JAZZ CLASSIC OF THE MONTH
Two of the finest stride pianists to emerge during the mid-to-late 1940s (along with Dick Wellstood and Don Ewell) were Dick Hyman (who could play in nearly any style) and Ralph Sutton. Hyman and Sutton only recorded together a handful of times including the obscure 1972 album Grand Slam/Pop Piano Aces (which also had Stan Freeman and Lee Evans among the four pianists), two songs in 1988 with a piano trio also including Derek Smith, and a duet album apiece for the Sackville (Just You, Just Me in 1996) and Concord labels.
The latter, simply titled Dick Hyman/Ralph Sutton, is a live performance from the Maybeck Recital Hall recorded on Nov. 12, 1993. The equally brilliant pianists engage in mutually inspiring interplay that is worthy of James P. Johnson and Fats Waller. Somehow they both leave just enough room for the other pianist to slip in so the ensembles, while bursting at the seam, never get too dense or overcrowded.
Sutton takes “Everything Happens To Me” as a ballad feature while Hyman really tears into “Ol’ Man River” as a solo showcase. But it is when the two masters stomp together on such pieces as “I’ve Found A New Baby,” “I’m Sorry I Made You Cry,” “Sunday,” “The World Is Waiting For The Sunrise,” and “Dinah” that the sparks really fly.
To say that this musical meeting between Dick Hyman and Ralph Sutton
