Backgrounder: Phineas Newborn's Great Jazz Piano

Following my post on Howard McGhee's 1961 album, Maggie's Back in Town, I received many emails asking me to feature Phineas Newborn Jr. This week's Backgrounder speaks volumes about his technique and touch. If I played this album as a blindfold test, many might guess s young Oscar Peterson.

Born in Whiteville, Tenn., in 1931, Newborn played often in Memphis with his father and other relatives in an R&B band in the late 1940s. He shifted to jazz in the mid-1950s after being discovered by Count Basie.

He recorded steadily as a leader and sideman throughout the 1950s and into the 1960s, until reviews began chastising him for being too simplistic and not bombastic and free enough. Newborn dropped off the scene for a few years with mental-health difficulties but returned in 1969 to record and tour. He died in 1989.

The Great Jazz Piano of Phineas Newborn Jr. was recorded for Contemporary Records in 1961 and '62. Tracks 1-4 were recorded in November 1961 while tracks 5-8 were recorded in September 1962.

Here's The Great Jazz Piano of Phineas Newborn Jr. without ad interruptions...