The Life & Music of Bud Powell Tribute with Bruce Dudley

Bruce Dudley presents this edition of "Jazz on the Move", an informative and entertaining Bud Powell tribute. This presentation is packed with incredible performances and analysis of Bud Powell's music. Bruce is joined by bassist Roger Spencer, drummer Marcus Finnie, and trumpeter Rod Preacherman McGaha. The program was recorded at the Steinway Piano Gallery of Nashville and is presented in cooperation with the Steinway Gallery.

Pianist Bud Powell was a leading figure in the development of bebop in the 1940’s. A virtuoso instrumentalist, he is credited with adapting the style of Charlie Parker to the piano. A brilliant composer as well, his writings are among the most imaginative in modern jazz. An early protégé of Thelonious Monk, Powell was a regular participant in the bebop sessions at Minton’s Playhouse, and appeared on classic recordings with Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, and Max Roach. Considered a troubled genius, Powell had frequent legal problems and psychiatric hospitalizations, and he apparently never recovered from a beating by police early in his career. From 1959 to 1963 he lived in Paris, where he continued to perform and record. He returned to New York in 1964, where he died from tuberculosis and alcoholism in 1966, at the age of 41.

A brilliant jazz pianist, composer, and educator, Bruce Dudley received his doctorate from the University of Colorado and serves on the faculty of Belmont University, Vanderbilt University Blair School of Music, and the Nashville Jazz Workshop. Bruce has made a study of Bud Powell’s music and improvisational style and has taught classes on this at the NJW.

0:00 - opening
0:17 - intro
1:45 - Bud Powell's early life and career
5:00 - "I Don't Know" performance
9:06 - Bud Powell's struggles in the 1940s
12:47 - "Bouncing with Bud" performance
17:01 - background on "Webb City"
17:45 - "Webb City" performance
20:36 - Bud Powell's relationship with Thelonius Monk
22:15 - "Bud's Bubble" by Bud Powell performance
25:12 - "Off Minor" by Thelonius Monk performance
28:01 - trio record with Ray Brown and Max Roach
29:01 - "Tempus Fugit" performance
31:23 - "The Amazing Bud Powell" record
32:15 - "Dance of the Infidels" performance
35:26 - "Wail" performance
38:12 - 1950/1951
39:41 - "Parisian Thoroughfare" solo performance
42:00- "Un Poco Loco" performance
47:19 - 1950s incarcerations and hospitalizations
51:26- "Hallucinations" performance