Everything you could look for in a pianist- taste, clarity of touch, technique, wit, erudition, harmonic depth, lyricism, rhythmic authority- is here for the taking.
— Dan Bilawsky, All about Jazz
“There is no doubt this jazz cat (Bill O’Connell) has game; more like fire-breathing musical passion tempered with immense intellectual dominance of Jazz and Latin music that may be good enough to rival some of the great Latin Jazz pianists of the last quarter century: Chucho Valdes, George Dalto, Gonzalo Rubalcaba and others. ”
“When pianist Bill O’Connell took his first tentative steps into the world of Latin Jazz in the mid-70’s, he wouldn’t have dared to predict that “Afro-Cuban” would come to define his artistic persona and over time, he would come to be recognized as a true master of the demanding genre.”
— Mark Holston, JAZZIZ
For years, the go-to pianist and arranger for artists such as Mongo Santamaria, Dave Valentin, Gato Barbieri, The Fort Apache Band, and many others, Bill O'Connell has perhaps more than any other pianist developed a true melding of Latin and Jazz music. His own playing, its robust chordal comping to its exuberant and sometimes knotty solos-transcends categorization and combines rhythmic complexities with glittering single note runs in a sort of Bud Powell-meets-Chick-Corea sound. O'Connell provides a thoughtful program of originals and a few re-imagined standards filled with energy and high spirits from a powerful voice in Latin Jazz.
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“Monk’s Cha Cha is a first…and a first-rate first at that. Recorded live at the Carnegie-Faria Room in Nyack, New York, it presents O’Connell all by his lonesome on nine songs that highlight his command over the keys. Everything you could look for in a pianist- taste, clarity of touch, technique, wit, erudition, harmonic depth, lyricism, rhythmic authority- is here for the taking.”
“This is a pianist with immense “player power” as it were. The range of his artistic spectrum seems limitless, and I suggest my readers will be moved by this colossus of musical dignity and improvisational authority.”
“With certified Latin chops on his resume but leaving himself open to freely interpret what Latin means, O’Connell dazzles and delights with another set that’s anything but more of the same. Caliente mucho!”
“The considerable degree of balance and integration of melody, harmony, and rhythm, composition and improvisation, exploration, individuality, and tradition is impressively maintained throughout. So seamless are all the elements that Bill O’Connell comes across as a kind of fountainhead from which ideas spout forth and simply melt into music in all its beauty.””
“Bill O’Connell’s latest Savant recording (A Change is Gonna Come”) cements his place as a master of the broadest spectrum of musical styles, a giant of modern jazz, and a member of Latin jazz royalty.””
“O’Connell remains faithful to his first love that arose during the years of working with such a star of Afro-Caribbean jazz, Mongo SantaMaria…the perfect synthesis of jazz and Caribbean music.”
“After 13 albums as a leader, O’Connell has established himself as one of the main forces of Latin jazz in NYC. While his piano playing has influenced many others in the city, his composing and arranging skills have made him a legend. ”
“Bill O’Connell is a matador of Latin Jazz. Involved since the 70s, his sense of authenticity is matchless.”
“Known in particular for his participation in Chet Baker and Sonny Rollins groups, pianist Bill O’Connell has become a master of Latin Jazz…”
“There is so much good playing here (Bill O’Connell-Live in Montauk) that it is rather difficult to overstate the case for its excellence.”