Featured: Celia - Bud Powell

Bud Powell is the most important pianist in the early bop style and his playing and innovation transformed the piano jazz of his time. He loved to play and could reproduce the challenging styles of Art Tatum and Teddy Wilson. He devised and preferred a sparse manner of playing where intricate melodic lines in the right hand are punctuated by unpredictably placed dissonant chords in his left. An intriguing story behind this recording is how it was recorded at a time in Powell's life that he was institutionalized in the psych ward of a state hospital. After fifteen months "incarceration" he was given a day of "leave" and he rushed to the studio to make this recording. He prepared for the recording by special permission to practice on the piano in the psych ward under the condition that he would perform a minstrel show benefit concert for the institution.