{"title":"Ray Bryant","description":"\u003cp\u003eRay 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. \u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"ray-bryant-lonesome-traveler-1976-japanese-chess-vinyl-lp","title":"Ray Bryant - Lonesome Traveler (1976 Japanese Chess Vinyl LP)","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eVinyl\u003c\/b\u003e:\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003eEX\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSleeve\u003c\/b\u003e:\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003eVG+\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eObi:\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003eNone\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOur grading system explained \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/dpbg4u-d1.myshopify.com\/pages\/secondhand-grading-guide\"\u003e\u003cb\u003ehere\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e.\u003cbr\u003ePhoto is of the actual item.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRay Bryant - \u003cem\u003eLonesome Traveler\u003c\/em\u003e | Vinyl LP - 1976 Japanese Chess Reissue (BT-5091, Nippon Phonogram \/ JVC)\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBryant was a Philadelphia pianist who had spent three years as house musician at the Blue Note Club, accompanying Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Lester Young and everyone else who came through town. By 1966 he had sideman credits with Art Blakey, Dizzy Gillespie, Coleman Hawkins, Sonny Rollins and Carmen McRae, and a solo career on Cadet (the Chess subsidiary) that leaned into the soul-jazz side of his playing. \u003cem\u003eLonesome Traveler\u003c\/em\u003e is the second of three travel-themed albums he made for the label (after \u003cem\u003eGotta Travel On\u003c\/em\u003e, before \u003cem\u003eSlow Freight\u003c\/em\u003e) and the grittiest of the three. The opening title track moves. Lee Hays's folk tune is turned into a hard-swinging groove with Richard Davis's bass driving underneath. \"'Round Midnight\" stays close to Monk's melody but Bryant's voicings pull it into a bluesier place. Then comes \"These Boots Were Made For Walkin',\" which is, improbably, one of the best tracks on the album. Freddie Waits lays down a backbeat, Davis plays a rising bass figure that locks the rhythm in, and Bryant rips through Lee Hazlewood's pop song like it was written for a jazz quintet. It shouldn't work, but it does. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSide B opens with \"The Blue Scimitar,\" an Esmond Edwards composition, before Bryant's own \"Gettin' Loose\" stretches into a piano workout built on his left hand, which was always his most distinctive feature: heavy, rhythmic, drawing on the boogie-woogie tradition in a way that grounded even his most harmonically sophisticated playing. \"Wild Is The Wind\" gets a ballad reading. \"Cubano Chant,\" Bryant's most enduring original, first appeared on Art Blakey's \u003cem\u003eDrum Suite\u003c\/em\u003e in 1957, and this version keeps the Latin pulse while giving the flugelhorns their most prominent moment on the album. Clark Terry and Snooky Young play harmony parts throughout the record, thickening the sound without stepping into solo territory. \"Brother This 'N' Sister That\" closes with a funky, churchy groove.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis is the 1976 Japanese stereo reissue on Chess BT-5091, from the Chess Black Sounds Collection, manufactured by Nippon Phonogram Co., Ltd.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Chess","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43711242960955,"sku":null,"price":35.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0630\/3203\/3339\/files\/IMG_7510.jpg?v=1782535842"}],"url":"https:\/\/lushliferecords.com.au\/collections\/ray-bryant.oembed","provider":"Lush Life Records","version":"1.0","type":"link"}