This man was truly a great artist and a wonderful person. Basie said Earl was the best ever. Hines was riding high, the king of the keyboard, a byword for invention, technique, daring and dazzlement – the man who turned piano playing into a kind of Olympic event, inspiring a whole generation.
As the pianist once put it, ‘I go out in deep water and I always try to get back’. He always did, with every wrong-footing flourish finding its way home. A blend of audacity and majesty, exuberance and meditation, it’s a monument to the legacy of Hines.
