TRANSCRIPT:
Hi, I’m Mark Rapp, and this is Rapp on Jazz.
Bud Powell, born during the Harlem Renaissance, was a pioneering pianist and composer who significantly contributed to the development of bebop music. His compositions, such as "Un Poco Loco" and "Bouncing with Bud," demonstrate his skill in translating bebop horn lines to the piano.
Despite suffering a severe beating by police in 1945 and undergoing years of electroshock therapy that negatively affected his mental health, Powell's recordings and live performances with jazz legends like Charlie Parker, Sonny Stitt, and Max Roach during the late 1940s and early 1950s were instrumental in shaping modern jazz piano technique.
He influenced countless musicians and transformed the role of the piano in jazz.
This has been Rapp on Jazz, a co-production of ColaJazz and SC Public Radio, made possible in part by Layman Poupard Publishers, producers of the Literary Criticism Series and the Dictionary of Literary Biography.