Word: pianistics
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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ANDREW HILL, COMPULSION (Blue Note). Haitian-born Pianist Hill is magnificently obsessed with the complex rhythms and bold colors of African music. Aided by Nedi Quamar's African thumb piano (a handmade wooden box holding long metal prongs that are plucked), Renaud Simmons' conga and Joe Chamber's drums, he conjures up a thundering, lashing storm with sweeps across the keyboard -and then lets it fade into the silver pinging of random raindrops. Freddie Hubbard's trumpet has a cry for every change of mood...
...might run into this thing in Rusty Nail, Ark.," said Jazz Pianist George Shearing, 47. "But in Chicago, I don't feel it should exist." Blind since birth, Shearing had walked into the Little Embers Restaurant, accompanied as always by his guide dog Leland, a golden retriever. Sorry, no pooch, the maitre d' told him. Shearing explained the obvious. No dog-against the city's health code, repeated the maitre d'. So Shearing decided to make a case of it. "I don't want any exception for me," he said, "I want exceptions for every...
...level of performance Friday night was generally high. The pick-up orchestra had its tentative moments but was otherwise enthusiastic and attentive. Soprano Dorothy Crawford and pianist Daniel Hathaway gave an excellent rendition of six Ives songs, and there were outstanding performances by David Archibald, clarinet, and D. Allan Shewmon, piano. The height of the evening was the massive Piano Trio (1904-1911), whose second movement bears the indication "TSIAJ" ("This Scherzo is a Joke"). This is one of those pieces that has to be heard live to be appreciated. The sight and sound of Shewmon and 'cellist Fran Uitti...
...seem when the moods are manufactured by that offbeat brand of musician, the cocktail pianist. The sign outside says "Music for Hand Holders," but he plays for not only the bewitched but also the bothered, bewildered and just plain bombed. His salon is a saloon with carpeting, usually sporting a get-away-from-it-all name like the Shangri-la or the Windjammer. The lights are low, and the prices are high. And what escape the customer cannot find in the alcohol and easy ambiance, the cocktail pianist provides with a painless medley of ballads, show tunes, light classics...
More than just live Muzak, the best of the cocktail pianists "play the room," alternating from up-tempo numbers to dreamy lullabies to suit the mood of the audience. Requests are encouraged (current favorite: Lara's Theme from the film score of Doctor Zhivago), but in many instances the cocktail pianist is more prized for his fellowship than his musicianship. Table hopping between sets is essential, and any pianist worth his arpeggio greets the entrance of old customers by sliding into their favorite numbers...