JAZZ 100 Years of Bud Powell

by Rachel Smith

Earl Rudolph “Bud” Powell did not follow a straight path, in life or in music. And so I have not attempted to flatten the course of his life into a traditional timeline. On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of his birth—September 27, 1924—indulge me instead in an eclectic cobbling-together of 100 moments, and memories (not mine, of course) from the powerful, erratic, deeply musical, and sometimes mysterious life of jazz pianist and composer Bud Powell.

The ‘20s makes private tape recordings of him.

1. Sep. 27, 1924: Bud Powell is born in Harlem.

2. The birth certificate says 1922, though it is 1924.

3. His father is a stride pianist.

7. You could already hear Bud’s right-handed style on these recordings.

8. Bud’s early influences are Art Tatum and Fats Waller.

9. You can hear the influence of Art Tatum, as well as Teddy Wilson, when Bud plays ballads later in life.

4. His grandfather had learned flamenco guitar in Cuba during the Spanish-American War.

The ‘30s

5. Powell’s younger brother Richie, trying to say “brother,” dubs him “Bud.”

6. When Bud is 10-15 years old, his father

The ‘40s

10. When Bud is 13, his parents give him a baby grand piano.

11. His first gigs were in Coney Island.

12. Bud also knew how to play the organ, which he sometimes played at church.

13. At age 15, Bud begins playing in the band of his big brother William. William plays the trumpet.

14. Bud meets Thelonious Monk, who will become his friend and mentor, at Minton’s Playhouse.

15. Monk will introduce Bud to many jazz greats, among them Charlie Parker, Sonny Stitt, and Charlie Christian.

16. Bud jams with Monk and Elmo Hope at Monk’s home. There is only one piano, so they take turns.

17. 1943: Bud joins Cootie Williams’ band.

18. Jan. 4, 1944: Bud records for the first time with Cootie.

19. Bud convinces Cootie to record Monk’s “‘Round Midnight.”

20. Aug. 22, 1944: this recording takes place.

21. This is the first known recording of the classic Monk tune.

22. Aug. 23, 1946: Bud records “Bouncing with Bud” with Sonny Stitt (saxophone) and Kenny Dorham (trumpet).

23. At this point, “Bouncing with Bud” is named “Bebop in Pastel.”

24. “Bouncing with Bud” will not be named “Bouncing with Bud” for another three years.

25. Jan. 10, 1947: Bud first records as a leader. That session, along with one from September 1953, is released on the Roost label as a 10-inch LP called The Bud Powell Trio.

26. May 8, 1947: Charlie Parker has Bud come into the studio with him for a quintet session. They record “Donna Lee” (with a solo from Powell), “Chasin’ the Bird,” and “Buzzy.”

27. The rest of the quintet are Miles Davis (t), Tommy Potter (b), and Max Roach (d).

28. 1947: Monk writes “In Walked Bud.” The tune was perhaps intended to thank Bud for defending Monk during a 1945 police raid of the Savoy Ballroom, where Bud was struck in the head with a nightstick.

29. Or, as Miles Davis said, Bud may have been beaten by a Savoy Ballroom bouncer for entering without money.

30. Or, as Dexter Gordon said, Bud may have been beaten in police custody after he was arrested for drunk and disorderly conduct in a train station in Philadelphia.

31. Bud underwent electroshock treatment at Creedmore Sanitarium to treat the headaches and mental breakdowns that resulted from this injury.

32. 1948: Bud’s only daughter Celia is born.

33. Feb. 3, 1949: on a one-day release from the psychiatric hospital, Bud records six tracks with Ray Brown (bass) and Max Roach (drums). Norman Granz produces.

34. Of those six tracks, four are originals and two are standards.

35. Of those originals, one is named for Bud’s daughter: “Celia.”

36. Aug. 9, 1949: “Bouncing with Bud” is first recorded with that title. That recording, often mistaken for the original, features Bud with Sonny Rollins (ts), Fats Navarro (t), Tommy Potter (b), and Roy Haynes (d).

37. At the same session, and with the same personnel, Bud records his composition “Dance of the Infidels.”

38. Sonny Rollins asks a young Jackie McLean, “Who’s the baddest, Bud or Bird?” McLean thinks he knows the answer—Bird—but Rollins makes him think twice. (This story appears in Peter Pullman’s biography, Wail: The Life of Bud Powell.)

