Hampton Hawes had an unmistakable swagger to his piano playing. To be sure, there was plenty of melancholy as well as nostalgia in there, but it was his bop cockiness that lit the match in the groups he assembled or joined as a sideman. As a trio leader, he tended to lean lush, filling the air with as much rich piano as possible. But when he led a quart…
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to JazzWax to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.