Strictly Powell


Strictly Powell is a studio album by jazz pianist Bud Powell, released in 1957 by RCA Victor, featuring a session Powell recorded in 1956.
The album was remastered and released on CD by BMG Japan in 1994, and re-issued by RCA in 1995. The session is also available on The Complete RCA [Trio Sessions].

History

This is the first of Powell's two sessions for RCA Victor. There are four new Powell compositions, and in the original LP liner notes Leonard Feather marks out "Blues for Bessie" as "the most remarkable... a completely spontaneous improvisation from start to finish". Concerning "Elegy", Feather notes that it "scales up and down little ladders of fourths".
Marc Myers criticized the negative stance of some critics toward the album and its successor Blues in the Closet, writing that "any people who write about these RCA trio sessions go out of their way to note that Powell was no longer at the height of his playing powers. Hogwash, I say. While Powell here may lack the ferocious snap of his late-'40s recordings for Prestige or the grandiose breadth on his Verve sessions, the RCA material is plenty taut, engaging and creative."

Track listing

All songs were written by Bud Powell, except where noted.
  1. "There Will Never Be Another You" - 3:39
  2. "Coscrane" - 3:44
  3. "Over the Rainbow" - 3:20
  4. "Blues for Bessie" - 5:40
  5. "Time Was" - 3:07
  6. "Topsy Turvy" - 4:36
  7. "Lush Life" - 2:53
  8. "Elegy" - 3:49
  9. "They Didn't Believe Me" - 3:18
  10. "I Cover the Waterfront" - 2:32
  11. "Jump City" - 3:21

Personnel

Performance

October 5, 1956, New York. The Bud Powell Trio.

Production