Collection: Ray Bryant

Ray Bryant learned piano in church, his mother an ordained minister who taught herself the instrument, and that gospel foundation never left his playing even as he became one of the most in-demand sidemen of the 1950s. As house pianist at the Blue Note club in Philadelphia from 1953 to 1956, he backed Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Lester Young and Sonny Stitt whenever they came through town, connections that pulled him to New York in 1955 when Davis and Sonny Rollins both wanted him on session, Davis for "Quintet/Sextet" and Rollins for "Work Time", both for Prestige. He settled in New York properly in 1959 and led his own trio for the next decade, often alongside his bassist brother Tommy. Producer John Hammond signed him to Columbia and turned two of his tunes into genuine hits, "Little Susie" and "Madison Time" both charted, the latter built from an earlier Bryant composition he'd renamed for the dance craze sweeping Baltimore. "Cubano Chant", written years earlier, became his most covered composition, picked up by Cal Tjader and eventually sampled by De La Soul. What's stocked here moves between his trio work, his solo recitals, and his prolific session appearances behind other leaders.