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- Artist: Earl Hines
- Rating:
- Release Date: August 04, 1998
- Total Time: 62:37
- Type: Compilation (best of)
- Genre: Jazz
Review
"Piano Man" was the name of a showcase number for the extroverted keyboard artistry of Earl "Fatha" Hines; it was so catchy (and sufficiently campy) that Gene Krupa couldn't seem to resist swiping the idea and using it to contrive his own feature routine, which he called Drummer Man. Years later, at least five different reissue labels came out with Earl Hines compilations containing the phrase "Piano Man" in the title. The 1998 Giants of Jazz Piano Man employs a non-linear approach to the presentation of 22 Hines' recordings made between the years 1928 and 1955, combining his solo, trio, and big-band recordings and including marvelous collaborations with Sidney Bechet and Louis Armstrong. Whoever selected these tracks did a wonderful job -- in particular those featuring the Hines orchestra are among the best ever waxed by that organization. "Weather Bird" is the classic Armstrong/Hines duet of December 1928; the 1940 Bluebird recording of "Blues in Thirds" is one of the crown jewels in the entire Sidney Bechet discography, and "Child of a Disordered Brain" is a scintillating solo study in what might be described as neo-stride piano. This exciting collection demonstrates Hines' complicity in the rapid evolution of jazz from its classic period in the '20s through the heyday of big-band swing and the early bop period to the mainstream continuum of the '50s, epitomized here by handsome renderings of "Fine and Dandy" and "Honeysuckle Rose." ~ arwulf arwulf, All Music GuideTracks
| Track Title | Composers | Performers | Time |
| Rosetta | Earl Hines, |
(3:53) | |
| Darktown Strutters' Ball | Shelton Brooks | Earl Hines | (2:17) |
| Grand Terrace Shuffle | (2:39) | ||
| Boogie Woogie on St. Louis Blues | W.C. Handy | (2:51) | |
| Piano Man | Earl Hines, |
(2:34) | |
| On the Sunny Side of the Street | Jimmy McHugh, Dorothy Fields | Earl Hines | (2:34) |
| The Earl | Mel Powell | Earl Hines | (2:46) |
| My Melancholy Baby | Earl Hines | (2:32) | |
| G.T. Stomp | Earl Hines | (2:42) | |
| Tantalizing a Cuban | Earl Hines | (2:58) | |
| Number 19 | Earl Hines | (2:52) | |
| Child of a Disordered Brain | Earl Hines | Earl Hines | (2:36) |
| Deep Forest | Earl Hines, Andy Razaf, Reginald Forsythe | (2:32) | |
| Angry | (2:30) | ||
| Weather Bird | Louis Armstrong | Earl Hines | (2:42) |
| Beau Koo Jack | Louis Armstrong, Alex Hill, |
Earl Hines | (2:42) |
| Blues in Thirds | Earl Hines | Earl Hines, Sidney Bechet | (2:56) |
| Up Jumped the Devil | Jimmy Mundy | (2:46) | |
| Windy City Jive | Buster Harding | (2:50) | |
| Second Balcony Jump | Billy Eckstine, |
(3:01) | |
| Fine and Dandy | Paul James, |
Earl Hines, Louis Armstrong | (3:39) |
| Honeysuckle Rose | Fats Waller, Andy Razaf | Earl Hines, Louis Armstrong | (3:45) |
