The "Groaning Jazz Pianists" thread

Just playing some Thelonius Monk (it's really good 'morning music!'), and on the song Well You Needn't, I hear Monk groaning away in the background, albeit in tune for the most part. I like the sense of excitement it lends it, but with Oscar Peterson, it sounds like he's got bad gas at times. Do all jazz pianists moan and groan? And who are the worst offenders?

 

Erroll Gardner has been known to grunt and groan!

 

Keith Jarrett. He is the undisputed master

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keith_Jarrett

 

I started a thread a while back called Keith Jarrett's Moaning Is Annoying. So he gets my vote.

 

Keith Jarrett - I love his solo piano concerts but that moaning... why couldn't he record his moans on a separate track so they can be mixed out

 

Definitely Jarrett. And although he wasn't a pianist, Lionel Hampton grunted and groaned a lot as well.

Jonathan

 

But the album you mention there - "Standards Vol.1" recorded in 1983 - is really harmless in that respect, compared to his later albums.

 

The Koln Concert from 1975 has a hefty dose of moaning.

 

I think it was Erroll's grunts etc. that inspired the title of Frank Zappa's album 'Make a Jazz Noise Here'.

 

Bud Powell. In Moaned Bud...
Glenn Gould on the classical side (I am actually somewhat comforted by his moaning)

 

Listen to Jimmy Smith on the 'Organ Grinder Swing' album, the groans are some of the best parts of the album. One of my all time favourite albums

 

Switching to guitar...SRV let loose some really guttural sounds when he ripped into a solo.

 

Great idea for a thread! Can I nominate..... Mose Allison! Great singing, then when he takes an (equally) great solo, it sounds like he's being gagged or something in the background

 

Do other albums have the moaning in the front and piano in the background?

 

I vote too for Keith Jarret the album "At The Deer Head Inn" has a lot of moaning sounds, and also the Paris concert.
BTW I love the Solar track.

 

And who's that bleating in the background of Benny Goodman's 1938 Carnegie Hall Concert? Is it Gene Krupa? Sounds like there was a billygoat wandering the stage.

 

surprised no one has mentioned the great Osar P, they usually mike him in such a way you cant hear it, but on his live stuff you sure can.

 

I mentioned him in my initial post.

 

damn i should learn to read.... I thought i was going to have a post of meaning

 

Yeah, Oscar's live recordings certainly reveal his tendancy to sing along - somehow it doesn't bother me in the least though. I guess Oscar can just do no wrong in my book - afterall I even named my baby son after him!!

The worst case of unwanted noises made by a pianist I have come across is Claudio Arrau's performance of Schumann's "Carnival" on this disc:



He makes sharp intakes of breath through his nose in time with the music getting louder and more pronounced when the music does - very distracting! I like this piece so much that I even bought the exact same disc again from the used store I had originally bought it from and returned it to about 5 years earlier thinking it can't have been as bad as I remebered. It was and I promptly returned the disc a second time! If I see it in another 5 years I'll think I'll pass.....

 

i totally agree, the man's one of jazz's true geniuses. He still around and performing so get out there and see him while you can. Sorry about the thread drift.

 

A true Canadian legend. We gave him his own stamp, in case you missed it!

http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showpost.php?p=1219917&postcount=3