Reading the Dennard thread got me thinking about other obscure pianists.
Last night, I did a gig in NYC with a pianist I never heard of before named Johnny Morris. It turned out he played on some small group Buddy Rich sessions back in the 60s, "Playtime" and "Blues Caravan", and went on a State Dept. tour with BR.
i found this on youtube:
He still plays classic swing piano, and I found myself thinking of Teddy Wilson during his solos.
Another guy that I used to work with a lot who's still around is Mike Alterman, a fine musician.
He played on the Woody Herman LP "East Meets West", and has a great solo on an up tempo blues.
He went on the road with Chet Baker for eight months, and it was so traumatic, he refused to talk about it.
I played with the great bass player, Frank Tate, also last night, and he mentioned a guy named Bill Rubenstein (Rubinstein?), whom he described as playing like Bill Evans, before BE started playing like BE.
I did a search on him, and the only recordings he played on were a few Chris Connor LPs, and a Carol Sloane LP, "Live on 30th St."
Anyone familiar with him?