Live at the Blue Note Café, Paris 1961
BUD POWELL
(ESP)
One of the lesser-credited architects of modern jazz, pianist Bud Powell did his best playing well before this club date with drummer and fellow bebop pioneer Kenny Clarke, bassist Pierre Michelot and — on the first three (previously unreleased) tunes — tenor saxophonist Zoot Sims. But despite his well-documented mental illness and abject alcoholism, Powell plays with assured command, if not the jaw-dropping speed and dexterity that marked his early days. His forays on several Monk tunes are particularly deep and probing. The recording on this recently reissued set has a nice sense of depth, as well as a few imperfections that render it a kinetic document of a smoky Paris jazz joint in the early '60s. (espdisk.com)
This article appears in Oct 31 – Nov 6, 2007.