Customer Reviews

Bouncing With Bud: All the Recordings of Bud Powell

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It has been my pleasure to read Carls Smith's book on Bud Powell's recordings. This is not a discography though it contains a lot of discographical facts. Mr. Smith has collected all published recordings of Bud Powell and written about them in a very easy to read, handy book. This is not a musician's analysis but the listener's view of Bud's work. Mr. Smith does not share the common opinion that most of Bud's recordings after 1953 were bad. I agree with him. A lot of what Bud did after 1953 is well woth listening to and this book is the perfect companion. Whether you share the author's fascination with Bud or just are interested, this book is well worth reading and is of course a must for the avid Bud fan.

Smith provides a good overview of the Powell recordings for collectors. All the recordings are listed chronologically, with Smith giving general observations about each performance. Some amusing photos of cover art will interest collectors also. Smith obviously knows his stuff, and he provides information on some very rare Powell recordings. He is a serious fan and not a music critic. He does NOT, for instance, go into much track by track detail, and does not provide serious students of Bud Powell anything more than they could get off of liner notes. The most intriguing aspect of this book is Smith's contrarian take on Powell's later works: he believes that they are overlooked. Smith supplements his own material with some very good exerpts from a couple of other sources, including an essay by Francis Paudras, pieces from Atlantic Monthly, etc.