Tempus Fugue-It (4CD)

As Bill Evans said “His insight and talent were unmatched in hard-core, true jazz”. Bud Powell has also been described as being the most brilliant of bebop pianists, the only modern jazz musician who equalled the supersonic speed and creativity of Charlie Parker. Bud Powell’s early years are documented on the 86 tracks in this 4 CD box set, the years during which he amazed fellow musicians as well as jazz fans, with dazzling bebop piano playing that laid the foundation of modern jazz piano. The full Bud Powell story is told within the pages of the 48 page booklet that also includes rare pictures and discography.
Tempus Fugue-It collects early Bud Powell 78s and shows just how important he was to the music’s development. A native New Yorker, Powell started recording at the age of 19 with Cootie Williams’s small group in January 1944. This collection follows him through his early sideman discs, first with Williams and then with young beboppers like JJ Johnson, Dexter Gordon and The BeBop Boys (a group including Sonny Stitt and Fats Navarro). Impressive and fluent though his work with these groups is, the revelations begin with his January 1947 recording debut as a leader of his own trio. This session occurs towards the end of disc two, with the final two sides kicking off disc three. Powell’s intensity, fluency and freshness of idea are all overpowering, initiating the handful of years he enjoyed when his ideas and his ability to articulate them were at their peak. Discs three and four contain Powell’s monumental first trio sessions for Norman Granz and his debut (with Navarro and Sonny Rollins) for Blue Note. They also cover the Prestige sides cut by a co-led quartet with Sonny Stitt and end with his famous July 1950 “Tea for Two” recording with Buddy Rich. –Keith Shadwick