Search - Junior Mance :: Junior's Blues

GREAT Jazz Blues Piano

W. Giles | 12/17/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"If you are looking for some cool laid-back jazz-blues piano, your search is over. This is great stuff. Basic piano trio line up and Junior cooks. Its all blues, but with a emphasis on mid-tempo to slow. This is on par with Ray Bryant and Red Garland.

If you love jazz and dig the blues, then this is one to go for!"

The Piano as Blues SINGER

Giordano Bruno | Wherever I am, I am. | 04/30/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Junior Mance was probably perceived as a 'veteran' even when he was the new kid back-up pianist for Lester Young in the 1940s. The deep 'blues' roots of his piano stylings were never soiled. He has never been a composer-performer; nearly all his tracks have been renditions of "standards". But he has never been merely a "player piano" for the musical expressions of others. Listen to the track of "Blue Monk" on this CD. The composition is classic Thelonius Monk, and you'll hear Monk's fingers on the keys in Junior's interpretation. But you'll also hear Junior's unique blues-singer extensons of Monk's concept, well beyond Monk's rather narrow pianistic technique. This track is one of the best piano-jazz masterworks I've ever heard.



What makes Junior's music beautiful, to my ears, is the vocal quality of his playing, his unique "touch' on the keys. I can't think of another pianist, jazz or classical, who makes me hear words subliminally like Junior Mance. Even on this re-engineered re-release -- fairly well done, by the way -- the Ma Rainey timbre of Junior's Blues is special. He makes his hammers sing."