LF: pianists who should be corny but are not.

[Bol]

I am looking for piano trio recordings with pianists who pour forth emotions, and hence should be corny, but somehow avoid being corny. I have in mind people like Bill Evans and Bill Charlap. Can you think of others?

[Bill Nelson]

So, there are those who act like they're corny -- and those who truly ARE corny.

I'm sure it requires great restraint to suppress the urge to 'cross the line'.

[Bol]

Right. Some pianists -- e.g. Brad Mehldau -- seem to cross the line all the time. And I personally find the late recordings by some of my favorite horn players -- like Stan Getz, Gerry Mulligan, and even Lee Konitz now and then -- very hard to listen to because they cross the line. But people like Steve Lacy never do, no matter how emotional they get.

Edited April 13, 2011 by Bol

[Big Beat Steve]

I am looking for piano trio recordings with pianists who pour forth emotions, and hence should be corny, but somehow avoid being corny.

Just out of sheer curiosity: What kind of "corny" is this supposed to be if it becomes corny when EMOTIONS are being poured forth? Wouldn't this rather be "schmaltzy"? Tiny Hill was corny, Lawrence Welk was corny (O.K., no pianists, but you know what I mean), but were they so primarily because they dispensed overdoses of emotions? I don't really think so.

[king ubu]

I'll thrown in Fred Hersch... not very familiar with his music yet, but more and more intrigued by it.

Also Kenny Werner.

And Marc Copland (get "Time Within Time", the solo disc on Hat - I got that as a freebie when interviewing WXU some years back, had no expectations and all and was quickly spellbound).

[crisp]

I am looking for piano trio recordings with pianists who pour forth emotions, and hence should be corny, but somehow avoid being corny.

Just out of sheer curiosity: What kind of "corny" is this supposed to be if it becomes corny when EMOTIONS are being poured forth? Wouldn't this rather be "schmaltzy"? Tiny Hill was corny, Lawrence Welk was corny (O.K., no pianists, but you know what I mean), but were they so primarily because they dispensed overdoses of emotions? I don't really think so.

I'm struggling to think of any decent musicians who don't "pour forth emotions", but then maybe all of the music I like is "corny" (I know some of it is meant to be). Was Mahler corny?

[carnivore]

I think we are suffering from having had several generations of critics who have diminished and scorned the idea of playing melodically with attention to beauty of sound and tone. Bill Perkins once said 'I love to play ballads but these days if I do I'm always expecting a bottle to come flying past my head.'

[king ubu]

That's why they serve beers in plastic cups nowayday...

[JSngry]

I don't understand the question.

[Rooster_Ties]

Some pianists -- e.g. Brad Mehldau -- seem to cross the line all the time.

Mehldau? Interesting.

Depending on my mood, I sometimes find him to be cerebral to the point lacking emotion. (Or maybe I'm confusing my own emotional response to how (I think) he doesn't swing in any conventional sense.)

Don't get me wrong, I really LIKE Mehldau (or at least most of the time). But I find him to be 'emotional' in a rather technical way, if that makes any sense.

Or, getting back to the language in the OP, I almost never find him to be corny. If anything, he's off the chart in the opposite direction -- i.e., he's 'hyper-sincere', sometimes even to his own detriment.

Edited April 13, 2011 by Rooster_Ties

[Big Beat Steve]

I think we are suffering from having had several generations of critics who have diminished and scorned the idea of playing melodically with attention to beauty of sound and tone. Bill Perkins once said 'I love to play ballads but these days if I do I'm always expecting a bottle to come flying past my head.'

I admit I dont understand the initial question, then, either.

There are lots of ways of playing melodically without playing "corny". Especially in the case of ballads. Or else no jazz ballad would swing or just "be jazz". (Or is "corn" jazz?)

But like I said, I have a hunch we would first have to agree on a definition of "corn".

Playing melodically and conveying emotions is one thing, but playing melodic, emotional tunes in a way that makes them sound saccharine, lachrymose or just overly sentimental is an entirely different case but quite a possible occurrence. But would THAT be "corn"??

[RDK]

I don't understand the question.

Me neither. I dig emotionalism in music and don't at all consider the expressing of it to be "corny."

[paul secor]

I can't answer the question. I hope that the problem is with the question and not with me.

[ArthurSchopenhauer]

Dudley Moore

[Dave James]

No one has yet defined the operative term "corny", so I'm just going to go with Liberace.

[Jim R]

I am looking for piano trio recordings with pianists who pour forth emotions, and hence should be corny, but somehow avoid being corny. I have in mind people like Bill Evans and Bill Charlap. Can you think of others?

So, there are those who act like they're corny -- and those who truly ARE corny.

I'm sure it requires great restraint to suppress the urge to 'cross the line'.

[Free For All]

I don't understand the premise at all.

[Bright Moments]

by the way Mike Jones is permitting a free download ofhis new cd here:

http://www.jonesjazz.com/store.html

I enjoy all of his cd's!

Edited April 13, 2011 by Bright Moments

[RDK]

No one has yet defined the operative term "corny", so I'm just going to go with Liberace.

I've heard that some people believe that Liberace was the gratest piano player who ever lived.

[Van Basten II]

If you mean corny as being too cute for it's own good, you could say Cyrus Chessnut is sometimes guilty of these charges.

But for the rest count me as part of the gang who does not get the question and not sure what the heck are we looking for exactly.

Edited April 13, 2011 by Van Basten II

[.:.impossible]

I think corny is a you know it when you see it sort of thing.

[Van Basten II]

I think corny is a you know it when you see it sort of thing.

Apparently I don't because I never would have put Mehldau in this category.

[Rooster_Ties]

I think corny is a you know it when you see it sort of thing.

Apparently I don't because I never would have put Mehldau in this category.

My thought exactly. Mehldau might be a lot of things, but 'corny' ain't one of them.

[Larry Kart]

Bobby Enriquez should be corny and IMO is (or rather was):

[RDK]

I think corny is a you know it when you see it sort of thing.

Apparently I don't because I never would have put Mehldau in this category.

Me neither. I can think of a few pianists who I might consider intentionally "corny" - Liberace, Crazy Otto - and I might even give you a horn player like Boots Randolph or Richie Cole, though again I think much of the corniness is intentional. Would Erroll Garner be considered corny? Perhaps. But I'm thrown by the "who should be corny but aren't" thing.