Dave Burrell

Among the erudite, Dave Burrell is recognized as one of the (if not the) greatest jazz pianist of his generation. His reputation as one of the most incendiary performers of the late ’60s free-jazz scene still attracts young fans to this day. (His LPs as a leader and with Pharoah Sanders, Marion Brown, Archie Shepp, etc. are sought after collector’s items.) But Burrell also has a equal following for his more recent works performing the great canon of American piano music (Ellington, Morton, Berlin, Carmichael, etc.).

Burrell has released two of his finest recordings on High Two. Although Burrell has a long a varied discography he hadn’t lead a band session for a U.S. label in over 30 years before Burrell recorded with Andrew Cyrille (drums) and William Parker (bass) for the 2004 album <em>Expansion</em>. Called the Full-Blown Trio to differentiate it as more explosive than Burrell’s other projects, the pianist is joined by bassist William Parker and drummer Andrew Cyrille, themselves both revered bandleaders and performers. Despite massive appreciation for Burrell’s performance style and compositional ability, his discography doesn’t include any albums as the sole bandleader for a U.S. label since 1966. It’s a situation rectified by <em>Expansion</em> a massive recording by master musicians. Burrell calls the session, “My greatest recorded work.”

At the end of 2005, Burrell again entered the recording studio on the cusp of another fantastic recording. His new album <em>Momentum </em>(November 2006)  is another career-defining document from one of the world’s great jazz pianists. Featuring Michael Formanek on bass and Guillermo E. Brown on drums, the session is a remarkable document of an iconoclastic vision for jazz.