Frank Hewitt

Frank Hewitt ( born October 23, 1935 in Queens, † September 5, 2002 in New York City ) was an American jazz pianist of the hard bop.

Life and work

Hewitt spent most of his life in New York's Harlem. His mother was a church pianist, making his musical beginnings in classical and gospel music were. Under the impression of the music of Charlie Parker, he turned to jazz; Role models for his piano playing were the pianists Thelonious Monk, Bud Powell and Elmo Hope. In the 1950s and 60s, he worked, among others with Charles Davis, Howard McGhee, Cecil Payne, John Coltrane, Dinah Washington and Billie Holiday; In 1961 he was involved in the performance of the Living Theater production of Jack Gelber's play The Connection, and then belonged to the circle of musicians around Barry Harris. In the 1990s, he became known for his performances in the jazz club Smalls, which were only published posthumously in phonograms. He played mostly in a trio with Ari Roland (bass) and Jimmy Lovelace (drums), occasionally expanded to a quintet saxophonist Chris Byars and the Jim Mullins. During his lifetime, he was only able to publish a piece, a cover of Kenny Dorham 's composition " Prince Albert", included on the compilation Jazz Underground: Live at Smalls, which appeared on Impulse 1998. After his death, the live recordings were released in the 1990s on Smalls Records, the Trio Recordings We Loved You, Not Afraid to Live, Fresh from the Cooler and Out of the Clear Black Sky, as well as a session in quintet (Four Hundred Saturdays ).

The pianist Frank Hewitt is not with the Irish rugby players with the same name (* 1906) confuse and Irish athletes Frank " skurry " Hewitt ( 1845-1926 ).