Standards
SONNY CLARK
(Blue Note)

Sonny Clark was an underappreciated jazz pianist during his short lifetime — he died in 1963 at age 31 — but he was also a favorite of Blue Note owner Alfred Lion, who kept him in steady work. With his light touch, effortless swing and penchant for blues feeling, Clark makes Standards a charmingly accessible and beautifully soulful record. Most of the tunes clip at a breezy medium tempo, but Clark's playing is the most affecting on ballads like "Blues in the Night," "Gee Baby, Ain't I Good To You" and "Ain't No Use."

This article appears in Oct 8-14, 2008.

Eric Snider is the dean of Bay area music critics. He started in the early 1980s as one of the founding members of Music magazine, a free bi-monthly. He was the pop music critic for the then-St. Petersburg...