Buck Hammer

A strange small album called The Breakthrough of Buck Hammer appeared in the later ’50s in the Jazztone label, purported to end up being the collected function of deceased Mississippi boogie-woogie pianist Buck Hammer. Hammer was in fact an alias of Renaissance entertainer Steve Allen, who composed the pieces in the record and overdubbed all of the piano parts, launching the recording to check the acumen of jazz critics, a lot of whom had been taken in from the hoax. Nat Hentoff had not been fooled, nevertheless, wryly noting that Mr. Hammer seemed to have been given birth to with three hands. Allen’s focus on detail within the recording makes it a fascinating recording, when you can think it is. A buck hammer, incidentally, is a medical tool used to check a patient’s neurological reactions.