I'm wondering what some of your favorite piano albums are.

I'm tempted to limit this to solo piano albums, but I think that would be a bit too restrictive. After all, I'm just looking for more good listening ideas

Currently the albums I'm listening to the most are:

Keith Jarrett - The Melody at Night with You
Chick Corea - Expressions
Herbie Hancock - The Piano
Bill Evans - Alone
Bill Evans - Alone Again
Bill Evans - Solo Sessions Vol. 1
Dave Brubeck - One Alone Solo Piano
Keith Jarrett - Live at Carnegie Hall

I've been listening to a fair amount of Diana Krall lately also, but she doesn't seem to fit the bill of a "piano" album.

Marcia Ball - I have several but my favorite is called either Marcia Ball (period) or Blue House. It's New Orleans honky tonk and blues - her band includes sax, bass, drums, and guitar, so it's not solo piano, but boy can she play a piano.

Jerry Lee Lewis - Last Man Standing - duets with a host of different musicians. Probably don't need to describe his music

The Best of Fats Waller EDIT: The Very Best of Fats Waller end EDIT - includes Ain't Misbehavin', Handful of Keys, It's a Sin to Tell a Lie, et al et al et al. The king of stride, of course.

But something more likely up your alley is Bert Dalton, Midnight Coffee. He's a Santa Fe jazz pianist, but right up there with the best. This album is recorded with John Clayton, bass (described as "artistic director of jazz for the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Hollywood Bowl") and Jeff Hamilton, drummer ("seen on Natalie Cole's Great Performances PBS Special"). Dalton has played with "Bud Shank, Herbie Mann, Anita O'Day, Regina Carter, and Frank Morgan." I like his music a lot. I'll see if it can be ordered on-line.

YUP - I just searched for Bert Dalton Midnight Coffee and it's available several places, including a single download for $.99 from Napster, CDBaby, and Barnes and Noble.

Cathy

jotur, thanks for the killer recommendation on Marcia Ball !!!! I just listened to some samples of her Blue House album and it's fantastic. My musical tastes vary quite a bit and this fits right in with a bunch of stuff I have like Little Feat, Neville Brothers, Dr. John, etc.

Which reminds me, a couple of other piano albums I'm listening to lately are:

Dr. John - Mercernary
Jools Holland - Swinging the Blues, Dancing the Ska
Jools Holland - Moving Out To The Country

Yeah, I heard her in concert here a year or so ago. If you get a chance to see her she is a showman. There's some (pretty poor) youtube's of her - she has a stage piano at knee level, sits with her legs crossed and her mules (backless shoes) hanging off her toes LONG fingers - but in person is bestest. The place was packed, and folks dancing in the aisles. I think Dr John was a mentor. I like her other albums, too.

I'll have to try the Jools Holland.

Cathy

Any album by Oscar Peterson. He does not loose the plot and there is a solid beat. His finest recording is the 1977 Montreaux Jazz Festival. IMO

Any takers on improvements to that?

Alan (swingal)

I enjoy the Suite for Flute and Jazz Piano Trio by Claude Bolling and An Evening With John Petrucci and Jordan. Neither of them are strictly piano but both have feature amazing pianists.

Too much running through my head to think of many, but Michel Camilo's "One More Once" is a great album, IMO. It's really cheap over at Amazon and is a great synthesis of jazz, rock and latin vibes (something he calls is "New York style"). I enjoy all of his albums, really. Great pianist.

Vince Guaraldi, Bob Seeley, Mark "Mr. B" Lincoln Braun, Bradley Sowash, David Nevue, Errol Garner, Dave McKenna... the list goes on and on and on and...u get the idea...

George Winston: Autumn, December, and Forest

Everything by Ludovico Einaudi, esp. I Giorni and Divenire

Rick Wakeman has a lovely little solo piano album called Country Airs

I just discovered Eldar Djangirov, in particular his Live at the Blue Note album.

I think he's a really great jazz pianist, and he's only 20 years old !!!

Amazing stuff.

Thanks for the new recommendations.

Monica, I'm definitely going to check out the Rick Wakeman album. Many moons ago I was a huge Yes fan but I had forgotten all about him. Thanks for jogging my memory.

Another album I just discovered that I just love is "Ahmad Jamal - I Remember Duke, Hoagy & Strayhorn"

My absolute favorite is South African pianist Abdullah Ibrahim (early in his career, he released albums under his name Dollar Brand). He has a number of solo piano albums, and I'd be hard-pressed to recommend just one of them. Perhaps "African Piano". He also recorded many duet albums (piano/bass or piano/sax), small group albums (his small group was named Ekaya) and a couple of orchestral albums.

I think Abdullah Ibrahim has a unique voice on piano. You'll hear elements of gospel, jazz (his influences were Fats Waller, Duke Ellington and Thelonius Monk), blues and African rhythm and textures.

I also highly recommend the "Live at Maybeck Recital Hall" albums on the Concord label. I've heard about a half-dozen of them and they've all been great. One particular favorite is the volume by Kenny Werner, who is arguably a modern disciple of Bill Evans.

Bill Evans' "You Must Believe In Spring" - not because it's his best (it isn't) but because upon hearing it I was awestruck. I was already into jazz at the time but lacked direction. I'd heard of Bill Evans but didn't appreciate his talent. Seems like Herbie Hancock and Chick Corea were getting all the air play. But when I heard Bill play the title cut, I had to get that album (my first of many Bill Evans albums). Listen and learn.

I don't think anyone will have heard of this one, but I'll go with Piano tribute to Dashboard Confessional.

