FOR YOUR GRAMMY® CONSIDERATION:
TOUCH by Bill O’Connell
Best Contemporary
Instrumental Album
Best Jazz Instrumental Album
FEATURING:
Bill O’Connell - Piano
Santi Debriano - Bass
Billy Hart - Drums
THE UNIT IS SUPER TIGHT AND IN SYNC ON ALL 11 TRACKS... THE ESSENCE OF THEIR COLLECTIVE URGENCY AND AGENCY IS EXCEEDINGLY BRIGHT.
THERE IS ONE OTHER SENS THAT SHOULD BE NOTED, AND THAT’S THE FEELING - AND IN THIS CONTEXT O’CONNEL AND HIS COHORT ARE DEFINITELY IN TOUCH
- HERB BOYD - DOWNBEAT
“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. ”
FOR YOUR GRAMMY® CONSIDERATION - TOUCH by Bill O’Connell
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FOR YOUR GRAMMY® CONSIDERATION - TOUCH by Bill O’Connell 〰️
“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!”
“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. ”