Artist: Bud Powell

Bud Powell 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 bebop jazz. Powell was also a composer, and many jazz critics credit his works and his playing as having "greatly extended the range of jazz harmony". 

He was born in Harlem, New York, United States. In his youth, Powell listened to adventurous performances at Uptown House, a venue near his home. This was where Charlie Parker first appeared as a solo act when he briefly lived in New York.  Thelonious Monk played there also. When Monk met Powell, he introduced Powell to musicians who were starting to play bebop at Minton's Playhouse. Monk was a resident pianist, and he presented Powell as his protégé. Their mutual affection grew, and Monk became Powell's greatest mentor. Powell eagerly experimented with Monk's ideas. Monk's composition "In Walked Bud" is a tribute to their time together in Harlem. 

Powell was engaged in a series of dance bands, his incubation culminating in becoming the pianist for the swing orchestra of Cootie Williams. Powell was the pianist on a handful of Williams's recording dates in 1944. The list included the first recording of Monk's "'Round Midnight". 

In 1945–46 he recorded with Frank Socolow, Sarah Vaughan, Dexter Gordon, J. J. Johnson, Sonny Stitt, Fats Navarro, and Kenny Clarke. Powell became known for his sight-reading and his skill at fast tempo Charlie Parker chose Powell to be his pianist on a May 1947 quintet recording session with Miles Davis, Tommy Potter, and Max Roach; this was the only studio session in which Parker and Powell played together. 

The first Blue Note session in August 1949 included Fats Navarro, Sonny Rollins, Tommy Potter, and Roy Haynes, and the compositions "Bouncing with Bud" and "Dance of the Infidels". The second Blue Note session in 1951 was a trio with Curley Russell and Max Roach and included "Parisian Thoroughfare" and "Un Poco Loco". The latter was selected by literary critic Harold Bloom for his short list of the greatest works of twentieth-century American art. Sessions for Granz included Roach, Russell, Ray Brown, George Duvivier, Percy Heath, Lloyd Trotman, Art Blakey, Kenny Clarke, Osie Johnson, Buddy Rich, and Art Taylor.  

On May 15, 1953, he played at Massey Hall in Toronto with the quintet, including Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Charles Mingus, and Max Roach. The performance was recorded and released by Debut Records as the album Jazz at Massey Hall. 

Powell influenced countless younger musicians, especially pianists. These included Horace Silver, Wynton Kelly, Andre Previn, McCoy Tyner, Cedar Walton, and Chick Corea. Corea debuted a song called "Bud Powell" on his live album with Gary Burton, In Concert, Zürich, October 28, 1979, and in 1997 dedicated an entire album, Remembering Bud Powell to him.