Bud Powell

Bud Powell was an American jazz pianist famous in the bebop era of the 1940s and '50s whose virtuoso style, which reflected the sounds of other instruments, influenced every jazz pianist who came after him. He played with all the great jazz stars of the time and made many recordings before his untimely death at the age of 41. Celebrated as a composer and band leader, he had brushes with the law and incidents that left him wounded and more than once led to psychiatric treatment. Despite this, he is regarded as one of the leading jazz pianists of all time. Born in Harlem, he learned music from his pianist father and played in a band with his brother William as a teenager. Influenced heavily by the piano playing of jazz great Art Tatum, he was mentored by Thelonious Monk and played with him in New York clubs. He played as a sideman with several aggregations and in 1953 he performed with Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Mingus and Max Roach on an album titled 'The Quintet: Jazz at Massey Hall (Live)', which is regarded as one of the great recordings in jazz. He lived in Paris for a while but his health deteriorated and he died in 1966 of a combination of alcoholism and tuberculosis. In 1994, almost 30 years after his death, the Los Angeles Times dubbed him "the troubled father of modern jazz piano" as it welcomed a series of archival CD sets from the Blue Note and Verve labels. In 1997, Chick Corea & Friends released an album titled 'Remembering Bud Powell', which reached number 12 on the Billboard Jazz Albums Chart.

Please enable Javascript to view this page competely.