Jimmy Rowles: Sprinkling Jazz by Steven A. Cerra

© Copyright ® Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.

“Long acknowledged as the favorite accompanist of every singer for whom he played, Rowles is an artist of consummate harmonic imagination.”

- Leonard Feather

“Jimmy Rowles is a pianist of refreshingly consistent taste and swinging invention ….”

- Nat Hentoff

“A few things about Rowles stood out from the start. He didn’t sound like anyone else; he knew more tunes than Sigmund Spaeth [a musicologist who traced the sources and origins of popular songs to their folk and classical roots] ; and he was, on occasion, droll in the way that only a grizzled hipster can be…. His own two chorus solo is of a sort no one else would attempt – a coherent montage of hammered single notes, offhanded dissonances, wandering arpeggios, abrupt bass walks, trebly rambles.”

- Gary Giddins

"Most of what I'm trying to say [about the importance of the melody] is nicely illustrated in a story about the great, unique pianist Jimmy Rowles, who knew as much about songs and harmony as anybody who ever lived. 

He was playing a piano-bass duet gig for a while and one night his regular bassist sent in a sub, who decided to try and impress the master with his knowledge of harmony by hitting him with a whole slew of super-hip bass notes and chord substitutions, playing everything but the kitchen sink. 

After a couple of tunes worth of this, and working on his second double vodka, Rowles turned to this Einstein of the bass with a glare and rasped 'I'm aware of the possibilities … let’s just play the f---ing song the way it goes and make some music, OK?'"

- Bassist Steve Wallace

The Carriage House was located at 3000 West Olive Avenue in Burbank California. This was the name of the restaurant and bar before pianist Bill Chadney bought it in the mid-1970’s and named it after himself – Chadney’s.