Customer Reviews

Some Stride Piano Playing

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...It is certainly the case that many contemporary stride players lack the necessary combination of technique, power and rhythmic tension. Whilst no James P. Johnson or Dick Wellstood, Francis is a respectable player with a solid technique and a firm touch. He is strongly Waller influenced, both in repertoire and approach (and shows little of the eclecticism and harmonic adventurousness of Wellstood or Andy Fielding), but generally holds his own with the material. He is better at medium tempos that at all - out stride, but nevertheless manages a powerful "Handful of Keys" and an appropriately stomping "Stompy Jones". Other highlights include an idiomatic reading of Jelly Roll Morton's "The Pearls", a powerful version of "The Mooche" and an extended rendition of I Ain't Got Nobody".

Recorded at sessions in 1983, 1986 and 1989, sound quality is fine. Not an essential purchase, but one which stride fans will enjoy.

Stride piano depends much on precise timing, for its special feeling and stride momentum. This recording, while a nice enough piano instrument and fair audio, is played as if "Thins" is sight reading the music. All the notes are there, just not in the right time. After a while it gets tiring, like a series of notes in no particular groupings. In my view, it don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing, and this one ain't got it.