The Lonely One

“The Lonely One”, issued by Verve in 1959, presents a series of 1955 trio sessions by the great Bud Powell, recorded in the company of such figures as bassists Percy Heath and George Duvivier, and drummers Kenny Clarke and Art Taylor.

Powell experienced serious health problems throughout his life. He was committed to a mental hospital from late 1951 to early 1953, and would be released into the guardianship of Oscar Goodstein, the owner of the Birdland nightclub. Following his release from the hospital, Powell’s playing began to be seriously affected by Largactil, a drug prescribed for the treatment of schizophrenia, and by the late Fifties his talent was clearly in eclipse.

These sessions, however, still find him in good shape (his playing, besides some technical trouble, never ceased to produce interesting music). According to All About Jazz reviewer Patrick Burnette, “Powell deconstructs Monk’s ‘Epistrophy’ and garbles ‘Sweet Georgia Brown,’ but the most striking cut is ‘Mediocre,’ on which Powell plays a repetitive melody over a descending series of chords for about three minutes, making increasingly outre variations on the melody rather than soloing over the chords.”