{"id":55,"date":"2021-03-29T21:58:01","date_gmt":"2021-03-29T21:58:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sohothedog.com\/previnjazz\/?page_id=55"},"modified":"2021-04-28T13:10:25","modified_gmt":"2021-04-28T13:10:25","slug":"interlude-on-influence","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.sohothedog.com\/previnjazz\/interlude-on-influence\/","title":{"rendered":"INTERLUDE: On Influence"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Efforts to discern the influence of other pianists in Previn\u2019s playing began while he was still a teenager. As a way of describing Previn\u2019s sound and approach, the instinct is an understandable critical gambit. But often there was something more to it, as if the writer were looking for a door by feeling along walls. Such was the tone of John Roberts, who, in a brief 1948 profile in Saturday Review <\/em>(in the wake of Previn at the Piano<\/em>\u2019s unexpected success), thought the combination of Previn\u2019s youthful appearance and playing \u201csuggested a young European who had listened avidly, and profitably, to Teddy Wilson and Art Tatum.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Aside: I have a sneaking suspicion that the author of this profile was actually John R. Pierce, the Bell Laboratories scientist and prolific writer of essays and science-fiction stories, often under assumed names, including \u201cJohn Roberts.\u201d Pierce would later lead the development of Echo, the first experimental communications satellite, before becoming an early expert on computer music<\/a>.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comparison with Tatum was common in Previn\u2019s early days, as was then typical with any jazz pianist of unusual dexterity and melodic inclination. However, as Previn\u2019s career moved into what was then called \u201cmodern jazz,\u201d it became an established truism that one of Previn\u2019s main influences as a jazz pianist\u2014perhaps the<\/em> main influence\u2014was Horace Silver. The initial source for this genealogy seems to be Leonard Feather. Contemporary Records\u2019 Feather-edited, label-centric newsletter, GTJ & CR News<\/em>, in announcing the 1956 Shelly Manne & His Friends <\/em>album, mentioned that Previn \u201chas developed along the Horace Silver, out of Bud, out of Monk, tradition\u201d. (This, already, is a slightly curious statement; Bud Powell, sure, but Monk?) For a 1958 Downbeat<\/em> blindfold test, Feather played Paul Desmond a Previn recording.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paul Desmond:<\/em> And Andr\u00e9 seems to be getting closer and closer to his goal of sounding like Horace Silver.<\/p>

Leonard Feather:<\/em> Yeah, he sure does.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

From there to Feather\u2019s 1958 survey Jazz: An Exciting Story of Jazz Today<\/em>: \u201cAndr\u00e9 Previn, who today probably swings as much as any pianist within range of a studio call, owes much to Horace Silver, whose incisive and highly personal style he admits as a major influence.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If Previn ever admitted this to anyone else, I haven\u2019t been able to find it. That, by itself, isn\u2019t all that significant, but Previn rarely hesitated to mention his other influences. He frequently and consistently cited his formative encounter with Art Tatum\u2019s playing, and his love of Nat \u201cKing\u201d Cole. (In his memoir, there\u2019s a great photo of Vic Damone, smiling at the camera, Cole at the piano, smiling at the camera, and Previn, carefully watching Cole\u2019s hands on the keyboard.) In 1974, Previn interviewed another touchstone, Oscar Peterson, at length, and Previn\u2019s fanboy delight is palpable. Interestingly, for much of the evening, they talked about the perils of influence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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