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Singer-Piano Players

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Posted on August 11, 2017 at 09:21:41
andy evans
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Posts: 4378
Joined: October 20, 2000
 OK guys, how about another list since it's the plat du jour. This time it's singers who also play piano. So get ready for some women - this will be a refreshing sex change! And a continent change - we're going South...

Mine:
Eliane Elias
Ivan Lins
Blossom Dearie
Aretha Franklin
Diana Krall
Nina Simone
Hazel Scott
Diane Schuur
Carol Welsman
George Duke
Nat King Cole
Ray Charles
Fats Waller
Mose Allison
Otis Spann
Memphis Slim
Dr. John
Pinetop Smith
Speckled Red


Some I don't like quite so much
Shirley Horn
Patricia Barber
Norah Jones
Tania Maria
Clara Ponty
Aziza Mustafa-Zadeh (probably should try harder...)
Jamie Cullum
Bob Dorough
Jay McShann

 

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RE: Singer-Piano Players, posted on August 11, 2017 at 10:11:13
GEO
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Posts: 4749
Joined: April 7, 2000
Contributor
  Since: September 9, 2000
 You missed:

Andy Bey
Dena DeRose
Shirley Horn

 

harrumph..., posted on August 11, 2017 at 10:40:12
Jim Pearce
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Posts: 23677
Joined: January 4, 2002
 I think Freddy Cole is under-appreciated. Maybe inevitable, but there it is.

 

RE: Singer-Piano Players, posted on August 11, 2017 at 11:07:14
andy evans
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Posts: 4378
Joined: October 20, 2000
 Andy Bey is a nice discovery - thanks for that!

Dena DeRose i didn't know, and not specially interested either. Shirley Horn I did know and not a favourite.

I didn't know how many blues pianists to include - kind of a different style, but comes under the jazz umbrella. Quite a few famous names there.

Also not quite sure how far to go towards jazz-rock and soul. I love Donny Hathaway and Stevie Wonder of course. Stevie is on YT playing a passable Giant Steps.

But Aretha has to go in near the top of the list for me - one of the most moving singer/pianists ever. We're in Nat King Cole/Ray Charles country here.

 

Wow - Nat king Cole had a whole family...., posted on August 11, 2017 at 11:15:08
andy evans
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Posts: 4378
Joined: October 20, 2000
 i didn't know about Freddy Cole - voice is a bit different from Nat's. Bit Ike Cole's voice was a lot closer - he also looked a bit like Nat. Seems they all played the piano. What a family.

 

RE: Singer-Piano Players, posted on August 11, 2017 at 11:21:24
coffee-phil
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Posts: 1444
Location: Shingle Springs CA
Joined: January 7, 2010
 Here are three ladies who are no longer with us but in my view are glaring omissions:

1. Dorothy Donigan. She played mostly in the Bogie Woogie style, but played classical music for herself. I read the the great Art Tatum said she was the only lady piano player who scared him.

2. Sara Vaughan

3. Carmen Mcrae

Living is one of my favorites: Karryn Allysin

Phil

 

another spooky thing..., posted on August 11, 2017 at 11:23:24
Jim Pearce
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Posts: 23677
Joined: January 4, 2002
 Oscar Peterson was a superb singer who sounded like Nat King Cole's twin.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6vDPo0wixs

 

More nice ones...!, posted on August 11, 2017 at 11:46:50
andy evans
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Posts: 4378
Joined: October 20, 2000
 Dorothy Donegan was pretty amazing like you say. But did she sing much? There's a YT video of her and Cab Callaway both on piano, which reminded me that Cab could play the 88s as well.

Likewise I didn't reckon on Sarah Vaughan's piano playing either.

Carmen McRae is indeed a glaring omission! Thanks for that! She was a nice pianist and such a great singer.

Forgot Karryn Allyson as well. She's a serious singer/pianist. Nice one again.





 

RE: Singer-Piano Players, posted on August 11, 2017 at 12:34:23
GEO
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Posts: 4749
Joined: April 7, 2000
Contributor
  Since: September 9, 2000
 I am partial to Dena DeRose..... when she was coming up, I used to watch her perform at Restaurant called the Cornerstone in Metuchen NJ. A lot of good played came through there and the house bass player used to book a lot of the acts. I used to talk to Dena in between sets. Very nice and a great pianist...she only sang to keep her bookings after she hurt her wrist and had to rehab it..... This was three or four years before she landed a record deal. Really a great player. Anyway, I can't remember the bass players name but I helped him box up his house before a moved and he gave me boxes of jazz and classical LPs.

