Jazz / Hard Bop, Jazz Instrument, Piano Jazz
Bill Cunliffe Producer, Piano
Alexander Iles Trombone
Bruce Egre Executive Producer
Chuck Manning Sax (Tenor)
Clay Jenkins Trumpet
Holly Hofmann Flute
James Covert Graphic Design
Jeff d'Angelo Bass
Joe La Barbera Drums
Scott Yanow Liner Notes
Steve Barker Engineer
Los Angeles-based Bill Cunliffe has long had a strong reputation for his fine piano solos. This CD features him as a bandleader, arranger, and composer too. Cunliffe heads a top-notch sextet/septet also featuring trumpeter Clay Jenkins, Chuck Manning on tenor, trombonist Alex Iles, bassist Jeff D'Angelo, drummer Joe LaBarbera, and guest flutist Holly Hofmann. The band performs Thad Jones' "Ain't Nothin' Nu," Thelonious Monk's "Crepuscule With Nellie," and six Cunliffe originals. The music is advanced hard bop (or post-bop), the arrangements are just unpredictable enough to keep one guessing, and the solos are consistently rewarding. Bill Cunliffe has recorded one rewarding CD after another since the mid-'90s. This disc continues the trend. ~ Scott Yanow, All Music Guide
Bill Cunliffe
Active Decades: '80s, '90s and '00s
Born: Jun 26, 1956 in Lawrence, MA
Genre: Jazz
Styles: Post-Bop, Hard Bop
One of the more promising pianists based in the L.A. area, Bill Cunliffe has been careful to have each of his recordings display its own personality. He won the 1989 Thelonious Monk jazz piano award, for a time led the fusion band Porcupine, works with Natalie Cole and in the studios, and is a regular member of both the Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra and the Clayton Brothers Quartet. Cunliffe's recordings for Discovery have included A Paul Simon Songbook (on which he turned a dozen of Simon's pop tunes into jazz), A Rare Connection (a post-bop set filled with new originals), and Bill in Brazil (a bossa nova and Latin jazz program).
---Scott Yanow, All Music Guide |
