Junior Mance

Softly As In A Morning Sunrise Junior Mance

Veteran pianist Junior Mance has worked and recorded with Jazz greats like Lester Young, Coleman Hawkins, Dizzy Gillespie, Cannonball Adderley, Lionel Hampton, Art Blakey. He accompanied singers like Dinah Washington and Aretha Franklin. Since the late 1980s he has been an acclaimed member of New Yorks New School and has given piano lessons to rising stars like Brad Mehldau and Larry Goldings. Jazz listeners will remember Bob Durham for his great work in the legendary Oscar Peterson trio. I want to personally give my special thanks to my good old friend Jimmy Woode. He was already there on the very first ENJA recording: Mal Waldron’s Black Glory and Mal plays the Blues. To enumerate all his musical activities would fill a book: he played with everybody from Duke Ellington and Billie Holliday to Charlie Parker and Miles Davis