Customer Reviews

The Best of Bud Powell

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Although this collection serves as something of overview of the greatest jazz pianist who ever lived, it is not a set that captures all of his finest performances. As an introduction to Powell, it is rather limp. About a third of it is immortal. The rest? Too many above-average selections from his 1950s Blue Notes, which were sporadically nice, sometimes off, only sometimes great, and important for students and chroniclers of his life. For the true best of Bud Powell, you have to be more diligent. Start with the 1949-1951 Verve trios ("Jazz Giant") and 1940s Roost trios (included in "Complete Roost and Swing Sessions", and "Bud's Bubble"), work your way down to the "Amazing Bud Powell" vols. 1 and 2. Or if you can afford it, go for the box sets ("Complete Bud Powell on Verve", "Complete Blue Note", etc.) Anything after 1954 is a different, pared down Bud Powell.

The Best of Bud is a great intro into the twisted and beautiful world that emits from pianist Bud Powell's fingers. It includes Glass Enclosure which is a song written by Bud in homage to the mental institution he was in. It is a quirky tune with bouncy, energetic bars juxtaposed with serenely slow playing. Also included is Collard Greens and Black-Eyed Peas, a title reminiscent of pure soul food, and this song definitely has soul from the beginning bass solo all the way through Bud's entrance and exit. Parisian Thouroughfare is about as wonderful a song dedicated to Paris that you will ever hear. It has striding solos that make you feel like you are strolling down a back alley of that fair city. Any music fan will surely appreciate the music on this album, and if you read any of the biography's of Bud, you will surely fall in love with the man.

After considerable trial and error, I'm convinced that this early Blue Note collection is the best single-disc anthology of Bud Powell available (rate Chick Corea's "The Ultimate Bud Powell" a worthy but distant second). What makes it extremely valuable is the inclusion of Bud's seminal "Un Poco Loco" (rated by literary critic Harold Bloom as one of the 20th-century's few select works of indisputable genius), his harmonically advanced "Glass Enclosure," and his virtuosically baroque "Bud on Bach" in addition to essentials like "Bouncing with Bud" and "Parisian Thoroughfare." The expansive program also permits the listener to compare the brilliance of early Powell (1949-1953) with his controversial, inarguably less dazzling recordings from late in his career (1963).

Bud Powell was a genius - and there is a flip side to that. Bud had to deal with that flip side sporadically up through the mid-1950s, when it got the best of him. These Blue Note tracks give a glimpse into the genius that dwelled within this man. No, not every track is a "best", but enough of the musicality is here to warrant a 4 star rating. A prolific composer as well, most of the tunes here are penned by Powell. This is a good introduction to the genius that was Bud Powell, even if not every single cut is up to the high bar that this great set early on.