Search - John Hicks :: Fatha's Day: An Earl Hines Songbook

A nice tribute

N. Dorward | Toronto, ON Canada | 12/13/2003

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Hicks has been set to work for HighNote with a series of tributes to Pittsburgh-associated pianists (Billy Strayhorn, Mary Lou Williams, Sonny Clark, Erroll Garner). The Hines entry is the latest, & it's a worthy tribute, if something short of an essential listen. Hicks avoids pinning the programme too closely to Hines--there are quite a few Hicks originals (albeit dedicated to Hines), a few Hines-associated standards & a handful of Hines originals, notably "Rosetta", which gets a very nice treatment in the opening. Hicks' dark, chord-heavy sound also is quite different from Hines's bright clarion-call right hand & dizzying contrapuntalism. There are some nice solo pieces here ("Synopsis" is the longest & best), & while a few of the trio pieces drag slightly ("Sweet & Lovely" & "My Monday Date" in particular) mostly they're very enjoyable. But Hicks' constitutional soberness sits oddly with the spirit of his dedicatee, & in the end it's hard not to feel that the album suffers from a slight lack of variety in colour. That said, if you're a fan of Hicks or Hines it's certainly a worthwhile listen. I like the way that Hicks avoids sounding too secure, stretching slightly beyond what his hands will do: stride piano always sounds best with a few slips of the fingers (a grace that Jaki Byard used to indulge rather too much, admittedly). Oddly enough, two of the best tracks are not Hines-related at all, but leftovers from the Garner project (though freshly rerecorded here): I especially liked the blues "Twelve Bars for Linton" (Linton Garner, Erroll's pianist brother, who just died this year)."

A wonderfull series of recordings continues

andre salz | Quakertown, Pennsylvania USA | 10/15/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Here is the latest in this trio's "Pittsburg" series, highlighting Jazz greats associated with that city. As in the previous Sonny Clark issue, the recording weds the music of the musician receiving the tribute with Mr. Hick's musical impressions related to that musician. In a time when Jazz releases try to make a smorgasbord of styles to entertain the listener its wonderfull to hear artists mine the jazz vocabulary for new gems. With that wonderfull fat bass sound and tastefull drumming Mr.Hicks can improvise and give us a taste of real American music."