Tag Archives: Larry Willis

Perhaps one of the most valued of most hard bop accompanists, Cedar Walton was a versatile pianist whose funky contact and cogent melodic feeling graced the recordings of several of jazz’s greatest players. He was also among the music’s even more underrated composers; although he was generally a first-rate interpreter …

Post-bop/hard bop instrumentalist Michael Weiss continues to be quoted as saying that he hopes to bring to jazz “a larger integration of composition and improvisation as opposed to the outdated head/solos/head format” — and, to be certain, his ‘90s and 2000s albums possess often mirrored that compositional outlook. Although Weiss’ …

Once identified with on-the-edge totally free music, keyboardist Larry Willis had a profitable flirtation with fusion within the ’70s, after that moved to very difficult bop within the ’80s and ’90s. Willis’ performing continues to be frenetic, ambitious, and interesting, but during his jazz-rock and fusion times it had been …

Closely associated sometimes with Wynton and Branford Marsalis, Kenny Kirkland amazingly just led one CD of his own ahead of his premature death. He began playing piano at age group six and afterwards studied on the Manhattan College of Music. Among his early careers were using Michal Urbaniak (on electrical …

No American rock and roll group ever began with just as much daring or musical promise as Bloodstream, Perspiration & Tears, or understood their potential more fully — and blew everything as quickly. Off their origins being a jazz-rock test that wowed critics and listeners, they continued — within a …

An excellent keyboardist that has ranged in designs from Costs Evans to Chick Corea and fusion, Andy LaVerne has were able to avoid predictability throughout his profession. He began monitoring as a traditional piano pupil at Juilliard when he was eight. After finding jazz, LaVerne acquired some essential lessons from …