The bluesiest Jazz piano player?

[DrJ]

I love the Art Hodes choice of Lon's, very strong candidate for bluesiest ever.

And to add one player that hasn't been mentioned: Sonny Clark, while certainly steeped in bop, had a VERY bluesy undercurrent to both his writing and playing.

[JSngry]

Ellington.

[jazzbo]

Yeah Ellington. The blue PAINTER. Shheessh, not necessarily at the piano, but what that guy did with the BLUES!

[Larry Kart]

Miles' point about Peterson as a blues player seems clear enough, whether or not you agree with it -- that Peterson employs cliched blues devices rather mechancially and too excess. As for socio-economic background as a measuring stick, I suppose you could argue that a Rockefeller heir might be a very unlikely blues player, but beyond that it quickly gets absurd. For example, take the names of all the pianists mentioned here so far and, if we had the information, rank them in terms of their socio-economic backgrounds. Who would then want to argue that this ranking determined their relative merits as blues players, with the most "deprived" being the bluesiest?

[king ubu]

yeah, Parlan!

also:

Kelly

Garland

Timmons

ubu

[Harold_Z]

In a way this is a rough question...all the guys mentioned play good and sometimes great blues - and then where is that (non-existent?) line between blues players (Spann, Big Maceo, Memphis Slim, etc) snf Jazz players. Guys like Roosevelt Sykes, Sammy Price, Art Hodes could go ENTIRELY to the places Spann, Big Maceo, Memphis Slim go. Then, a lot of the newer guys can turn it on or off at will...and THEY sound pretty convincing!

I guess I think there's a myriad of good blues players.

Edited August 28, 2003 by Harold_Z

[Brad]

Bobby Timmons to me. That guy was drenched in the blues. Epitome of the hard bop sound.

[Ron Thorne]

What an interesting thread question.

Well, I really like several mentioned earlier, as well as one previously unmentioned ... Les McCann

If hard-pressed, I'd have to suggest, in no particular order:

Bobby Timmons

Ray Bryant

Junior Mance

Les McCann

Horace Silver

Ray Charles

[Brownian Motion]

I'll second Sammy Price, and add Albert Ammons, Jelly Roll Morton, Pete Johnson.

Edited September 1, 2003 by Brownian Motion

[Christiern]

Jimmy Yancey -- you don't get any deeper into blues than that, and he could play them so slow that they almost ground to a halt--almost.

Another one is Sammy Price--not a very nice person, but he could do the blues justice.

While we're at it, how about Leroy Carr?

Jelly Roll Morton's General recording of "Mamie's Blues" is also one of my favorite performances. Simply beautiful.

Edited September 1, 2003 by Christiern

[Cali]

John Wright (South Side Soul)

[paul secor]

Jimmy Yancey -- you don't get any deeper into blues than that, and he could play them so slow that they almost ground to a halt--almost.

Jelly Roll Morton's General recording of "Mamie's Blues" is also one of my favorite performances. Simply beautiful.

Jimmy Yancey has been mentioned a few times, but Chris makes an excellent point. Listen to his two 1943 recordings of "How Long Blues". The man can make time seem to stop and can make the piano sound like it's crying.

Jelly Roll's "Mamie's Blues" is a great choice too. I forgot about his General recordings when I posted, and they're too good to be overlooked.

[Alexander Hawkins]

I don't think I've seen Kenny Drew's name so far...

Don't know much Jimmy Yancey, but YES to what I have heard!

[Roundsound]

Nobody has mentioned Wynton Kelly. Alos Sonny Clark has many blues touches to go along with his bebop type touch.

[Free For All]

I don't know if I'd call Wynton Kelly the bluesiest, but I sure like the feeling he gets when he play da blues.