Jazz Articles about Ralph Sutton

Ralph Sutton: In Copenhagen

by Chris Mosey
August 31, 2009

Ralph Sutton, “The Last of the Whorehouse Piano Players," was 54 and in peak form when these tracks were recorded over three days during a visit to the Danish capital in 1977. It is difficult to imagine Sutton, as a boy, playing organ at the Presbyterian church in Howell, Missouri, where he grew up. From the age of nine when he first heard Fats Waller, his great love was stride piano. He modeled his style on Waller, James P. Johnson ...

Ralph Sutton with Michael Silva: It's So Nice It Must Be Illegal: Recorded 1988 Live in France (Volume One)

by Eric J. Iannelli
May 6, 2005

Since he was born in Hamburg, Missouri in 1922, it's apt in a way that stride pianist Ralph Sutton should have this posthumous album released on a Hamburg label--this one is the original, so to speak, located a few thousand miles away in the north of Germany. As Sutton aficionados will be quick to point out, this is not his first disc to appear on Nagel Heyer. Nor will it be the last. That “Volume One" tacked promisingly on the ...

Ralph Sutton and Johnny Varro: A Pair of Kings

by J. Robert Bragonier
October 22, 2003

Well, Arbors Records has done it again: well recorded jazz from its glory years, played today by the people who played it then. This 2001 album documents two of the most reliable of these players, with all the sophistication, excitement, and spontaneity of a live performance. The late Ralph Sutton was born in Hamburg, Missouri in 1922 and played the piano virtually his entire life. He joined the Jack Teagarden Orchestra at age 19, a several-year gig ...

Ralph Sutton and Ruby Braff: R & R

by Dave Nathan
October 5, 2002

Whether it be taking the time to address all the nuances of “Little Rock Getaway" by playing this Joe Sullivan classic at a much slower pace than usual, or mildly swinging and shaking “Big Butter and Egg Man", or splitting the rhythm on “Tain't So Honey, Taint So", the style and substance of the music created by these two giants is immediately recognizable. Only the horns of Harry “Sweet" Edison and Don Fagerquist approach the lyricism of Braff. Here he ...

Ralph Sutton/Ruby Braff: Ralph Sutton Quartet Featuring Ruby Braff, Vol. 4

by Dave Nathan
May 1, 2001

This release is the final chapter of a four-volume undertaking by Storyville Records to put to disk live performances of stride pianist Ralph Sutton and his guests at his wife's Allene (Sunnie) Anderson's club, in the ski resort of Aspen, Colorado. For this set the headliner was cornetist Ruby Braff who must have been energized by the mountain air for he was in fine fettle.

Consummate professionalism, as well as good jazz, prevails through the more than 60 minutes in ...