Can anyone ID the piano player?

[jtaylor]

This is from a Cole/Basie/Ella engagement at The Paramount Theater, January 1957. Apologies if the pianist is obvious.

[JSngry]

Wild guess....Mal Waldron, somehow?

[Larry Kart]

Waldron wouldn't have been in that context. My guess is Ronnell Bright.

[Chuck Nessa]

My first thought was Jimmy Jones, but I don't think the face is "fat" enough.

[Larry Kart]

Image of Bright:

http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Recordings-1956-58-Ronnell-Bright/dp/B002J0QGUM/ref=sr_1_9?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1320201540&sr=1-9

I dunno now, but for some reason he was my insistent first thought.

[JSngry]

Yeah, the context is off...I was going by the glasses mostly...

Not sure about Ronnell Bright either, though.

Nice long five-part intervioew with him hre<

[Late]

The guy in the back (being whispered to) kind of looks like Sean Penn.

Jimmy Jones looks a little like Wynton Kelly — at least in the liner note picture from Classics 1946-1947.

[jtaylor]

Thanks for all of the suggestions.

Though this is from four years later than the first picture, the guy on the left looks like it could be the same guy?

Anyone know what Ernie Hayes looked like?

Edited November 2, 2011 by jtaylor

[JohnS]

Another guess - Sir Charles Thompson

[Harold_Z]

Thanks for all of the suggestions.

Though this is from four years later than the first picture, the guy on the left looks like it could be the same guy?

Anyone know what Ernie Hayes looked like?

It's not Ernie.

[Big Beat Steve]

Another guess - Sir Charles Thompson

The pictures I've seen of him don't resemble that bespectacled person in the first pic, though.

[Larry Kart]

The four years later shot gave me some ideas -- because it's in the studio with Cole, and Cole didn't play piano himself on most studio dates, maybe it's Cole's regular piano player, whose name understandably wouldn't have been publicized. But looking through the personnel of Cole recordings from those periods, the only names I come up are Jimmy Rowles, Lou Levy, Milt Raskin, John Towner Williams (yes, Mr. "Star Wars") et al., and it's clearly not one of those guys. There is Gerald Wiggins on some dates, but the guy in the photo looks even less like Wiggins than he does like Ronnell Bright.

Quite unlikely that it was Sir Charles. He didn't do West Coast studio work.

[Chuck Nessa]

I bet it's Leroy Lovett.

[JSngry]

Maybe it's not a proper pianist. Maybe it's a horn player sitting down at the piano hitting a few chords.

[Larry Kart]

Maybe it's not a proper pianist. Maybe it's a horn player sitting down at the piano hitting a few chords.

In the first photo, the look of alertness on his face and the fact that Cole is singing suggests he's a proper pianist.

[jtaylor]

The four years later shot gave me some ideas -- because it's in the studio with Cole, and Cole didn't play piano himself on most studio dates, maybe it's Cole's regular piano player, whose name understandably wouldn't have been publicized. But looking through the personnel of Cole recordings from those periods, the only names I come up are Jimmy Rowles, Lou Levy, Milt Raskin, John Towner Williams (yes, Mr. "Star Wars") et al., and it's clearly not one of those guys. There is Gerald Wiggins on some dates, but the guy in the photo looks even less like Wiggins than he does like Ronnell Bright.

Quite unlikely that it was Sir Charles. He didn't do West Coast studio work.

The second photo is, I believe, from a session at Capitol's New York studio.

Cole didn't have a regular piano player, at least not a guy who toured with him and played all of his dates the way Bill Miller, for instance, was Sinatra's pianist. All of the guys you mentioned did play on his west coast dates, Jimmie Rowles and before him Buddy Cole being the most frequent accompanists. Even John Williams played one or two sessions.

Edited November 2, 2011 by jtaylor

[Larry Kart]

Again, just to be clear, the John Towner Williams who played piano on a good many Cole sessions (not just one or two), is the eventual film composer and conductor of the Boston Pops and not to be confused with John Williams the talented/gnarly pianist who was a sideman with Stan Getz and recorded on his own for EmArcy.

West Coast or East Coast, Sir Charles was not a studio date/orchestra guy, AFAIK.

[jtaylor]

Again, just to be clear, the John Towner Williams who played piano on a good many Cole sessions (not just one or two), is the eventual film composer and conductor of the Boston Pops and not to be confused with John Williams the talented/gnarly pianist who was a sideman with Stan Getz and recorded on his own for EmArcy.

West Coast or East Coast, Sir Charles was not a studio date/orchestra guy, AFAIK.

Larry: Not to get this too far off course, but John Towner Williams, according to AFM contracts, did in fact only play on two Cole recording sessions, one in 1957 and another the following year.

[Chuck Nessa]

Absolutely not Sir Charles - doesn't look like him at all.

The more I think about it the more I think it is Lovett.

[jtaylor]

Thanks, Chuck. I can't seem to find any images of Lovett to comapare.

[Chuck Nessa]

Thanks, Chuck. I can't seem to find any images of Lovett to comapare.

Only one I can find

[Larry Kart]

Again, just to be clear, the John Towner Williams who played piano on a good many Cole sessions (not just one or two), is the eventual film composer and conductor of the Boston Pops and not to be confused with John Williams the talented/gnarly pianist who was a sideman with Stan Getz and recorded on his own for EmArcy.

West Coast or East Coast, Sir Charles was not a studio date/orchestra guy, AFAIK.

Larry: Not to get this too far off course, but John Towner Williams, according to AFM contracts, did in fact only play on two Cole recording sessions, one in 1957 and another the following year.

Sorry -- you're right, one on 11/20/57 and one on 6/20/58. Must have been off my meds.

[jtaylor]

Thanks, Chuck. I can't seem to find any images of Lovett to comapare.

Only one I can find

This Leroy Lovett?

The guy in the ad (scroll up just a bit to see it) looks like the man in the picture you posted, but given his baldness in the 1964 ad, I'm not convinced it's the same guy from the Paramount shot.

Edited November 2, 2011 by jtaylor

[Rooster_Ties]

Was this query ever settled?

[Brad]

I did a reverse image search and received the following reply. Doesn’t really answer the question but perhaps someone may want to follow up. 

https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/entertainer-nat-king-cole-records-in-the-studio-with-an-news-photo/74258801