This is FRESH AIR. Jazz pianist Bud Powell was born Sept. 27, 1924. Jazz historian Kevin Whitehead, says Powell's life was often a nightmare. He was shy and withdrawn, even before getting severely ...

Of all of the great jazz musicians, it's hard to imagine one whose life was as star-crossed as the great pianist and composer Bud Powell. One of the leading architects of the bebop style of jazz, ...

The great Bud Powell casts a very long shadow over all jazz piano players, not to mention most melodic/harmonic improvisers, regardless of instrument. His best recordings are simply indispensable.

Ever wish you could travel back in time to New York's 52nd Street — circa 1950, during the heyday of bebop — and whisper into Charlie Parker, or Dizzy Gillespie, or Thelonious Monk's ear, and ask them ...

Program from the weekly radio documentary series, Jazz profiles, chronicling the people, places, and themes in jazz. Combines interviews, archival recordings, music, and narration (music-to-talk ratio ...

The unsullied bop of Powell’s “Wail” and “Dance of the Infidels” is always afforded the glory it earned over half-century ago, but it still retains an unusual power as well. These middle-aged moderns ...

Born Sept. 27, 1924, Powell helped set the style for jazz piano after WWII. While earlier pianists played busy bass patterns, he helped establish a more fragmented, punctuating role for the left hand.