Bud Powell

Bud Powell于1924年生于纽约市，七岁起开始接受古典的钢琴训练，十三岁时接触了爵士乐后便迷上了它，十五岁时便从高中辍学，并开始他的职业演生涯。Bud早期的演奏风格受天才钢琴手Art Tatum的影响甚钜，从他的录音可听到在中板速度的演奏曲目之中，他采用非常多的Tatum式的快速装饰间奏。从认识了钢琴怪杰Thelonious Monk之后，便经常随着Monk到52街的酒吧和Bebop的发源地Minton's House去观摩学习，也因此使得他得以接触到Bebop大师Charlie Parker的现代爵士乐。从此以后，Bud便以Parker为学习对象。而Bud在小时候所接受的正统音乐的训练，使得他有足够的技巧将Parker式的快速奇特乐句融入他的钢琴演奏之中。这种旋律线条极为铿锵有力，而且能够绵延不绝的Bebop式弹奏法，使得Bud成为1940年代第一个Bebop钢琴手，没有任何人能够弹奏出比他更快速有力，而且具结构性的即兴乐句。Bud Powell在1964年从欧洲返回美国，因健康状况开始恶化，并未留下任何作品。最后这位一代钢琴宗师终于在1966年7月31日死于他的故乡，享年仅仅四十一岁。
 
One of the giants of the jazz piano, Bud Powell changed the way that virtually all post-swing pianists play their instruments. He did away with the left hand striding that had been considered essential earlier and used his left hand to state chords on an irregular basis. His right often played speedy single-note lines, essentially transforming Charlie Parkers vocabulary to the piano (although he developed parallel to Bird).
 
Tragically, Bud Powell was a seriously ill genius. After being encouraged and tutored to an extent by his friend Thelonious Monk at jam sessions in the early 40s, Powell was with Cootie Williams orchestra during 1943-1945. In a racial incident, he was beaten on the head by police; Powell never fully recovered and would suffer from bad headaches and mental breakdowns throughout the remainder of his life. Despite this, he recorded some true gems during 1947-1951 for Roost, Blue Note, and Verve, composing such major works as Dance of the Infidels, Hallucinations (also known as Budo), Un Poco Loco, Bouncing With Bud, and Tempus Fugit. Even early on, his erratic behavior resulted in lost opportunities (Charlie Parker supposedly told Miles Davis that he would not hire Powell because hes even crazier than me!), but Powells playing during this period was often miraculous.
 
A breakdown in 1951 and hospitalization that resulted in electroshock treatments weakened him, but Powell was still capable of playing at his best now and then, most notably at the 1953 Massey Hall Concert. Generally in the 1950s his Blue Notes find him in excellent form, while he is much more erratic on his Verve recordings. His warm welcome and lengthy stay in Paris (1959-1964) extended his life a bit, but even here Powell spent part of 1962-1963 in the hospital. He returned to New York in 1964, disappeared after a few concerts, and did not live through 1966.
 
In later years, Bud Powells recordings and performances could be so intense as to be scary, but other times he sounded quite sad. However, his influence on jazz (particularly up until the rise of McCoy Tyner and Bill Evans in the 1960s) was very strong and he remains one of the greatest jazz pianists of all time.