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Earl Hines
Albums
![Piano Man! [ASV]](/cache/JS/d1/130x130_on-sale_d13808j797r.png)
Piano Man is the title of a Victor Bluebird record cut on July 12, 1939 by Earl "Fatha" Hines and his Orchestra. Piano Man is also the title of at least four different Earl Hines CD [more]
- List Price: $15.98
- Member Price: $11.98
- List Price: $12.97
- Member Price: $11.67
This LP and Hep 1018 have all of the recordings of Earl Hines's 1932-33 orchestra (including the many alternate takes). This often overlooked big band featured strong and swinging [more]
- List Price: $15.98
- Member Price: $14.38
- List Price: $12.98
- Member Price: $11.68
The two 1957 sessions that make up this CD featuring Earl Hines with a pickup rhythm section in Paris were recorded originally for Phillips, with bassist Guy [more]
- List Price: $13.90
- Member Price: $12.95
![In Paris [Bonus Track]](/cache/JS/f7/130x130_on-sale_f71244v02cv.png)
Earl Hines is in great form during this 1970 studio session with bassist Larry Richardson and drummer Richie Goldberg. Four of the six tracks on In Paris are standards which the [more]
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- Member Price: $8.98
The 11th installment in the Classics Earl Hines chronology charts the pianist and bandleader's professional progress during a time period running between May 1953 and August 1954. This [more]
- Member Price: $18.23
Appearances
The Hot Fives & Sevens are such an enormously important body of work that it seems like it would be impossible to separate wheat from chaff. But, really, would anyone [more]
- List Price: $17.98
- Member Price: $11.98
![Satch Plays Fats: The Music of Fats Waller [Bonus Tracks]](/cache/JS/e2/130x130_on-sale_e20801zh2ls.png)
Louis Armstrong and Fats Waller only worked together twice, briefly in 1925 in Erskine Tate's band and four years later in the New York [more]
- List Price: $16.99
- Member Price: $11.98
As he left Ellington said, 'It was lovely.' At 8:00 a.m., he and his band were off to an engagement in Oklahoma City. For Duke, it was back to business as usual, but, as Whitney Balliett wrote in The New Yorker, the maestro 'was finally given his due by his country.' -Doug Ramsey
One of the undeniable highlights of President Richard Nixon's administration was the 1969 White House gala celebrating Duke Ellington's 70th birthday, though jazz [more]
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- Member Price: $11.98
Of less importance than the concurrent release of The Best of Louis Armstrong: The Hot Five and Seven Recordings is Satch Blows the Blues, since it only distills the great [more]
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- Member Price: $11.98
It reads splendidly on paper: Shout Factory's Doctors, Professors, Kings and Queens: The Big Ol' Box of New Orleans is a [more]
- Member Price: $49.88
The extraordinary 1924 recordings with Louis Armstrong are on the first CD, plus material from his long stint with Noble Sissle. The second volume includes the complete New Orleans [more]
- List Price: $17.98
- Member Price: $11.98
Draw up a list of some of the top jazz artists of all time, and the legend featured in this recording would likely be at the top of that list. Louis [more]
- List Price: $16.98
- Member Price: $11.98
This four-CD set does its best to summarize Louis Armstrong's career during 1923-1934, reissuing 81 of his finest recordings. The problem is that virtually [more]
- Member Price: $59.98
Piano Man is the title of a Victor Bluebird record cut on July 12, 1939 by Earl "Fatha" Hines and his Orchestra. Piano Man is also the title of at least four different Earl Hines CD [more]
- List Price: $15.98
- Member Price: $11.98
This two-disc set follows the legendary Blue Note label from its inception as the smallest of independent labels, issuing 12" jazz singles in the [more]
- List Price: $33.98
- Member Price: $23.96
Biography
- Born Dec 28th 1903 in Duquesne, PA
- Died Apr 22nd 1983 in Oakland, CA
- Styles
- Early Jazz
- Instrument(s)
Once called "the first modern jazz pianist," Earl Hines differed from the stride pianists of the 1920s by breaking up the stride rhythms with unusual accents from his left hand. While his right hand often played octaves so as to ring clearly over ensembles, Hines had the trickiest left hand in the business, often suspending time recklessly but without ever losing the beat. One of the all-time great pianists, Hines was a major influence on Teddy Wilson, Jess Stacy, Joe Sullivan, Nat King Cole, and even to an extent on Art Tatum. He was also an underrated composer responsible for "Rosetta," "My Monday Date," and "You Can Depend on Me," among others.
Earl Hines played trumpet briefly as a youth before switching to piano. His first major job was accompanying vocalist Lois Deppe, and he made his first recordings with Deppe and his orchestra in 1922. The following year, Hines moved to Chicago where he worked with Sammy Stewart and Erskine Tate's Vendome Theatre Orchestra. He started teaming up with Louis Armstrong in 1926, and the two masterful musicians consistently inspired each other. Hines worked briefly in Armstrong's big band (formerly headed by Carroll Dickerson), and they unsuccessfully tried to manage their own club. 1928 was one of Hines' most significant years. He recorded his first ten piano solos, including versions of "A Monday Date," "Blues in Thirds," and "57 Varieties." Hines worked much of the year with Jimmy Noone's Apex Club Orchestra, and their recordings are also considered classic. Hines cut brilliant (and futuristic) sides with Louis Armstrong's Hot Five, resulting in such timeless gems as "West End Blues," "Fireworks," "Basin Street Blues," and their remarkable trumpet-piano duet "Weather Bird." And on his birthday on December 28, Hines debuted with his big band at Chicago's Grand Terrace.
A brilliant ensemble player as well as soloist, Earl Hines would lead big bands for the next 20 years. Among the key players in his band through the 1930s would be trumpeter/vocalist Walter Fuller, Ray Nance on trumpet and violin (prior to joining Duke Ellington), trombonist Trummy Young, tenor saxophonist Budd Johnson, Omer Simeon and Darnell Howard on reeds, and arranger Jimmy Mundy. In 1940, Billy Eckstine became the band's popular singer, and in 1943 (unfortunately during the musicians' recording strike), Hines welcomed such modernists as Charlie Parker (on tenor), trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie, and singer Sarah Vaughan in what was the first bebop orchestra. By the time the strike ended, Eckstine, Parker, Gillespie, and Vaughan were gone, but tenor Wardell Gray was still around to star with the group during 1945-1946.
In 1948, the economic situation forced Hines to break up his orchestra. He joined the Louis Armstrong All-Stars, but three years of playing second fiddle to his old friend were difficult to take. After leaving Armstrong in 1951, Hines moved to Los Angeles and later San Francisco, heading a Dixieland band. Although his style was much more modern, Hines kept the group working throughout the 1950s, at times featuring Muggsy Spanier, Jimmy Archey, and Darnell Howard. Hines did record on a few occasions, but was largely forgotten in the jazz world by the early '60s. Then, in 1964, jazz writer Stanley Dance arranged for him to play three concerts at New York's Little Theater, both solo and in a quartet with Budd Johnson. The New York critics were amazed by Hines' continuing creativity and vitality, and he had a major comeback that lasted through the rest of his career. Hines traveled the world with his quartet, recorded dozens of albums, and remained famous and renowned up until his death at the age of 79. Most of the many recordings from his career are currently available on CD. ~ Scott Yanow, All Music Guide
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