a latenight lonely mood, but I'll check out anything.

Thanks.

[Bev Stapleton]

I'd strongly recommend Keith Jarrett's 'Facing You'. Jarrett has recorded many solo piano albums - most are long improvised pieces. But 'Facing You' has relatively concise pieces, all beautifully melodic. You might enjoy his more recent 'The Night, The Melody with You' (I think that's the title) where he again returns to short pieces, this time covers; I'm not that keen on it but I know many people were charmed by it.

Fred Hersch has done several solo discs. I like his Rogers and Hammerstein disc where he improvises round tunes rarely covered in jazz.

There are a couple of solo CDs of Bill Evans that I have as part of the big Riverside box which I really love. He did a couple for Verve too which I don't know - they might fit the bill.

One I'd strongly recommend is John Taylor's recent 'Insight'. Magical solo piano jazz.

[bubber]

In addition to Bev's recommendations, I'll mention Jessica Williams. She has done quite a few soloCDs (as well as trios), mostly standards but also some high class compositions of her own. Her style consists of elements from most ages of jazz in a very personal expression.

[Muskrat Ramble]

The great Thelonious Monk has done a couple albums of solo tunes, as well as solo tunes on some of his albums with full band (like Straight, No Chaser on Columbia). His music/playing is pretty quirky and prickly to fit the sort of late-night vibe you're looking for, but he's a very individualistic, interesting player and one of jazz's greatest composers.

Jason Moran has a solo disc called "Modernistic." I haven't heard it yet, but from what I have heard of him, I imagine it's also very idiosyncratic and challenging. Probably pretty darn good too :)

Art Tatum, one of the legends of jazz piano, did a bunch of solo work.

Dave Brubeck, a living legend, has made a handful of solo discs over his career. Check www.allmusic.com for details. These latter two guys may be more what you're looking for.

[gdogus]

All of the above are good recommendations, but if number9 is looking for "a late night lonely mood," Moran, Tatum, and Monk might not be as appreciated as some others. I second Bev's suggestions of Jarrett (Facing You is a great choice) and Evans (maybe the Conversations with Myself discs, on which he plays three piano parts simultaneously via overdubbing).

Not quite in the same vein, I'd also recommend McCoy Tyner's Echoes of a Friend, on which the great pianist plays alone over tunes associated with his erstwhile boss, John Coltrane. Great.

[bubber]

For the late night lonely mood I also would recommend Tord Gustavsen who recently had his first trio album out on ECM, and also Paul Bley's "Open to Love".

[Pete B]

Not available on cd, but if you can handle vinyl then hunt down a copy of Hampton Hawes The Challenge on RCA. Utterly brilliant.

[Seba]

don't forget Brad Mehldau's Elegiac Cycle!

[Kryssi]

I really like Art Tatum, Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Bud Powell, and Chucho Valdez. Gonzalo does a lot of stuff just solo piano. He and Chucho are both very technically skilled players.

[omar zamora]

Cecil Taylor - The Willisau Concert

[nkipa]

Originally posted by omar zamora
Cecil Taylor - The Willisau Concert

The master of the late-night vibe! ;)
Actually, the solo records that come to mind also don't lend themselves to a late-night vibe: Keith Jarrett's "Koln Concert" and Keith Tippett's "Dartington Concert". Paul Bley's "Open, To Love" and "Basics" might lend themselves to this vibe a little better, although many find his playing dry (i.e. little romanticism in it).

If you can stomach a trio or two:
Another recommendation for Tord Gustavsen's "Changing Places". It's a trio, but quiet and ruminative. Another favorite in this vein is Marc Copland's "Haunted Heart".

[omar zamora]

Originally posted by nkipa
The master of the late-night vibe! ;)

Oops. Didn't see that part of the request. Hmm, top of my head, I can think of plenty of trios, but not a lot of solo piano that fit that description.

Ok, not exactly late night vibe, but Randy Weston and Abdullah Ibrahim have done some tremendous solo piano stuff.

