Bud Powell - The Amazing Bud Powell. Vol. 1 (1956)

BLUE NOTE 25 "BEST" ALBUMS MONTH* (JULY 2026)

Note: the CD I listened to was a Japanese UHQCD import. For more on the UHQCD format, check out these articles at CD Japan and/or Tracking Angle. And, yes, it sounds fantastic.

From the Blue Note website:

The amazing bebop piano genius Bud Powell made his most enduring recordings as a leader for Blue Note and was a catalyst for moving the label from the hot jazz it was founded on into the modern music being made by Powell, Thelonious Monk, Fats Navarro, and others. Powell’s 1949 & 1951 quintet & trio sessions were first released in 1952 as the 10” LP The Amazing Bud Powell, and later expanded as The Amazing Bud Powell, Vol. 1 (BLP 1503) when Blue Note moved to the 12” LP and launched the 1500 series in 1955.

I normally prefer hard bop to bebop (is that nitpicking?), but it's hard to ignore this hard-swingin' jazz piano landmark recording. Powell shines throughout and, on 4 of the 12 tracks, so does Sonny Rollins.

Credits and original liner notes by Leonard Feather.

Reviews/ratings:

• Billboard (77/100): "a milestone in progressive jazz recording"
• Downbeat (★★★★★): "recommended"
• The Penguin Guide to Jazz (5th ed., 2000): ★★★★
• The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide (1985): ★★★★★
• The Virgin Encyclopedia of Jazz (1999): ★★★★

In addition to being named as one of Blue Note's 25 Best Albums, this album placed at #14 on the udiscover.com list of the 50 Greatest Blue Note Albums

Peak on the US Billboard Top 200 chart: Did not chart

Tracks: Un Poco Loco is indeed a classic, but I wish they hadn't put all 3 takes in consecutive tracks to lead the album. Other highlights are It Could Happen To You (Alternate Master), A Night In Tunisia, Orinthology, and Parisian Thoroughfare.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: None

Previously revisited for the blog:
Inner Fires: The Genius Of Bud Powell (1982)

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*In 1987, the European offices of Blue Note records compiled a list of the 25 Best Blue Note Albums in an effort to promote sales of classic Blue Note albums released on CD for the first time. Albums selected for the list were originally released in the years 1953-1967.

At the time, the Blue Note label had been subsumed by the EMI group. This allowed the selections to be made from other EMI labels, namely Capitol, United Artists, and Liberty. Therefore, the list-makers were able to look outside the Blue Note label and squeeze in titles by artists such as Miles Davis, Chet Baker, & Count Basie. It reads more like "albums we had the rights to, by 25 well-known jazz artists," making the list as much about artists as albums. As a marketing tool, it makes sense. As a starting place to build a Blue Note collection you could do worse. Of course, you could also do much better. But the thing exists, it caught my attention, and here we are.

As of this writing (30 July 2026), 19 of the 25 albums have already appeared on this blog, with at least one more on the way:

• Moanin' - Art Blakey, 1958, Blue Note
• Atomic Mr. Basie - Count Basie, 1958, Capitol
• Birth Of The Cool - Miles Davis, 1957, Capitol
• Somethin' Else - Cannonball Adderley, 1958, Blue Note
• Blue Train - John Coltrane, 1958, Blue Note
• Cool Struttin' - Sonny Clark, 1958, Blue Note
• Out To Lunch - Eric Dolphy, 1964, Blue Note
• Go - Dexter Gordon, 1962, Blue Note
• Maiden Voyage - Herbie Hancock, 1965, Blue Note
• Blue & Sentimental - Ike Quebec, 1962, Blue Note
• Midnight Blue - Kenny Burrell, 1963, Blue Note
• The Amazing Bud Powell, Vol. 1 - Bud Powell, 1956, Blue Note
• Workout - Hank Mobley, 1962, Blue Note
• Money Jungle - Duke Ellington, 1963, United Artists
• Newk's Time - Sonny Rollins, 1959, Blue Note
• Song For My Father - Horace Silver, 1965, Blue Note
• Speak No Evil - Wayne Shorter, 1965, Blue Note
• Back At The Chicken Shack - Jimmy Smith, 1963, Blue Note
• The Real McCoy - McCoy Tyner, 1967, Blue Note