Verve Vault Revisits Bud Powell’s ‘Bud Powell’s Moods’
The album draws from three sessions featuring Art Blakey, Art Taylor, and three bassists.
Bud Powell’s Bud Powell’s Moods is set for a single-LP reissue as part of the Verve Vault Series. The album draws from three sessions recorded over a six-month period in 1954 and 1955, bringing together the bebop pianist’s interpretations of standards and his own compositions.
The recordings capture Powell during the period when he became an exclusive artist for jazz producer Norman Granz’s Norgran and Verve labels. The program includes familiar ballads and standards, placing his work as an interpreter alongside his writing. “My Funny Valentine,” “Moonlight in Vermont,” “You Go to My Head,” and “I Get a Kick Out of You” feature among the selections, while “Buttercup” and “Fantasy in Blue” represent Powell’s original material.
Across the sessions, Powell receives support from bassists George Duvivier, Percy Heath, and Lloyd Trotman, with Art Taylor and Art Blakey on drums. The album brings these different rhythm-section lineups together in a collection centered on Powell’s piano playing.
The reissue follows the Verve Vault Series’ all-analog production approach. Ryan K. Smith cuts the records from the original master tapes at Sterling Sound, and the series is pressed on 180-gram vinyl. For Bud Powell’s Moods, that format returns a selection of the pianist’s mid-1950s recordings to LP.
