Dick Hyman in Concert

Last Friday, I drove down to Princeton University to hear jazz pianist Dick Hyman perform and review the concert for today's Wall Street Journal (go here). Dick, at 88, remains astonishing. If you're unfamiliar with him, Dick is a one-man Smithsonian when it comes to playing jazz keyboard styles. Jazz, today, is hardly easy music, but it was a much tougher physical challenge years ago, when ragtime and stride were in vogue. Dick is a master of those and every piano style since. My WSJ review today says it all about the concert, so I figure it's probably best to spend the rest of today's post showing you clips:

Here's Dick at the piano in February 1952 with Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, the only film of the two bebop giants playing together. They were on Dick's show for the Dumont Network, with Jack Lesberg (b) and Charlie Smith (d)...

 

Here's Dick playing the Finger Breaker by Jelly Roll Morton...

 

Here's Billy Taylor and Dick Hyman playing Hot House...

 

Here's Dick giving a video lesson on the shift from ragtime to stride.

Here's Dick being interviewed in Venice, Fla., a couple of years ago...