 

I have that LP. Yep, its uncanny. nt, posted on August 11, 2017 at 15:43:22
Rick W
 nt

 

RE: Singer-Piano Players, posted on August 11, 2017 at 18:26:21
k-k-k-kenny
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Posts: 552
Location: Melbourne
Joined: May 5, 2007
 If Dr John is in, then we can have Jon Cleary too, please?
And we can slip back then to Professor Longhair, and sideways to Henry Butler, Allen Toussaint. But is it jass music?
But no Harry Connick Jr for me, thanks all the same.

 

RE: Singer-Piano Players, posted on August 11, 2017 at 18:38:49
suretyguy
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Posts: 3022
Location: western Missouri
Joined: October 9, 2001
 David Frishberg should definitely be included. You mentioned Blossom Dearie, who did a great job with some of his songs. She by the way was an excellent jazz pianist whose performances without vocals are wonderful and easily stand alone; check out Les Blue Stars on Gitanes Jazz in Paris series. (Interesting tidbit about her: she refused to play in clubs where smoking was allowed long before the laws to abolish the habit were passed.)

I have to pick a nit with you about Shirley Horn, who I think is squarely in the top rank of singer-pianists. Again an excellent pianist.

Patricia Barber is an interesting case. I find her vocals somewhat cold, calculated and mannered, but I really like her piano playing. To my knowledge she's never done a piano only recording, but I'd love to hear the result if she did.

 

Shirley, posted on August 11, 2017 at 19:16:53
hifitommy
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Posts: 15387
Location: canyon country califiornia, orig from buffalo ny
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 i WHOLEHEARTEDLY agree with you on ms horn. ne of her attributes was to play/sing VERY slow and still swing.

the album series beginning with-you won't forget me-was fantastic. i heard the title tune on the way to work at 6am in the morning dusk. FIRST i heard mile tootling and i thought: WOW! an new miles record but NO, she came on with that sultry voice and won me over immediatley. i had never heard of her prior to that.

on the album-i remember miles- she does the tune-my man's gone now. CAPTIVATING.
...regards...tr

 

Slip n slide too much and Tom Waits is gonna be on the list too..., posted on August 11, 2017 at 19:19:32
musetap
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Posts: 31874
Location: San Francisco
Joined: July 8, 2003
Contributor
  Since: January 28, 2004
 which is fine by me.

"Once this was all Black Plasma and Imagination"-Michael McClure



 

I'm Hip!, posted on August 12, 2017 at 03:16:49
andy evans
Audiophile

Posts: 4378
Joined: October 20, 2000
 Ah - this little masterpiece was Dave Frishberg's song..... Blossom Dearie made a couple of paradoxical changes

- she changed "People Magazine" to "Playboy" which was a bit more outre. Bob Dorough, the co-writer also made that change. He was a bit more off the wall than Dave Frishberg, seems to me. I don't know who wrote what in the collaboration - I believe Frishberg wrote the lyrics and Dorough the music, but it may have been a bit more collaborative. Frishberg's "My Attorney Bernie" isn't really very funny, but "Peel me a Grape" is very witty.

- but then she deleted this nice bit
"And now I'm deep into Zen,
Meditation and Macrobiotics
And as soon as I can
I intend to get into narcotics"

and substituted the blander
"Now whatever the fads
And whatever the ads say it's needs fill
I'll be keeping abreast
Out in front of the rest with elites ville"

 

The Piano has been Drinking......, posted on August 12, 2017 at 03:53:05
andy evans
Audiophile

Posts: 4378
Joined: October 20, 2000
 Absolutely! And this song is a good example of how funny he can be

The piano has been drinking, my necktie is asleep
And the combo went back to new york, the jukebox has to take a leak
And the carpet needs a haircut, and the spotlight looks like a prison break
And the telephone's out of cigarettes, and the balcony is on the make
And the piano has been drinking, the piano has been drinking

And the menus are all freezing, and the light man's blind in one eye
And he can't see out of the other
And the piano-tuner's got a hearing aid, and he showed up with his mother
And the piano has been drinking, the piano has been drinking
As the bouncer is a sumo wrestler cream-puff Casper milktoast
And the owner is a mental midget with the i.q. of a fence post
Cause the piano has been drinking, the piano has been drinking

And you can't find your waitress with a Geiger counter
And she hates you and your friends and you just can't get served without her
And the box-office is drooling, and the bar stools are on fire
And the newspapers were fooling, and the ash-trays have retired
Cause the piano has been drinking, the piano has been drinking
The piano has been drinking, not me, not me, not me, not me, not me

 

Just realized an important omission that should be an addition..., posted on August 12, 2017 at 07:08:35
musetap
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Posts: 31874
Location: San Francisco
Joined: July 8, 2003
Contributor
  Since: January 28, 2004
 Since he was an early commission to the mission.

