Earl Rudolph "Bud" Powell was born September 27, 1924 and grew up in Harlem, NYC. He died at age 41 on July 31, 1966 after years of alcohol abuse and mental illness that was certainly aggravated, if not created, by institutional practices archaic and likely.
It’s rather fair and accurate to say that Bud was the “Charlie Parker” of the piano. Thelonious Monk may have been called the High Priest of Bebop, but it was Bud who innovated the modern style of piano playing for the Be Bop period and beyond. In his prime, he is every bit as impressive as Art Tatum or Bird. In his final years, not so much. Bud suffered much and was under appreciated in his lifetime.
I can’t help but sometimes think on how we (rightfully!) praise, admire, and cherish the work of Van Gogh and collectively see his mental illness, self-abuse, and death as a source of tragedy and even shame on us for allowing it and yet the work of people like Bud Powell and even Charlie Parker is often judged as inferior because of the self-abuse and mental illness. We’re just about the same amount of time now between the period of Bird and Bud and today as the period of Bird and Bud was from Van Gogh’s, but the artistic celebration today is far from equal to what it was for Van Gogh in 1950.
I have nothing but praise for Van Gogh. I’ve even made the effort to view his pieces in museums in Amsterdam and Paris and currently have both Starry Night and The Café printed on t-shirts. But the attention to the Great Painter is sure different than what it is towards the icons of Jazz. I wonder why that is? Is it simply the art form and how we value certain forms art over others? Or could it be...um...something else?
And Ya…I compared Bud Powell to Charlie Parker and Vincent Van Gogh. Heheh
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