[nkipa]

I forgot that there is an entire series of solo jazz piano- Live at Maybeck Recital Hall (or something like that). The artists are top-notch, the best pianists in jazz. There are at least 20-30 in the series, not sure exactly. You could go to an online CD store or Google and just type "Maybeck piano" and find them.

[monk]

Sir Roland Hanna - "Everything I Love". Really beautiful, relaxed solo album!

[Tenorman]

In the UK you will find compilations along the line of Late Night Piano and similar titles. Cheap and do what the say on the packing. - you might find some more ideas if get a couple of those and track the artists you like

[Tenorman]

I just checked the top of this thread and number 9 posted his query in late December 2003. This has been his one and only post. This is the second or third time I have come across this (which means it is the minority by far).

Now OK something may have happened to the person, but coming back and saying thanks might be nice

[LAL]

I'll post my thanks for the recommendations above, particularly the Keith Jarrett and Paul Bley albums.

number9 did say thanks at the end of his mail..perhaps an advance thanks? :)
Originally posted by number9
Anyone have any good recommendations for just a lone pianist (no trios, very minimal in backing)? Albums, songs, anything I can look into. Preferrably anything that gives a latenight lonely mood, but I'll check out anything.

Thanks.

[Johnj]

Two recommendations not mentioned.

John Lewis - Evolution
Randy Weston - Marrakech In The Cool Of The Evening

[rhinozoot]

awesom virtuoso pianist


solo work

TRACKS

a whole disc on THE EXCLUSIVELY FOR MY FRIENDS SERIES


SOLO LIVE

large solo sections on

IN RUSSIA

OSCAR PETERSON ET JOE PASS A LA SALLE PLEYEL

[Harold]

Number 9,

Re: Lone piano recommendations

Not a "late night, lonely mood" player but . . . for pure piano genius, smoke coming off the keyboard, 30 years ahead of his time . . . not needing side players (and they really just got in the way) I submit that "God is in the house" with ART TATUM, ART TATUM, ART TATUM - the man that literally scared other piano players, undefeated cutting champion, drove Horowitz to tears and counted among his late night audience/fans - Rachmaninoff, Ellington, Basie, Parker, etc., etc. - and he was blind!

What a guy!

[sideshowbob]

Marilyn Crispell - For Coltrane. Very beautiful.

Cecil Taylor - Air Above Mountains. Gentler than some Cecil.

Mingus - Mingus Plays Piano. One of my favourite solo piano records; typically, made by a bassist!

-- Ian

[LAL]

Bills Evans - Everybody Digs Bill Evans
(It's a piano trio album but includes numerous piano solos. There are some uptempo numbers here but also a few where Bill is in a reflective mood. Excellent music)

[Phil Meloy]

McCoy Tyner did three solo albums for Blue Note - "Revealations", "Things Aren't What They Used to Be " (George Adams and John Schofield duet on some tracks on this disc) and "Soliloquy".

[jlee]

Tommy Flanagan, "Moodsville," part of a series released by (?) Prestige (?) or possibly Contemporary; not solo piano, but the "mood" is established firmly, with several solo cuts and piano warm and to the front.

Else, Monk, "Alone in San Francisco"; for bluesy stuff, Junior Mance, "Junior's Blues"; Hawes's "The Challenge" is one of my favorites, but for the "late-night mood," even if not solo, why not the "All Night Session" volumes? Or, Bill, also with Jim Hall in duet, "Undercurrents" or "Intermodulation"? Or, for the mood alone, "transposed" to solo, unaccompanied guitar, Joe Pass's "Virtuoso" discs. In many of these discs except the last, of course, the instrumentation transcends the limitations of solo piano, and, for me, define a certain *piano* vibe that is, curiously, sometimes unavailable to artists performing solo piano.

[Nikkis]

Keith Jarrett "The Koln Concert"

Aziza Mustafa Zadeh "Shaimans"