EARL HINES – Four Classic Albums (2 CDs) AVID

AVID Jazz presents four classic Earl “Fatha” Hines albums plus, including original liner notes on a finely re-mastered and low priced double CD.
“A Monday Date”; “Paris One Night Stand” “Earl’s Pearls” and “The Incomparable Earl “Fatha” Hines”
One of the truly great elder statesmen of jazz, Earl “Fatha” Hines was born in 1905 in Duquesne, Pa and inherited a love of music from his father who was a member of the famous Eureka brass band of New Orleans and his mother who was a fine organist. Moving to Chicago in 1922 he soon fell in with another jazz legend Louis Armstrong, with whom he had a long musical and personal relationship. In fact, Hines thought that Louis was even more of an influence on him than the legendary pianist Jelly Roll Morton! On our four selections we feature Hines in a number of musical settings from quartet to big band and as the original liner notes to “Paris One Night” attest…”during a long and distinguished career as a recording artist, Earl Hines has made extraordinarily few bad records…if indeed if he has made any at all!” To get a flavour of how Hines sounds here is another quote, this time from “Earl’s Pearls”…… “it may truly be said that Earl Hines plays with perfect “skin” his fingers ranging the keyboard, the harmonies are free and clear, the almost translucent color has an iridescent sheen. That famous “trumpet style” is the Hines hallmark .In effect he is a musical pearl”. Just to clear up where the “trumpet style” came from, we quote from “The Incomparable Earl “Fatha” Hines”….. “He became known as the trumpet style pianist because of his incisive use of octaves that gave his solos a bright, almost brassy quality”. Another of his most typical characteristics was his use of the tremulo much in the manner of a trumpet vibrato”. Of course the best way to hear what “Fatha” sounds like is to grab a copy of this CD and listen and enjoy it for yourself!
All four albums plus have been digitally re-mastered

CD1
1-12: ‘A Monday Date’
1. Monday Date
2. Bill Bailey, Won’t You Please Come Home
3. Do You Know What It Means To Miss New Orleans
4. Lonesome Road
5. Squeeze Me
6. Limehouse Blues
7. West End Blues
8. Yes, Sir, That’s My Baby
9. Caution Blues
10. Mandy, Make Up Your Mind
11. A Closer Walk With Thee
12. Clarinet Marmalade
13-24: ‘Paris One Night Stand’
13. Perdido
14. Save It, Pretty Mama
15. Muskrat Ramble
16. Moonlight In Vermont
17. Nice Work If You Can Get It
18. Am I Wasting My Time
19. You’re Getting To Be A Habit With Me
20. Hallelujah
21. If I Could Be With You (One Hour Tonight)
22. Walkin’ My Baby Back Home
23. Makin’ Whoopee
24. I Got It Bad (And That Ain’t Good)
25: ‘Earl’s Pearls’
25. Saint Louis Blues Boogie Woogie

CD2
1-11: ‘Earl’s Pearls’
1. Tea For Two
2. Stealin’ Apples
3. Willow Weep For Me
4. I Can’t Believe That You’re In Love With Me
5. Rosetta
6. Like When The Saints
7. Satin Doll
8. Manhattan
9. You Can Depend On Me
10. Love Me Or Leave Me
11. The Song Is Ended
12-23: ‘The Incomparable Earl “Fatha” Hines’
12. Hollywood Hop
13. If I Had You
14. I Can’t Believe That You’re In Love With Me
15. Nice Work If You Can Get It
16. Almost Like Being In Love
17. The Web
18. A Jumpin’ Something
19. I’m A Little Brownbird Looking For A Bluebird
20. Humoresque
21. Pennies From Heaven
22. Do You Know What It Means To Miss New Orleans
23. Gone With The Wind
24. Muskrat Ramble (alternate take) from Paris One Night Stand