UNDERAPPRECIATED LIVING PIANISTS
Ya know, everyone is hip to guys like Jarrett, Hancock, Tyner and even Brad Mehldau as being among the most influential and “important” (whatever that means) pianists of our day. But the fact remains that there are a bunch of great pianists out there that area doing some amazing things with not only the ivories, but also the sheet music. Here is a list of pianists that you need to delve into and get to know a bit better.
1) Billy Childs-He’s known as one of the best accompanists around, gigging for the likes of Dianne Reeves, and is always somewhere in LA when he’s not touring with some mega star. His own releases like Autumn and Bedtime Stories are near perfect mixtures of chamber jazz and strings
2) Bill Cunliffe-Does anyone in LA know this guy won a Grammy a couple years ago? All of his discs are incredible, particularly his arrangements of Bill Evans material. Always gigging with someone, and is one of those guys genetically incapable of playing a wrong note.
3) Tom Ranier-this humble and godly guy makes more $ in a month than we do in a year. He composes, arranges and performs for shows like Dancing With Idols, and has every instrument that has keys on it for studio work. He’s the first guy to call when Eddie Daniels is in town, and not only is he a versatile pianist, I swear, I saw him double on the sax few years ago and he BLEW PHIL WOODS OFF THE STAGE!!!
4) Josh Nelson-He teams up with Sara Gazarek and Denise Donatelli when these vocalists tour around, but his own trio is adept at any style, with some wonderful compositions by the leader. All of his releases are quite impressive as well.
5) Gerald Clayton-Son of the more famous John Clayton, he’s got a nice forward thinking touch, and he’s released some HOT trio stuff lately.
6) Tamir Hendleman-Part of the Jeff Hamilton trio, but he’s released some very intriguing material of his own. A nice personal touch on the 88s.
7) Laurence Hobgood-mostly known as the pianist/arranger for singer Kurt Elling, he’s also released a couple things on his own that are gloriously moody and adventurous. This guy needs to tour around on his own, or at least let his boss give him some spotlight time
8) Christian Jacob-part of the Tierney Sutton band, but he’s the arranger on a lot of the stuff, and every once in awhile he plays around town with the other non-singing members of the band. Very classy.
9) Eric Reed-he’s a bicoastal guy, and one of the main first call pianists for the like so of Janis Siegal. Versatile, he can go mainstream to Monk, and he can get from funk to gospel faster than you can pass around the collection plate.
10) Benny Green-at one time, he was one of the up and comers, and then became a down and outer. No recordings for about the entire Bush Administration, but he just put out a hot one. Great touch and nice bop chops
11) Donald Vega-Used to always be playing around somewhere in LA (sometimes with Jose Rizo’s Jazz on the Latin Side band) this reliable sideman just put out a very impressive release on his own, and now resides in NYC, making us here on the Best Coast miss him all the more.