Hank Jones, Versatile Jazz Pianist, Dies at 91

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Hank Jones, Versatile Jazz Pianist, Dies at 91
By PETER KEEP
NEWS
Published: May 17, 2010
www.nytimes.com

"Hank Jones, whose self-effacing nature belied his stature as one of the most respected jazz pianists of the postwar era, died Sunday at a hospice in Manhattan. He was 91.

Wendy Oxenhorn, executive director of the Jazz Foundation of America, confirmed Mr. Jones’s death.

Mr. Jones spent much of his career in the background. For three and a half decades he was primarily a sideman, most notably with Ella Fitzgerald; for much of that time he also worked as a studio musician on radio and television.

His fellow musicians admired his imagination, his versatility and his distinctive style, which blended the urbanity and rhythmic drive of the Harlem stride pianists, the dexterity of Art Tatum and the harmonic daring of bebop. (The pianist, composer and conductor André Previn once called Mr. Jones his favorite pianist, “regardless of idiom.”)

But unlike his younger brothers Thad, who played trumpet with Count Basie and was later a co-leader of a celebrated big band, and Elvin, an influential drummer who formed a successful combo after six years with John Coltrane’s innovative quartet, Mr. Jones seemed content to keep a low profile. "

Please follow this link to the complete article in The New York Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/18/arts/music/18jones.html

Also, there is a very well done recent podcast interview with Mr. Jones on NEA's site at:
http://www.arts.gov/av/avCMS/podcasts.html
.