The Trio’s Personnel
Bud Powell, piano; John Ore, bass; Ed Thigpen, drums
Dave recalls...
It is sad common knowledge that Powell’s erratic mental state resulting from insensitive medical and psychological treatment could, at any given time, severely affect the quality of his improvisations.
This night, however, he was at the top of his game but occasionally showed annoyance at the nature of his pickup rhythm section. Ed Thigpen, a brush wizard even before his Oscar Peterson Trio tenure, was noticeably intimidated by Powell’s demanding creativity and had a difficult time relaxing and establishing a consistently satisfying (to Powell) rhythmic flow. John Ore’s time seemed fine, as it usually was, but he apparently didn’t always please the bebop piano giant with his harmonic interpretations.
Even though Powell didn’t consider Ore and Thigpen up to his level artistically, they did an excellent job. And I had the pleasure of knowing that on the one and only time I caught Powell, he gave a stellar performance.