Search - Roland Hanna :: Ellington Piano Solos

There is much in Sir Roland Hanna's art that makes him an apt interpreter of Duke Ellington's music. A gifted player in both bop and swing settings, he is also a scholar of early jazz piano styles--including blues and stride--and steeped in the moody and evanescent textures and harmonies of French and Spanish impressionist piano music, so much a part of Ellington's own work. Each of these tunes is an occasion for subtle recasting of the tunes' original harmony and beautiful explorations of piano sound, with Hanna's sudden arpeggiated runs cutting through the warm and dense chords. Hanna's talents are particularly well suited to Duke's evocative exotica--like "Warm Valley" and "Isfahan"--and luminous ballads. The result is a fitting meditation on some of Ellington's most durable pieces. --Stuart Broomer