Time: 60:45
Size: 139.1 MB
Styles: Piano jazz
Year: 2008
Art: Front
[4:32] 1. I Could Write A Book
[5:55] 2. Guess I'll Hang My Tears Out To Dry
[4:17] 3. April In Paris
[5:36] 4. Polka Dots And Moonbeams
[4:06] 5. A Lovely Way To Spend An Evening
[4:39] 6. Gentle Rain
[5:29] 7. I Get A Kick Out Of You
[5:00] 8. Serenade In Blue
[3:31] 9. Why Was I Born
[3:53] 10. Come Rain Or Come Shine
[5:00] 11. The Way You Look Tonight
[5:04] 12. Moonlight Serenade
[3:39] 13. It Might As Well Be Spring
Bass – Jay Leonhart; Drums – Mark Taylor; Piano – Eddie Higgins. Recorded at Clinton Studio, N.Y, October 14-17, 2006.
A solid bop-based pianist, Eddie Higgins has never become a major name, but he has been well-respected by his fellow musicians for decades. After growing up in New England, he moved to Chicago, where he played in all types of situations before settling in to a long stint as the leader of the house trio at the London House (1957-1969). Higgins moved back to Massachusetts in 1970 and went on to freelance, often accompanying his wife, vocalist Meredith D'Ambrosio, and appearing at jazz parties and festivals. Eddie Higgins has led sessions of his own for Replica (1958), Vee-Jay (1960), Atlantic, and Sunnyside; back in 1960, he recorded as a sideman for Vee-Jay with Lee Morgan and Wayne Shorter.
A solid bop-based pianist, Eddie Higgins has never become a major name, but he has been well-respected by his fellow musicians for decades. After growing up in New England, he moved to Chicago, where he played in all types of situations before settling in to a long stint as the leader of the house trio at the London House (1957-1969). Higgins moved back to Massachusetts in 1970 and went on to freelance, often accompanying his wife, vocalist Meredith D'Ambrosio, and appearing at jazz parties and festivals. Eddie Higgins has led sessions of his own for Replica (1958), Vee-Jay (1960), Atlantic, and Sunnyside; back in 1960, he recorded as a sideman for Vee-Jay with Lee Morgan and Wayne Shorter.
A Lovely Way To Spend An Evening mc
A Lovely Way To Spend An Evening zippy
thank you.
ReplyDeleteMy wife has played this three times. She'll probably play it some more before the day is out. She loves it. I love it. There are, obviously, lots of good reasons why the greats are the greats. I speak of Bird, Coltrane, Eric Dolphy, Monk, Miles -- there must be 100, maybe 150 of them. But there comes a time of day, usually a little after five in the afternoon, that hour at which the gin bottle or the Campari or the red wine comes out, when what you really want is just some nice cocktail piano. You want the elegant little arpeggios and the other cocktail hour ornaments. You want to hear and savor the great tunes themselves. Obviously, there are a lot more cocktail piano greats than there are GREAT greats. But when it comes to the cocktail piano idiom, Eddie Higgins is really up there at the top of the heap. And, if you want to argue that Eddie Higgins is so good that he transcends the cocktail piano idiom, that's OK too. By the way, I really like cut 5 -- "A Lovely Way to Spernd an Evening" (which is also the name of the album). I know Sinatra's sung it. The person I really associate it with, though, is Mel Torme. Pity the jazz instrumentalisms haven't favored it more. Or is it that I haven't paid adequate attention.
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