Phineas Newborn Jr. (December 14, 1931 – May 26, 1989) was an American jazz pianist, whose principal influences were Art Tatum, Oscar Peterson, and
Bud Powell
Earl Rudolph "Bud" Powell (September 27, 1924 – July 31, 1966) was an American jazz pianist and composer. Along with Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk, Kenny Clarke and Dizzy Gillespie, Powell was a leading figure in the development of modern ...
.
Biography
Newborn was born in
Whiteville, Tennessee
Whiteville is a town in Hardeman County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 2,606 at the 2020 census and 4,638 at the 2010 census, Whiteville is the location of two privately owned prisons, Whiteville Correctional Facility and Hardeman ...
, and came from a musical family: his father, Phineas Newborn Sr., was a drummer in
blues
Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...
bands, and his younger brother, Calvin, a jazz guitarist. He studied piano as well as trumpet, and tenor and baritone saxophone.
Before moving on to work with
Lionel Hampton
Lionel Leo Hampton (April 20, 1908 – August 31, 2002) was an American jazz vibraphonist, pianist, percussionist, and bandleader. Hampton worked with jazz musicians from Teddy Wilson, Benny Goodman, and Buddy Rich, to Charlie Parker, Charles M ...
,
Charles Mingus
Charles Mingus Jr. (April 22, 1922 – January 5, 1979) was an American jazz upright bassist, pianist, composer, bandleader, and author. A major proponent of collective improvisation, he is considered to be one of the greatest jazz musicians and ...
, and others, Newborn first played in an R&B band led by his father on drums, with his brother
Calvin Calvin may refer to:
Names
* Calvin (given name)
** Particularly Calvin Coolidge, 30th President of the United States
* Calvin (surname)
** Particularly John Calvin, theologian
Places
In the United States
* Calvin, Arkansas, a hamlet
* Calvin T ...
B. B. King
Riley B. King (September 16, 1925 – May 14, 2015), known professionally as B.B. King, was an American blues singer-songwriter, guitarist, and record producer. He introduced a sophisticated style of soloing based on fluid string bending, shimm ...
's band on his first recordings in 1949, as well as the Sun Records sessions in 1950. They left West Memphis in 1951 to tour with Jackie Brenston as the "Delta Cats" in support of the record " Rocket 88", recorded by Sam Phillips and considered by many to be the first ever rock & roll record (it was the first ''Billboard'' No. 1 record for
Chess Records
Chess Records was an American record company established in 1950 in Chicago, specializing in blues and rhythm and blues. It was the successor to Aristocrat Records, founded in 1947. It expanded into soul music, gospel music, early rock and roll ...
).
Among his earliest recordings, from the early 1950s, are those for Sun Records with blues harmonica player Big Walter Horton.
From 1956, Newborn began to perform in New York City, recording his first album as a leader in that year, '' Here Is Phineas'' for
Atlantic Records
Atlantic Recording Corporation (simply known as Atlantic Records) is an American record label founded in October 1947 by Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson. Over its first 20 years of operation, Atlantic earned a reputation as one of the most i ...
. His trios and quartets at that time included his brother Calvin on guitar, bassists Oscar Pettiford,
George Joyner
Jamil Nasser (born George Joyner, June 21, 1932 – February 13, 2010)Obituary at
and drummers Kenny Clarke and Philly Joe Jones. Newborn created enough interest internationally to work as a solo pianist in
Stockholm
Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...
in 1958 and in Rome the following year. He drew much critical acclaim, for both his leonine technique and meticulously artful playing at any tempo. The most superlative praise he received, later in his career (1969), was from Leonard Feather who described him as "the greatest living jazz pianist. He is just beautiful." The most often-noted feature of Newborn's playing is fast-tempo parallel improvisation, two octaves apart in the manner of Oscar Peterson. This requires intense ambidexterity, and Oscar Peterson even called Newborn the next in virtuosity after himself, among jazz pianists.
On March 16, 1960, 29-year-old Newborn replaced Thelonious Monk and performed " It's All Right with Me" on the ABC-TV series ''Music for a Spring Night''. Newborn moved to Los Angeles that year, and recorded a sequence of piano trio albums for the Contemporary label. However, some critics found his playing style as too technical, and Newborn developed emotional problems as a result, necessitating his admission to the Camarillo State Mental Hospital for some periods. In fact, he also suffered a nervous breakdown related to conflicts with a record label during his career. Newborn later sustained a hand injury which hindered his playing.
Newborn's later work was intermittent due to ongoing health problems. This is most true of the period from the mid-1960s to mid-1970s when he faded from view, underappreciated and underrecorded. He made a partial comeback in the late 1970s and early 1980s, although this return apparently failed to benefit his financial situation. He died in 1989 after the discovery of a growth on his lungs and was buried in Memphis National Cemetery.
Legacy
According to jazz historian Nat Hentoff, Newborn's plight spurred the 1989 founding of the
Jazz Foundation of America
The Jazz Foundation of America (JFA) is a non-profit organization based in Manhattan, New York that was founded in 1989. Its programs seek to help jazz and blues musicians in need of emergency funds and connect them with performance opportunitie ...
, a group dedicated to helping with the medical bills and other financial needs of retired jazz greats. In the early 1990s the four-player Contemporary Piano Ensemble was formed by pianists Harold Mabern, James Williams, Mulgrew Miller, and Geoff Keezer to pay tribute to Newborn; it recorded two albums and toured internationally.
Scott Yanow
Scott Yanow (born October 4, 1954) is an American jazz reviewer, historian, and author.Allmusic Biography/ref>
Biography
Yanow was born in New York City and grew up near Los Angeles.
Since 1974, he was a regular reviewer of many jazz styles an ...
referred to Newborn as "one of the most technically skilled and brilliant pianists in jazz." Evidence of his technical prowess can be heard on tracks such as "Sometimes I'm Happy", from the album ''Look Out – Phineas Is Back!'', on which Newborn performs extended, complex, and brisk solos with both hands in unison. Leonard Feather said of him, "In his prime, he was one of the three greatest jazz pianists of all time." Oscar Peterson said, "If I had to choose the best all-around pianist of anyone who's followed me chronologically, unequivocally ... I would say Phineas Newborn, Jr."Lyons, Len. ''The Great Jazz Pianists'', Da Capo Press, Inc., 1983, p. 141.