Piano | 1931-2011

Ray Bryant played piano the way his mother taught him in church, and that gospel-rooted touch, a heavy, grounded left hand and ringing tonalities even inside straight bebop, never left him. He earned his reputation as house pianist at the Blue Note club in Philadelphia between 1953 and 1956, accompanying Charlie Parker, Miles Davis and Lester Young whenever they passed through, and those connections brought him to New York in 1955 when both Davis and Sonny Rollins booked him for their own Prestige sessions, "Quintet/Sextet" and "Work Time" respectively. He moved to New York for good in 1959 and led his own trio through the 1960s, often with his brother Tommy on bass. Producer John Hammond signed him to Columbia and helped turn two of his compositions into genuine chart hits, "Little Susie", which began as an improvised theme song for drummer Jo Jones's group, and "Madison Time", adapted from an earlier Bryant tune to fit a new dance craze. His own composition "Cubano Chant" became his most enduringly covered piece, picked up by Cal Tjader and later sampled by De La Soul. Bryant died on 2 June 2011 in Queens, New York, aged 79.