Harlem Blues (JVC) by Phineas Newborn Jr.

Harlem Blues (XRCD)

From his emergence in the mid-1950s, Phineas Newborn was one of the most technically brilliant two-handed pianists who ever played jazz. Belonging to a virtuoso lineage that included Art Tatum and Bud Powell, he regularly inspired comparison with Oscar Peterson. Newborn would readily tear off runs in octaves with an ease that would be impressive with single notes, improvise complex solos with his left hand against right-hand trills, and crush complex explosions of notes between the phrases of a ballad. His playing seemed tautly suspended between sheer technical excess and manic creative fire, but he also had an ingrained feeling for the blues, honed in the Memphis bands of his youth. Harlem Blues was recorded in 1969, when Newborn had been out of the studios for some years, and he's joined by the dynamic team of Ray Brown on bass and Elvin Jones on drums, stellar accompanists who stoke Newborn's singular fire on the title tune, a brash up-date of stride and boogie-woogie, and on a hard-swinging version of Horace Silver's "Cookin' at the Continental." Probably the most potent rhythm section that Newborn was ever matched with, Brown and Jones are also wise enough to let the pianist follow his own shifting paths on such standards as "Sweet and Lovely" and "Stella by Starlight." More than two decades after his death, Newborn's explosive piano approach continues to be felt in succeeding generations of fellow-Memphis pianists like Harold Mabern and Geoff Keezer. --Stuart Broomer

Harlem Blues (XRCD)

From his emergence in the mid-1950s, Phineas Newborn was one of the most technically brilliant two-handed pianists who ever played jazz. Belonging to a virtuoso lineage that included Art Tatum and Bud Powell, he regularly inspired comparison with Oscar Peterson. Newborn would readily tear off runs in octaves with an ease that would be impressive with single notes, improvise complex solos with his left hand against right-hand trills, and crush complex explosions of notes between the phrases of a ballad. His playing seemed tautly suspended between sheer technical excess and manic creative fire, but he also had an ingrained feeling for the blues, honed in the Memphis bands of his youth. Harlem Blues was recorded in 1969, when Newborn had been out of the studios for some years, and he's joined by the dynamic team of Ray Brown on bass and Elvin Jones on drums, stellar accompanists who stoke Newborn's singular fire on the title tune, a brash up-date of stride and boogie-woogie, and on a hard-swinging version of Horace Silver's "Cookin' at the Continental." Probably the most potent rhythm section that Newborn was ever matched with, Brown and Jones are also wise enough to let the pianist follow his own shifting paths on such standards as "Sweet and Lovely" and "Stella by Starlight." More than two decades after his death, Newborn's explosive piano approach continues to be felt in succeeding generations of fellow-Memphis pianists like Harold Mabern and Geoff Keezer. --Stuart Broomer