Savoy jazz director, Ozzie Cadena, was the first a&r man to give Hank
Jones the amount of record time he deserved. In addition to Joness
steadying presence as a sideman on many sessions, Cadena saw to it that
he was finally brought before a wider audience than at any previous point
in his career. This time Cadena chose to present him as a solo performer,
an inspired choice, since Jones is a complete jazz pianist in that he can be his own rhythm section if he has to. Underneath the flowing gentleness of his lines is a firm, two-handed beat that sometimes distils stride traces of his early influencesWaller, Tatum, Wilson, and Nat Cole. And because of the intelligence and emotional acumen of his musicianship, he can make even the venerable standards included here sound freshly minted and personal again.
