In Memoriam: Hank Jones On Piano Jazz

by Alfred Turner
In a career that spans seven decades, Hank Jones has worked with everyone who's anyone in jazz, including Benny Goodman, Coleman Hawkins, Ben Webster and Billie Holiday. On Sunday night, Jones died after a brief illness. He was 91. We remember his long legacy with a Piano Jazz session from 2009.

In celebration of Piano Jazz's 30th anniversary, Marian McPartland asked a few of her favorite musicians to sit in as guest hosts. An obvious first choice was Bill Charlap, a pianist who, in many respects, mirrors McPartland's elegant pianistic style, as well as her ability to play just about any kind of jazz. His knowledge of the American songbook is nothing short of encyclopedic, and his reverence for jazz history is evident in every note he plays.

McPartland and Charlap decided that Hank Jones would be a great guest for this program. The legendary pianist was one of McPartland's first guests on Piano Jazz in 1979, so to bring him back 30 years later completes the circle. Like McPartland, Jones was one of the few performing jazz nonagenarians. Charlap, who has long considered Jones a jazz piano hero, was eager to uncover the influences that created this legendary pianist. Photo: Rafa Rivas/Getty Images

Here, Jones talks about his early years in Detroit and references arranger/composer and clarinetist Bill Stegmeyer as the man who early on provided him with "great insight into the kind of harmonies" he still uses today. Those trademark harmonies emerge with an easy grace on "Lonely Woman." Jones summed up his approach thusly: "Keep the melody intact," and "You're only at your best when you're relaxed." Those truths lie at the heart of all the music in this session, but especially so in their duets of "Oh, Look at Me Now" and Billy Strayhorn's "Lotus Blossom."

Strayhorn's songs and arrangements were, of course, a cornerstone of Duke Ellington's sound, and his name brings to Charlap's mind Ellington's "Sophisticated Lady." He plays the classic tune with a light, swinging touch, sometimes punctuating a phrase with abbreviated bass notes from the left hand. When Charlap finishes, the great Hank Jones said in unequivocal tones, "Superb! Superb! Superb!" That would be a great way to describe this special session.
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