Frank Hewitt
piano
A New York jazz pianist whom Barry rated among the best players around, and the source of Barry’s story about Bud Powell playing one tune from morning to night.
- mentions
- 1
- recordings
- 1
- Barry speaking
- 1
What Barry says
Barry describes Hewitt as a New York pianist who still played around town, one of the best piano players and a very special one, yet someone who, as of 1999, had never made a record.
Hewitt told Barry that he and some friends called on Bud Powell early one day to take him out. Bud said no and was playing ‘Embraceable You’. They spent the day out, and when they came back that night he was still playing it.
Accepting the Bruce Lundvall Visionary Award8:30Barry Harris on WKCR-FM ¶130
Barry tells Hewitt’s story to show the difference between ‘practising practising’ and what he calls practising playing: a pianist sitting alone and keeping one tune going in tempo for an hour and a half. Monk, he says, practised playing, and so did Bud on his day with ‘Embraceable You’.
Telling it again at the 2020 Jazz Congress, Barry adds that the friends wanted Bud to come out and get high; he refused and kept playing, and they came back that night stumbling. Here the story shows how special Bud was, and Barry wishes he were better appreciated.
In his own words
Frank Hewitt told me this story. He’s a New York piano player. He’s one of the best piano players, too. He’s never recorded. He plays around New York. He’s a very special cat.
He said him and some cats, they went by Bud Powell’s house early one day and said, “Come on, let’s go and have a ball.” Bud said, “No.”
Every mention
1 moments in the recordings, 1 of them Barry speaking. Each says who is talking.
Accepting the Bruce Lundvall Visionary Award
- 8:30
Retells Hewitt’s story (old captions ‘Frankie Hubert’, newer transcript ‘Frankie Hewitt’) of Bud playing ‘Embraceable You’ from morning to night.
In the interviews and notes
Barry calls Hewitt one of the best piano players in New York, a special player who had never recorded, and passes on his account of finding Bud Powell playing ‘Embraceable You’ in the morning and still at it that night.
The story comes up when Barry argues that Monk practised playing rather than ‘practising practising’; Bud’s all-day ‘Embraceable You’, as Hewitt told it, is Barry’s example of practising playing.
Method ideas nearby
Ideas of the method taught in the classes where they come up, with how many mentions fall in each.