{"id":2684,"date":"2011-06-04T00:30:47","date_gmt":"2011-06-04T07:30:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/?p=2684"},"modified":"2018-09-29T17:11:44","modified_gmt":"2018-09-30T00:11:44","slug":"ray-bryant-1931-2011","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/2011\/06\/ray-bryant-1931-2011\/","title":{"rendered":"Ray Bryant, 1931-2011"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Ray Bryant died on Thursday in a New York hospital following a long illness. He was 79. A pillar of modern mainstream piano, Bryant was often categorized as a blues pianist. He was certainly that, a great one, but his stylistic breadth, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/Ray-Bryant.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-2685\" title=\"Ray Bryant\" src=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/Ray-Bryant.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"253\" height=\"275\" \/><\/a>powerful swing and harmonic flexibility put him in demand not only by blues singers and players but also by the most sophisticated modern jazz artists from the 1950s on. A list of a few of his colleagues and employers gives an idea of Bryant\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s range: Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Jack Teagarden, Carmen McRae, Zoot Sims, Betty Carter, Sonny Rollins, Dizzy Gillespie and Jimmy Rushing. Bryant was from a Philadelphia family that included his bassist brother Tommy, who died in 1982, and three nephews prominent in jazz\u00e2\u20ac\u201dRobin, Kevin and Duane Eubanks.<\/p>\n<p>Among his compositions adapted by others, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Cubano Chant\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Blues Changes\u00e2\u20ac\u009d were influential. He had hit records in \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Little Susie,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Madison Time\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Slow Freight.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Bryant\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s first solo album, <em>Alone With the Blue<\/em>s (1958) is a basic repertoire item, essential to any reasonably comprehensive jazz collection. The CD and vinyl versions are, inexplicably, out of print and going at auction for as much as $185. The album can be had for significantly less as an <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&amp;location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2Fgp%2Fproduct%2FB000UBK02C%3Fpf_rd_p%3D486539851%26pf_rd_s%3Dlpo-top-stripe-1%26pf_rd_t%3D201%26pf_rd_i%3DB000000YE3%26pf_rd_m%3DATVPDKIKX0DER%26pf_rd_r%3D1MZXQ0D88H54D5MF5SQ9&amp;tag=rifftidougram-20&amp;linkCode=ur2&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=9325\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">MP3 download<\/a>. It includes his memorable treatment of Hoagy Carmichael\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Rockin\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 Chair.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<a name=\"OLE_LINK15\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a name=\"OLE_LINK15\"><\/a>&#8221;\u00a0<strong>Apologies, (2018). Evidently someone, probably the music&#8217;s copyright holder, has denied further access to that video. To see and hear the performance, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=syrBVQ6k0iw\">click here<\/a> and be taken to <em>YouTube<\/em>.)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a name=\"OLE_LINK15\"><\/a>For more about Ray Bryant, see Nat Chinen\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s obituary in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2011\/06\/04\/arts\/music\/ray-bryant-jazz-pianist-dies-at-79.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>The New York Times<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ray Bryant died on Thursday in a New York hospital following a long illness. He was 79. A pillar of modern mainstream piano, Bryant was often categorized as a blues pianist. He was certainly that, a great one, but his stylistic breadth, powerful swing and harmonic flexibility put him in demand not only by blues [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2684","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-main","7":"entry","8":"has-post-thumbnail"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2684","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2684"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2684\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}