Interesting post, Alex. Evans Bradshaw is new to me and I’m really glad to learn about him. I admire your dedication to lesser known players deserving of more attention. The music business is a tough business. Who knows what circumstances led to his very limited success? What I think I do know based on what I heard on the clips is that he was still growing and had tremendous promise. In many ways he sounds fantastic with a lot of chops, good sense of swing and a nice touch on the keyboard; but also a tendency to repeat his favorite licks. I also think that his producer(s) did not serve him particularly well. He and the other players don’t play that well together as a trio; especially on “It’s The Right Place”. Bradshaw takes it a breakneck tempo and the drummer can’t keep up. A producer’s job with new talent is to not let that happen; or, at least, not let that be the final product. Both trios sound like they could have used a little more rehearsal time. This clip came up on YouTube and shows Philly Jo doing a much better job of keeping up with Bradshaw’s exuberance:
https://youtu.be/5BU_lrLE408Loved Newborn’s version. It’s great with a very different slower feel. Very glad to have heard the clips. Thanks!
Speaking of little known piano players and elegant playing (per Schubert’s comment), here’s something different. Don Shirley was an incredibly accomplished individual in many ways and worth learning a bit about:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_ShirleyHe didn’t really consider himself a jazz player and was trained as a concert pianist. Not the most swinging player, but played with a nice feel and recorded many jazz standards in a very inventive style which showed his Classical music training and which sometimes came dangerously close to a “Muzak” or “Beautiful Music” style without crossing over the line (for me) into Liberace territory. His playing and inventiveness were very elegant and he produced an especially beautiful tone on the piano:
https://youtu.be/yYb6qwzode8https://youtu.be/SWJJm2WJ-WASchubert, Gonzalo Rubalcaba was one of the first young Cuban musicians to gain international attention after the first wave of high profile defections of Cuban jazz musicians which included Paquito D’Rivera and Arturo Sandoval. Very elegant player as you say:
https://youtu.be/tQQMFRr_e1g
