The obscure music on this CD has rarely been reissued. Pianist
Wynton Kelly is heard with a trio (
Franklin Skeete or
Oscar Pettiford on bass and drummer
Lee Abrams) at the age of 19 when he was working as an accompanist for
Dinah Washington. Featured on this recording a year before he joined
Dizzy Gillespie and seven years before his next date as a leader,
Kelly in 1951 was already long on his way to achieving his own sound. Influenced most by
Bud Powell but also displaying some of the joy of
Teddy Wilson's style along with his own chord voicings,
Kelly gives listeners no hints on this enjoyable CD (which has two complete sessions plus three alternate takes) that he was still a teenager. [Originally released in 1951,
Piano Interpretations was reissued on an import-only Japanese CD in 2000.] ~ Scott Yanow