tbeltrans
Senior Member
There is another piano player, not jazz, but instead exquisite cocktail style, Jim Haskins. He worked in the financial world as a high level stock trader or adviser and he lived in Hawaii. Every year for about 20 years, he would put out a CD, for a total of 20 CDs before he died. I used to call him and order directly from him. He was a joy to talk to. His attitude about cocktail piano is that the pianist's job is to provide ambience for the room while at the same time playing tunes that people easily recognized and could hear the melody to, all the way through the tune.
His CDs are quiet, classy, and listening to them is like being wrapped up in a warm blanket while a storm is raging outside. I ripped them all and have them on my smart phone.
Most of the CDs are mostly collections of the Great American Songbook, a CD of show tunes, a CD of Christmas tunes, a CD of ballads from the 1970s, and a CD of the tunes from WWII.
That is the way I am heading on the piano and am exploring doing so on the guitar. Chord melody is often rather stiff, smoothed only by the sustain of a decent archtop pickup. Earl Klugh has certainly mastered keeping it interesting on a classical guitar. I am looking to do something less complex, more along the lines of Jim Haskins. Unfortunately, his CDs only show up occasionally used on Ebay or similar sites because they were released through a small private company and are no longer commercially available so you folks probably won't be able to hear him.
Most CDs of cocktail piano are, in my opinion, far too showy where Jim Haskins was very relaxed and just right. Anyway, I want to carry that sensibility over to guitar.
Tony
His CDs are quiet, classy, and listening to them is like being wrapped up in a warm blanket while a storm is raging outside. I ripped them all and have them on my smart phone.
Most of the CDs are mostly collections of the Great American Songbook, a CD of show tunes, a CD of Christmas tunes, a CD of ballads from the 1970s, and a CD of the tunes from WWII.
That is the way I am heading on the piano and am exploring doing so on the guitar. Chord melody is often rather stiff, smoothed only by the sustain of a decent archtop pickup. Earl Klugh has certainly mastered keeping it interesting on a classical guitar. I am looking to do something less complex, more along the lines of Jim Haskins. Unfortunately, his CDs only show up occasionally used on Ebay or similar sites because they were released through a small private company and are no longer commercially available so you folks probably won't be able to hear him.
Most CDs of cocktail piano are, in my opinion, far too showy where Jim Haskins was very relaxed and just right. Anyway, I want to carry that sensibility over to guitar.
Tony