39. Most consider 1949 to 1953 to be the height of Bud Powell’s musical genius.

The ‘50s

40. 1950: At Birdland, Bud gets into an argument with Art Tatum over playing Chopin. Tatum retorts that Powell is “just a right-hand piano player” and tells him, “you’ve got no left hand. Look, I’ve got a rhythm section in my left hand.” The next night, Powell retorts on the piano, playing a tune only with his left hand. This story is recounted by Ira Gitler in Jazz Masters of the ‘40s.

41. Speaking of classical music, Bud loved it. It was actually the music he learned to play on (he started playing at five years old and showed interest in swing at ten years old). His residency at Birdland in August 1964 with John Ore on bass and Horace Silver on drums notably included Bach.

42. May 1, 1951: Bud records his tune “Un Poco Loco” for Blue Note Records with Curly Russell on bass and Max Roach on drums. Alfred Lion produces.

43. Lion recalls in Wail: The Life of Bud Powell that this tune was completely spontaneous in its composition. Bud arrived at the studio, stayed only a few minutes to use the bathroom, then left the studio, and returned 90 minutes later. As soon as he returned, Bud said they were ready and the recording began.

44. This recording was Bud’s first day out of the hospital in 18 months.

45. 1951: Monk and Powell are found in a car with narcotics. Maybe they are Powell’s, maybe not. They are not Monk’s. But Monk will not testify against Powell. Monk’s cabaret card is revoked.

46. Bud spends a year and a half in a psychiatric hospital.

47. Feb. 5, 1953: the day he is released from the hospital, he starts a trio residency at Birdland.

48. The residency runs until September, featuring the likes of Charles Mingus, Oscar Pettiford, Roy Haynes, and Max Roach.

49. A listener records these concerts on acetate disks. They will later be released as Birdland 1953: The Complete Trio Recordings.

50. Mar. 9, 1953: Bud marries Audrey Hill.

51. Aug. 14, 1953: Bud records his own composition “Glass Enclosure” for Blue Note. Producer Alfred Lion suggests that the “Glass Enclosure” is the apartment of Birdland owner Oscar Goodstein (Bud’s legal guardian at the time) where Bud was housed and confined. But there are other possibilities: the announcer’s booth at Birdland, or something more metaphorical that made Bud feel separate from the rest of the world.

52. “Glass Enclosure” is entirely or almost entirely composed when first recorded by Bud, George Duvivier (b), and Art Taylor (d).

53. The Birdland owners introduce Bud to his later girlfriend, Altevia Edwards.

54. Her nickname is “Buttercup.”

55. Mar. 4, 1955: it’s Bird versus Bud at Birdland, when Charlie Parker and Bud Powell have an argument on the bandstand over tempo and key changes.

56. Bird is rumored to have called Bud “even crazier than me.”

57. Many contemporaries called Bud “the Charlie Parker of the piano.”

58. At that same gig, Bud needs to be helped from the bandstand.

59. Charles Mingus says: “Ladies and gentlemen, please don’t associate me with any of this. This is not jazz. These are sick people.”

60. A week later, Charlie Parker dies at the home of Baroness Nica de Koenigswarter.

61. Jun. 29, 1956: Bud’s brother Richie and Richie’s wife, along with Clifford Brown, are killed in a tragic car accident on the Pennsylvania Turnpike. They were on the way to a gig in Chicago.

62. Bud is sometimes tranquilized for recording dates.

63. 1957: One day on the Paris metro, Bud meets Parisian jazz lover and patron Francis Paudras.

64. Oct. 14 and Dec. 2, 1957, and Jan. 30, 1958: Bud records a host of Charlie Parker tunes— among them “Yardbird Suite,” “Moose the Mooche,” “Ornithology,” and “Scrapple from the Apple”—with George Duvivier on bass and Art Taylor on drums. The recordings are lost for 40 years. They are rediscovered by Michael Cuscuna (co-founder of Mosaic Records) and released by Blue Note as Bud Plays Bird.

65. 1959: Powell moves to Paris, into the Hôtel La Louisiane.

66. Buttercup and her son John move with him.

67. That hotel is known for the jazz greats it housed in the ‘50s and ‘60s; among them Oscar Peterson, Miles Davis, Max Roach, Dizzy Gillespie, Art Blakey, Billie Holiday, Lester Young, Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, Chet Baker, Dexter Gordon, and Wayne Shorter.