You can check it out on Amazon, just type in Piano tribute to Dashboard Confessional, and then scroll down and just click where it says "listen to all" and you can listen to any of the songs

It has some really good melodies there, you might be surprised.

Professor Longhair ->

Crawfish Fiesta and Houseparty New Orleans Style...

both available from Amazon MP3 store.

I just looked it up on Rhapsody, and there's a whole big series of "Piano Tribute" albums, including Rush, REM, U2, Dido, Pink Floyd, Nirvana, etc. etc.

I am going to be in for hours of entertainment...

DeepElem, the Wakeman "Country Airs" album is not like his usual stuff. It's definitely new age in style. But very very pretty.

'Wildflower' and 'White Owl' by Keiko Matsui.

I see that Bill Evans is very popular amongst the viewers of this topic.

He is certainly technically very melodic and what I call a mellow mood pianist. He is not my favourite jazz pianist. I prefer the swing players like Teddy Wilson who combined melody and beat with fantastic arpeggios all to a strict timing which added to the beauty.

I get the feeling that young, recently taught pianists and current students are more attached to
technical playing and rather abstract sounds than old people like me are. I believe that we have little theory (or none!in my case)and just hear the beauty of the sounds and the beat just like the human soul plus heart beat. Is this correct?

Perhaps it is a virtual impossibility to copy such music by ear and memory? whereas easier remembered tunes are not difficult. Even longer renditions like Fats Waller composed.

I therefore, will never be able to remember such as these modern compositions in my head like most of you perhaps?

Please try and understand what I mean. Is it the technical requirement that is my downfall?.

It seems to be almost like modern abstract paintings and sculpture which I also have great difficulty with.

I try to understand New Age music, but find it difficult, due to lack of connected structure and flow of melody.

I just bought a Bill Evans DVD called,'But Beautiful' and it is very good if you like his style. I have also got the well known DVD called 'The Universal Mind Of Bill Evans' very good for learning his style from, if you wish to play that way.Rather a 'masterclass' I think.

Funny isn't it? that none of us can understand anyone else's sense of hearing and especially their feelings mentally and soulful emotions.

I'm still hoping someone(and I have a name in mind !)who can tell us what they get as feelings from this beat-less yet harmonic phrase-work so
passionately described to us here.

Alan (swingal)

Quote:(swingal)
I try to understand New Age music, but find it difficult, due to lack of connected structure and flow of melody.

I remember reading Sammy Cahn saying to Jimmy Van Husen "can you give me a little grace note here?"
Jimmy's response was ..if I give you a grace note here..down the line I'd have to give you another and another.. I'll write a new song!
that little change affects the whole structure of a song!

most new age music has no structure..so its hard to memorize..

Hello, new here, great place...this is such a broad topic, there are simply so many great recordings and pianists out there, in a lot of different styles..and everyone mentioned here are simply great...my list would be too long, so my almost everyday listens and inspirations come mostly from Herbie, all phases, Kenny Kirkland, especially on Codes of the Underground w/Wynton, Evans, Chick, Kelly, all of the Michael Brecker lps have great boards on them..see, I knew I couldnt answer this one....

Ben Folds Five - Self Titled.

Professor Longhair: Rock'n Roll Gumbo

In terms of piano jazz solo works I have two pretty standard offerings:

One was already mentioned: Keith Jarrett's The Melody at Night, With You. I'm new to KJ and this is the only CD of his that I have (I know, burn me at the stake), and I can't imagine topping it.

My other nominee, if you like standards played the "old way" is a recent Dave Brubeck CD called "Private Brubeck Remembers", which is mostly, if not solely, standards of the WWII era played just by him on the piano.

I think his Xmas CD, by the way, is also a piano solo work. It was outstanding if you can get your hands on it.

Since I also noticed quite a few Bill Evans mentions and I still haven't warmed up to him (I know, after you burn me at the stake, dump my ashes in a latrine), I did buy a CD of him and Tony Bennett just with voice and piano that I think is pretty good as well.

Good topic. Getting a lot of good tips.

Rafael

I usually like pianists who don't try to play everything they know in their solos. So my list tends to favor artists like that.

My personal favorites (in no particular order)

With a group:
Bud Powell - Genius of Bud Powell V.1
Gene Harris - Ballad Essentials
Cyrus Chestnut - Dark Before the Dawn

Solo Piano:
McCoy Tyner - Jazz Roots
Tommy Flanagan & Hank Jones - Our Delights
Thelonious Monk - Monk Alone Discs 1 & 2

My favorite album is "Piano Classic" by John O'Connor for the classics and Michel Camilo's "On the other Hand" for in your face percussive piano.

Here's one of my old favorites:

Marian McPartland, On 52nd Street

http://play.rhapsody.com/marianmcpartland/on52ndstreet

I would recommend looking for Christopher O'Riley's piano versions of Radiohead songs. He's released two CDs of them -- True Love Waits and Hold Me to This. I'm a big Radiohead/Thom Yorke/Johnny Greenwood fan as it is, but O'Riley's interpretations are beautiful.

I have many favorites but four solo piano recordings are closest to my heart ...Jim Bajor's "Awakening", Jeff Bjorck's "Pure Piano Panoramas", Micheal Dulin's "The One I waited For". Bradley Sowash's "Bittersweet"..I've practically worn these out!

Also, anything recorded by Terry Waldo the Ragtime legend. He's amazing and still performing in New York City.

- Michel Petrucciani aux Theatre des Champs Elysees
- Keith Jarrett Koln Concert
- Dave McKenna @ Maybeck

are the 3 solo albums that come to mind right now ...

Totally agree on Ms. Matsui, though my preference is for Deep Blue (and Deep Blue Solo Piano version)