By Request: Bud Powell, 'How High The Moon'

Here’s another request from Allston:

Hi, Chris – per the request of another user, I have decided that my musical requests will also include some background on the artist.  I hope that will generate some discussions, as well as an appreciation of the music.

From Wikipedia –

Jazz pianist Bill Cunliffe, whose music was influenced by Bud Powell, said in an interview with All About Jazz:

“Bud Powell is the most important pianist in jazz and one of the most underrated because he spent over a third of his life in mental and medical hospitals. He was beaten by the police when he was twenty and he never fully recovered from that beating and as a result, he suffered pain and had to take drugs to alleviate the pain. So he never fully recovered from that and in spite of that, he created a whole lot of wonderful music.

He was really the first guy, before Bud Powell, pianists were playing boom, chuck in the left hand and a lot of melodic figures in the right hand that tended to be arpeggios. But with Bud Powell,

Bud Powell was imitating Charlie Parker. So Bud was the first pianist to take Charlie Parker’s language and adapt it successfully to the piano. That’s why he is the most important pianist in music today because everybody plays like that now.”

Enjoy “How High The Moon.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Plne4O2KKII