68. In Paris, Bud often plays with Pierre Michelot (b) and Kenny Clarke (d).

69. By this point, Buttercup is effectively Bud’s manager: employers give the money Bud earns at gigs directly to her.

70. A friend will later report that Buttercup gives Bud heavy doses of tranquilizers.

71. Dec. 18, 1959: Bud joins Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers to record Paris Jam Session. He contributes his own tunes.

The ‘60s

72. Jul. 13, 1960: Bud sits in with Charles Mingus at Antibes, playing on “‘Round Midnight.” The solo that follows Bud’s is Eric Dolphy’s.

73. 1962: Bud plays at the Café Montmartre in Copenhagen for seven weeks. Niels Henning Ørsted Pedersen joins him on bass.

74. Niels is only 16 years old for these gigs.

75. Niels and Bud make a record together, with William Schiøpffe (drums), a few weeks later. This is Bouncing with Bud.

76. Bud is hospitalized for tuberculosis.

77. When in the hospital, being interviewed by a French journalist, Bud reveals that he admires pianist Al Haig.

78. At this very interview, Bud did not like to repeat himself.

79. Bud befriends Francis Paudras, whom he had met in the metro. He will move into Paudras’s apartment when suffering a mental and physical health crisis.

80. In 1986, Paudras will write a book, La Danse des Infidèles, about his relationship with Powell.

81. The book will be used as source material for the movie ‘Round Midnight, starring Dexter Gordon.

82. May 15, 1963: Bud plays with Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Charles Mingus, and Max Roach in Toronto. The result is the fabulous live album Jazz at Massey Hall, credited to “the Quintet.”

83. The organizers of the Massey Hall concert had originally asked Lennie Tristano to play piano; it was Tristano who suggested Powell.

84. Sep. 30, 1964: Bud returns to Birdland.

85. As he nears the Birdland bandstand, he is greeted with a 17-minute standing ovation.

86. Jul. 31, 1966: Bud dies at 41.

87. His causes of death are tuberculosis, malnutrition, and alcoholism.

88. At this point, Bud has recorded at least 30 studio albums and 38 live albums. He is a sideman on at least 9 more records.

Post-Mortem and Legacy

89. His obituary in the New York Times reads: “He was to the piano what Charlie (Bird) Parker was to the saxophone, what Dizzy Gillespie is to the trumpet, and together they revolutionized jazz in the 1940’s.”

90. Aug. 8, 1966: Bud’s funeral takes place.

91. According to DownBeat, the funeral procession was led by the Jazzmobile.

92. The Jazzmobile carries a full band, playing in Bud’s honor: Benny Green (tb), John Gilmore (ts), Barry Harris (p), Don Moore (b), Billy Higgins (d), and a last-minute appearance from Lee Morgan (t).

93. The tunes they play are: “Now’s the Time” (Charlie Parker), “‘Round Midnight” (Thelonious Monk), “Bud’s Bubble” (Bud

Powell), and “Dance of the Infidels” (Bud Powell).

94. The pallbearers included Max Roach and Kenny Dorham.

95. Nov. 26, 1979: After his concert at Cardin Hall in Paris, Bill Evans says: “If I had to choose one single musician for his artistic integrity, for the incomparable originality of his creation and the grandeur of his work, it would be Bud Powell. He was in a class by himself.”

96. 1989: In Miles: The Autobiography, Miles Davis mentions that Bud and Bird did not get along three times.

97. Sonny Rollins calls Bud Powell “the great professor of the music.”

98. Herbie Hancock says of Powell: “He was the foundation out of which stemmed the whole edifice of modern jazz piano. Every jazz pianist since Bud either came through him or is deliberately attempting to get away from playing like him.”

99. Sep. 6, 2019: pianist David Virelles calls Bud “one of my ultimate piano heroes”—live on WKCR! He chooses Bud Powell as the focus of his 3-hour Deep Focus show (also available as a podcast) with host Mitch Goldman.

100. 2001: Paudras’s son donates The Francis Paudras Collection on Bud Powell to the Institute of Jazz Studies. It was compiled by Paudras before his death and includes film reels (some silent), audio tapes, scrapbooks, and interviews with other musicians about Bud.

On Friday, September 27th, WKCR will be dedicating 24 hours to the work of Bud Powell, born on that day 100 years ago. Join Rachel and other jazz DJs for an allday Centennial celebration.