Ralph Earl Sutton (November 4, 1922 – December 30, 2001) was an American jazz pianist born in Hamburg, Missouri.
Ralph Sutton was one of the greatest stride pianist to emerge since World War II, with his only close competitors being the late Dick Wellstood and the very versatile Dick Hyman. Nearly alone in his
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generation, Sutton kept alive the piano styles of Fats Waller and
James P. Johnson, not as mere museum pieces but as devices for exciting improvisations. Although sticking within the boundaries of his predecessors, Sutton infused the music with his own personality; few could match his powerful left hand.
generation, Sutton kept alive the piano styles of Fats Waller and James P. Johnson, not as mere museum pieces but as devices for exciting improvisations. Although sticking within the boundaries of his predecessors, Sutton infused the music with his own personality; few could match his powerful left hand.
Raised in the tiny village of Howell, Missouri (later destroyed when the government took the land for a TNT plant), Sutton trained in classical piano and played the organ in the Presbyterian church as a young boy. By the age of 11 was playing in his builder father's country dance band. As a teenage he would
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listen to the Harlem Rhythm radio show which first introduced him to "stride" piano; the style he would play for the rest of his life.
listen to the Harlem Rhythm radio show which first introduced him to "stride" piano; the style he would play for the rest of his life.Jack Teagarden heard Sutton play around 1940 at a college and recruited him for his band. Sutton played with Teagarden until he was drafted into the Army in 1943. After the conclusion of World War II, in 1945, Sutton returned to St. Louis and worked with the Joe Schirmer Trio. Sutton then journeyed to New York rejoining Jack Teagarden's band. When he opened at the Famous Door on New York's 52nd street with Teagarden it helped put Sutton on the map, leading to a regular slot on Rudi Blesh's famed This Is Jazz radio
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show, and to the formation of Sutton's own trio, featuring the fine New Orleans clarinettist Albert Nicholas.
In 1948, Sutton took on the select gig of intermission pianist at Eddie Condon's Greenwich Village club, where he stayed for eight years, also taking part in Condon's radio and TV shows, recording regularly and attracting international interest. In 1952 Sutton was asked to London to play the Royal Festival Hall. This was the start of his many European tours which would continue until his death.
By 1956 Sutton had moved his family to San Francisco, where he continued his work as an intermission pianist and combo performer, also subbing for Earl Hines when the latter was on tour in Britain. He joined trumpeter Bob Scobey's bright Dixieland band, recorded
yet more albums and seemed destined for a steady if locally
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confined career until the impresario Dick Gibson invited him to Colorado to play at a jazz party.
yet more albums and seemed destined for a steady if locally
confined career until the impresario Dick Gibson invited him to Colorado to play at a jazz party.Here he met his second wife Sunnie, who operated the Rendevous club in the ski resort of Aspen. With the help of bassist Milt Hinton and drummer Gus Johnson, Sutton turned it into a jazz centre, attracting star players like Ruby Braff, and appeared himself as part of the World's Greatest Jazz Band. While the WGJB's working title may have seemed over-blown to some, the all-star line-up produced a marvellous sound, bolstered by bassist Bob Haggart's superior arrangements, many of pop songs rather than of the usual Dixieland staples.
Despite suffering a stroke in the early '90s, Sutton kept a busy schedule through the mid-'90s, playing at jazz parties and festivals. He died suddenly on December 29, 2001, in his car outside a restaurant in Evergreen, CO. Although he would have received much greater fame if he had been born 20 years earlier and come to maturity during the 1930s rather than the 1950s, at the time of his death it was obvious that Ralph Sutton had earned his place among the top classic jazz pianists of all time.
(Compiled and edited from Wikipedia, George Borgman blog, AllMusic & The Guardian)
Ralph plays two of his favourite tunes: Love Lies & Viper's Drag. Jerry Cherry from St Louis is on the bass at the 1994 Mid-America Jazz Festival in St. Louis.
Ralph plays two of his favourite tunes: Love Lies & Viper's Drag. Jerry Cherry from St Louis is on the bass at the 1994 Mid-America Jazz Festival in St. Louis.