Bud Powell (1924–1966)

Born:

27th September 1924 in New York, New York, USA.

Died:

31st July 1966 in New York, New York.

Buried:

I don’t know where! Do you?

Some great pieces.
  • In Walked Bud. (See below for a video.)
  • Bouncing with Bud.
  • Dance of the Infidels.
  • Hallucinations (also known as ‘Budo’).
  • Un Poco Loco.
  • Plus many more!
Some great albums:
  • Bud Powell Trio (1947).
  • The Amazing Bud Powell, Volume 1 (1949–1951).
  • The Genius of Bud Powell (1950–1951) [also known as &#8216Bud Powell’s Moods&#8217].
  • The Amzing Bud Powell, Volume 2 (1951–1953).
  • Jazz at Massey Hall (1953).
  • Jazz Original (1954–1955) [also known as &#8216Bud Powell &#8217&#53&#55&#8217].
  • Plus several others!
Some interesting facts:
  • He was one of the greatest jazz artists of the ‘bebop’ era (1940s until the late 1950s). [Bebop is a style of jazz that is often very fast and has very talented playing.]
  • He played the piano. Apart from perhaps Thelonious Monk, he was the greatest pianist of the bebop era!
  • He played with some of the great jazz artists of his time, including Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie and Miles Davis.
  • Many people think that his concert recorded in ‘Jazz at Massey Hall’ was the greatest jazz concert ever! (Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie performed with him at this concert too.)
  • Thelonious Monk taught him a lot about playing jazz piano. The two men were also good friends.
  • He was always trying to compete with Charlie Parker—and he was one of the few jazz artists able to do so. Because of this, many people called him “the Charlie Parker of the piano”.
  • His real first name was Earl.
  • He was very ill for much of his life and spent a lot of time in hospital. This may have been caused by a beating he got from police in 1945.
  • This is what Bill Evans said about Bud Powell: “He was in a class by himself”.
A Website About Bud Powell

Here is a video of the Bud Powell Trio playing Anthropology by Charlie Parker (a trio is a group of three musicians playing together).

Bud Powell playing ‘Anthropology’

And here is a video of Bud Powell alone playing ‘Round Midnight by Thelonious Monk.

Bud Powell playing &#8216&#8216Round Midnight’

Finally, here is a video of a piece that Bud Powell wrote himself, Bouncing With Bud (although you can’t see him playing it).

Bud Powell playing ‘In Walked Bud’

Picture credits:
  1. Bud Powell. This photograph was taken by Francis Wolff on 29th December 1958 during the recording session for ‘The Scene Changes (The Amazing Bud Powell)’. Click here for the source of this image. The image is used here in the same fair manner as the other photograph by Francis Wolff on this site.
Video credits:
  1. Bud Powell Trio – Anthropology. Bud Powell, Jorn Elniff Niels-Henning Orsted Pedersen Copenhagen, early 1962. DVD “In Europe”.
  2. Bud Powell Trio – ‘ROUND MIDNIGHT. Bud Powell , Jorn Elniff Niels-Henning Orsted Pedersen.
  3. Bud Powell “Bouncing With Bud”. Sonny Rollins (ts), Fats Navarro (tp), Bud Powell (p), Tommy Potter (b), Roy Haynes (d). Recorded August 1949.