solo jazz piano

[hardbop grandpop]

i have 1000s of cds and lps, but i am a little short on solo jazz piano. can some of you knowledgable jazz fans recommend some great solo piano albums for me. any style of jazz will do, i like everything, even the very modern.
gord

[Corno Dolce]

A suggestion:

*Soliloquy* by McCoy Tyner

Michael Camilo has some really great solo albums to his credit.

[Dorsetmike]

Hi Gord, suggestions - Oscar Peterson, Art Tatum, Erroll Garner, Ralph Sutton, Jessica Williams, Albert Ammons, Teddy Wilson, Ellis Marsalis, Marcus Roberts, Tommy Flanagan, Bud Powell, Mel Powell, Earl Hines, Pete Johnson, Andre Previn; some of these often recorded with a trio, typically bass or guitar and drums, but still come across sounding almost solo. These are not from a Google search, but from my own collection plus some from last.fm.

You should find many of them on Amazon with MP3 samples so you can try before you buy! I'll go through my stack of CDs and get Album names if you want specifics.

[teddy]

Thelonious Monk? I have a feeling that he sometimes played solo, even if it was not the norm.

teddy

[OLDUDE]

Thelonious certainly played solo.
Mike missed his favourite - Mary Lou Williams.
Here's some more from me:-
Hank Jones, Dave Brubeck, Fats Waller, Billy Kyle, Meade Lux Lewis, Jess Stacy, James P. Johnson, Jelly Roll Morton, Keith Jarret, Garland Wilson.
Also try keying in "solo jazz pianists" on Wikipedia for many more (some quite obscure)

[teddy]

Nobody has mentioned Jools Holland. Is that because you all hold the same opinion as me? Its better not to mention Jools Holland.

teddy

[Dorsetmike]

Jools is an excellent pianist, he probably plays "the other stuff" in order to stay commercialy viable. Having seen Jools live I enjoyed the show and would go again.

[teddy]

In that case Mike I will give him another chance

teddy

[Dorsetmike]

I think Jools's band can play almost as well as any of the legendary swing bands, there just is not a big enough audience to support such a band full time and exclude other genre. You just have to pick the tracks, maybe a good case for Amazon MP3 downloads, take just the tracks you like and ignore the rest. You may sometimes find it cheaper to take the complete Album if there are only 2 or 3 tracks to discard.

[OLDUDE]

Hi Mike
I have tended to avoid Jools (perhaps having a possibly mistaken idea that he was too pop orientated)
Perhaps like teddy I should give him a better hearing on Spotify.

Cheers John

[White Knight]

You could sample some Herbie Hancock and Chick Corea from the Amazon web site in 30 second snippets

[Mat]

Excellent suggestion, Steve. They both rank very high in my book.

Some examples from my collection:

Jacques Loussier - Imressions on Chopin's Nocturnes
Keith Jarrett - The Koln Concert
Leszek Możdżer - Chopin Impressions
Michel Camilo - Solo
Michel Petrucciani - Promenade With Duke
Makowicz vs. Możdżer at the Carnegie Hall

[Dorsetmike]

If you like stride piano then try Judy Carmichael, 4 or 5 of her albums on last.fm.

She sings well too. A few tracks on youtube don't really do her justice, video quality is attrocious, sound could be better.

Four tracks streamed on Myspace with small groups

http://www.myspace.com/judycarmichael

[White Knight]

Hi Gord. I would highly recommend you listen to Herbie Hancock, Mccoy Tyner and Thelonius Monk, perhaps on Spotify or Last fm. They have all done some very nice solos throughout their careers.

[OLDUDE]

I found a jazz pianist I have not heard before already in place on my new computer.
He is Bob Acri playing "Sleep away"

Very pleasnt tasteful music. I must get Spotify back to hear more of him.