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Bud Powell

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In the early fifties I worked with Bud Powell at Birdland in New York City. We did not communicate verbally very much, but we listened intently to each other... Bud knew how to reach the inspirational part of his mind; and when he was at his peak, his performances were absolute perfection in every respect. If this book helps to explain Bud Powell and his influence on generations of pianists who followed him, it will have done a great service toward the understanding of jazz and the illumination of an enigma, Bud Powell, a legendary figure in jazz history.
--
Dave Brubeck

 
Bud Powell

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Bud Powell was an iconoclast, as unique in his own way as Thelonious Monk. A lot of my own style comes from what I learned playing with Bud.... Bouncing with Bud explores all Bud Powell's recordings in a very readable way. I highly recommend it as a way for all jazz lovers to more fully appreciate the music of this incomparable artist.

 
Bud Powell
 

For those who saw and heard Enoch Powell, the memory is indelible – the black moustache, the burning eyes, the hypnotic, metallic voice, the precision of language, the agility in debate. These will be largely lost to future generations. But, in a more important respect, Powell will survive more surely than any other British politician of the 20th century except Winston Churchill. His speeches and writings will be read so long as there exists a political and parliamentary culture in which speaking and writing matter. And if there comes a time when such a culture is all but destroyed, those brave few who wish to restore it will find in the thoughts of Enoch Powell something approaching their Bible.

 
Enoch Powell
 

There was nothing languid or easygoing about Enoch Powell...he was probably the most intellectually formidable of the men who have passed through the Research Department. He took an interest in almost every subject, and on almost every subject he had a strong and pungently expressed views. Only some of these were eccentric...Powell has an inventive mind. He has also a warm heart and I think it a thousand pities that he ever made his first notable speech on immigration, when the Tiber was to run with blood. This led him on to an incurable rift with his own party leaders which has been made wider by the variety of causes of schism which he espouses. Powell could be a most valuable lieutenant instead of a lost assailant, and this is a pity.

 
Enoch Powell
 

Each jazz musician is supposed to be a composer. Whether he is or not, I don't know. I don't listen to that many people. If I did, I probably wouldn't play half as much to satisfy myself. As a youth I read a book by Debussy and he said that as soon as he finished a composition he had to forget it because it got in the way of his doing anything else new and different. And I believed him. I used to work with Tatum, and Tatum knew every tune written, including the classics, and I think it got in the way of his composition, because he wasn't a Bud Powell. He wasn't as melodically inventive as Bud. He was technically flashy and he knew so much music and so much theory that he couldn't come up with anything wrong; it was just exercising his theory.

 
Charles Mingus
 

In April 1968, Powell made the notorious speech in which he foresaw “the River Tiber foaming with much blood” in consequence of excessive immigration... His solution was mass repatriation of non-white people. The speech led to racial violence in the Midlands but it made Powell a hero,particularly to the lumpenproletariat, astonished and gratified to discover a person of culture and refinement prepared to echo their fouler thoughts. There are signs in this centenary volume that Powell came to regard the speech as something of a mistake. It was, in truth, unforgivable.

 
Enoch Powell
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