Kevin Hays

[thedwork]

i've posted a few times here about how much i love this guy's playing (Small's Live thread, my recent BFT...), and i noticed there didn't seem to be a thread in this section for him. i think there should be!

just received a solo piano recording from him a few days ago titled Variations.

in very short order it has become my favorite solo piano recording. the only thing i can think of to compare it to for recommendation's sake would be Corea's Children's Songs. but the similarities between the two are generally only on the surface. some similarities could be seen between this and Beirach's solo recordings but those are generally surface similarities as well.

on top of the great music, the recording has excellent sound quality. checked through the rest of this label's releases and it looks like i'll be making more purchases from them.

Variations page at the label's site is here: Hays Solo Piano

there are decent sized sound clips there for every track

Edited June 24, 2012 by thedwork

[mikeweil]

If you like Hays playing solo piano, you should check out this one, too:

But I must admit I find his style a bit abstract to really enjoy it on records, I saw him live with Al Foster's quartet and his own trio and enjoyed him much more. My favourite is this Blue Note CD with great references to 1970's free style fusion and two great tenor saxophonists - Hays plays very nice Rhodes piano here:

His contibutions to Bill Stewart's trio CDs with two keyboarders (Larry Goldings being the other one) are great!

[jlhoots]

Used to see / hear Kevin often here in Santa Fe before he moved (?)back east.