Hoagy Carmichael.







View YouTube Video


"Once this was all Black Plasma and Imagination"-Michael McClure




 

RE: Just realized an important omission that should be an addition..., posted on August 12, 2017 at 08:20:26
suretyguy
Audiophile

Posts: 3022
Location: western Missouri
Joined: October 9, 2001
 Excellent choice. He was one of those who didn't have what would normally be considered a great-or even good-voice, but got a song across anyway. I'm old enough to remember seeing him on TV variety shows doing songs like Baltimore Oriole, Rockin' Chair, Up a Lazy River, Two Sleepy People and, of course, the classic Stardust.

 

Sideways to the organ - Cory Henry, Georgie Fame..., posted on August 12, 2017 at 08:58:17
andy evans
Audiophile

Posts: 4378
Joined: October 20, 2000
 There must be a lot more singer - organ players... Georgie Fame comes immediately to mind. I used to do a lot of gigs with John Burch, the pianist who wrote a few of his hits like Yeh Yeh and In the Meantime. Never heard John sing, though.

Cory Henry is a marvellous organ player, and also has a great voice. I'm very partial to Modern Gospel, and my playlist is full of Kim Burrell and Dorinda Clark-Cole.

 

From the top of my head....., posted on August 12, 2017 at 09:25:37
ASHRA
Audiophile

Posts: 4141
Location: Philly
Joined: March 28, 2004
 ...just three for now.

Leon Russell
Randy Newman
Dorothy Donegan
Tom Waits

What can I say, I'm different!








View YouTube Video



Still spinnin'...

;^)

 

I was going to say Randy Newman but never heard him play jazz..., posted on August 12, 2017 at 09:31:42
andy evans
Audiophile

Posts: 4378
Joined: October 20, 2000
 Leon Russell, Dorothy Donegan and Tom Waits for sure...

 

Point taken..., posted on August 12, 2017 at 13:15:35
ASHRA
Audiophile

Posts: 4141
Location: Philly
Joined: March 28, 2004
 ...I'm not great with classifying music. You could say I improvise when it comes to categorization. Or just sloppy.

I got a couple of chances to see Dorothy in performance. She was spot on in mimicking other popular female singers.

Thanks!

Still spinnin'...

;^)

 

RE: Shirley, posted on August 13, 2017 at 09:11:30
Jim Pearce
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Posts: 23677
Joined: January 4, 2002
 No Shirley, no Diana Krall.

 

i guess, posted on August 13, 2017 at 18:30:53
hifitommy
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Posts: 15387
Location: canyon country califiornia, orig from buffalo ny
Joined: June 9, 2000
 that will be good for YOU.

...regards...tr

 

RE: i guess, posted on August 14, 2017 at 06:17:13
Jim Pearce
Audiophile

Posts: 23677
Joined: January 4, 2002
 I see I was overly concise here. What I meant was that Diana Krall at her best seems to me to be channeling Shirley Horn, with perhaps a nod to Julie London. Maybe not for the purist, but I have my impure moods.

 

RE: i guess, posted on August 14, 2017 at 07:48:26
hifitommy
Audiophile

Posts: 15387
Location: canyon country califiornia, orig from buffalo ny
Joined: June 9, 2000
 On the album Girl in the other room, on the song temptation, the style is hers alone, better in my opinion, than holly coles in every way.
...regards...tr

 

RE: Singer-Piano Players, posted on August 14, 2017 at 14:50:18
fantja
Audiophile

Posts: 15518
Location: Alabama
Joined: September 11, 2010
 Very good list- Andy;
I will second Dr. John and add Diana Krall, Jamie Cullum.

 

not jazz?, posted on August 15, 2017 at 07:14:14
Jim Pearce
Audiophile

Posts: 23677
Joined: January 4, 2002
 Not that it matters. She also killed "The Heart of Saturday Night" - she should do more Tom Waits.

 

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