100 Greatest Jazz Albums: Hank Jones – Trio with Mads Vinding and Al Foster

album review

Storyville

Recording date: March 19th 1991 at Focus Recording, Copenhagen, Denmark

Re-release date: February 8th 2011

Availabilty: CD, MP3 download

amazon CD

The death of Hank Jones (in May 2010) focuses the mind on his great contribution to jazz with recordings spanning a 70 year period. He was there in New York in the 40s at the start of bop, as wikipedia records:

'He worked with John Kirby, Howard McGhee, Coleman Hawkins, Andy Kirk, and Billy Eckstine. In autumn 1947, he began touring in Norman Granz's Jazz at the Philharmonic package, and from 1948 to 1953 he was accompanist for Ella Fitzgerald, and accompanying her in England in the Fall of 1948 developed a harmonic facility of extraordinary taste and sophistication. During this period he also made several historically important recordings with Charlie Parker, which included "The Song Is You", from the Now's the Time album, recorded in December 1952, with Teddy Kotick on bass and Max Roach on drums.'

This great re-release captures his playing in 1991where that 'extraordinary taste and sophistication' was burning as brightly as it did until his last days.

The trio is: Hank Jones (piano), Mads Vinding (bass), Al Foster (drums).

The music is focused on the best of jazz from the 40s and 50s with memorable reinterpretations of compositions by Charlie Parker ('Bloomdido'), Sonny Rollins ('Pent Up House'), Thelonious Monk ('Monk's Mood', 'Bemsha Swing'), Freddy Hubbard ('Up Jumped Spring'), Milt Jackson (Bag's Groove), Miles Davis ('Four') and his own 'Quintessence'.

The piano trio format is a path well trodden. Hank Jones shows here how to get the best out of it with swinging, glittering piano that has real velocity.

Exemplary.

Essential listening.