Solo jazz piano is a difficult art. Presenting the melody, sustaining the rhythm, improvising ; it is difficult to sustain these essential elements in a performance. Dave, in his later years, became a master of the art. Several CDs for Chiaroscuro and Concord provide us with remarkable examples from his enormous repertoire.

This CD has given me some great listening over the past 2 years. Dave describes it as a collection of the tunes often requested by drunks in bars – and often selected by himself when drunk! There are moments, for example with the version of the country music classic San Antonio Rose, when his tongue seems to be in his cheek, but that certainly does not apply to his beautiful reading of Irving Berlin’s All Alone or Fats Waller’s Lonesome Me. Fans of traditional jazz piano will enjoy his extended improvisation on Willie the Weeper and his warmly respectful treatment of the sometimes banal Tin Roof Blues. His first choice, My Melancholy Baby, with the verse played beautifully, is a perfect example of his approach to the classics of American popular song.