Easy Walker

Product Description This stellar trio recording features the solid double-fisted jazz of pianist Larry Fuller, along with two legendary sidemen: Ray Brown on bass and Jeff Hamilton on drums - 'An instant classic!' says NPR's Jim Wilke. Larry Fuller was the last pianist with Ray Brown's legendary trio. Brown said 'He brings a vitality - he swings hard and I like that.' The CD was awarded Northwest Recording of the Year by Earshot Jazz's popular vote, and Leonard Feather said 'Fuller achieved moments of quiet, chordal beauty.' Review Recorded on Aug. 18, 1998 at the Mad Hatter Studios in Los Angeles, the Larry Fuller Trio album is beautiful and mellow. -- Deborah Sontag, New York Times, April 2009 About the Artist The quiet history of jazz sidemen is long and storied, and Mr. Fuller, at 43, has already earned a place there. He started his career as a baby-faced accompanist for the veteran jazz singer Ernestine Anderson and reached a personal peak in the final trio of the great bassist Ray Brown. Like many a sideman with considerable talent, Mr. Fuller, who also composes and arranges, worries about maintaining his musical identity and aspires to lead his own trio someday. But for now, he said, especially after a difficult period in his personal life, it is enough to 'serve the music' that he has revered since he was 13, when a colorful saxophonist named Candy Johnson took him under wing in Toledo, Ohio. To make a steady living as a jazz musician is in itself no mean feat, and Mr. Fuller has done so his whole life. His experience offers some insight into the requirements for survival as a working artist, especially in a specialty like jazz where fame and fortune are not realistic goals. Talent most certainly helps, but single-mindedness, passion, humility and the ability to live modestly seem critical too. For Mr. Fuller his upbringing in a blue-collar neighborhood in Toledo, where his father supported five kids by toiling on the assembly line at a sweltering glass factory, provides the context to appreciate the musician's life as a reward unto itself. 'I know it sounds corny, but if you look at what somebody like my father did for a living, I'm really pretty blessed,' he said. 'I mean, I live in Manhattan and travel to Europe, Brazil, Japan. Even if I'm working sometimes in a situation where it's not ideal artistically for me, I'm still playing the piano.' With the John Pizzarelli Quartet, Mr. Fuller gets a decent share of the spotlight -- long, bluesy solos that showcase his fleet touch, rich tone and keen timing. When he starts to play, his foot taps, his knee jiggles, his chin juts, and he is off and swinging. 'There are no fringes or bells and whistles, just beautiful music,' said John Valenti, owner of Birdland, the Manhattan jazz club, where the Pizzarelli Quartet played this month. At the piano Mr. Fuller is commanding, but away from it he is the epitome of unassuming. 'I always called Louie Bellson the nicest guy in the business,' Jeff Hamilton, a well-known jazz drummer, said, referring to the musician who died in February at 84. 'But I think that title probably goes to Larry Fuller now that Louie has passed.' Deborah Sontag, New York Times, April 2009
ASIN: B000BTJCDG
VSKU: DBV.B000BTJCDG.G
Condition: Good
Author/Artist:Larry Fuller Trio
Binding: Audio cd
Note: Any images shown are stock photographs and product may differ from what is shown.
Condition Notes: Individually inspected: Guaranteed to play perfectly or your money back. Case may show wear and may be in library packaging. Ships Fast!