Bill King's Blues Piano Collection

C$14.85

It recently occurred to me after fifty years warming the piano bench to follow my heart and gather some of my favorite playing situations and create a collection featuring the piano work. Blues has been at the core of my musical existence since the moment Oscar Peterson played me ‘Smokey Blues’ from Junior Mance at the Village Gate. We both sat in his office at 21 Park Road in Toronto back in the summer of 1963 listening to Mance build an exquisite solo from a few choice notes to full finger roll. The weeks following I played the track over and over until I could distinguish the zone in between – that imaginary place where grime and grit and sorrow and joy gather and put a lump in your throat and a chill down your backside. My heroes are many! James Booker, Dr. John and Bill Payne are down front not far from Leon Russell, Albert Ammons and Otis Spann. Each taught me something new to advance my concepts of playing. Oscar certainly brought the blues to most of his romps inhabiting a sacred region of my soul yet guitar players like Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, B.B. King, Elmore James made me think of further possibilities. With that in mind I hope everyone finds something appealing in these tracks. They span a period of seventeen years. It’s boogie woogie, jazz/blues trios , swing blues, slow blues, Southern rock blues, shuffle blues – it’s the music I play.

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