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The John Lewis Piano (Atlantic). The leader of the Modern Jazz Quartet takes some standards (Little Girl Blue, It Never Entered My Mind) and some of his own compositions (Harlequin, Colombine) and strips them to the clean, cool bone. The spare treatments have a fragile charm all their own, but when heard in bulk they speak in an emotional monotone ultimately as wearying as a series of landscapes executed in whites and greys.
The Lion Roars (Willie "The Lion" Smith; Dot). In an interview with Critic Leonard Feather, Harlem's most-storied stride pianist rambles through some richly colored reminiscences about the good, bold days of jazz. (Willie's earliest jazz school: the brickyards of Haverstraw, N.Y.). The Lion roars too much and plays too little, but a couple of his own compositions—Echo of Spring, with its lacy embroidery over a rolling bass, and Zig-Zag, with its propulsive drive—are worth the price of the album.
If This Ain't the Blues (Jimmy Rushing & band; Vanguard). The indestructible Mr. Five-by-Five of the old Basie Band shouts some familiar blues and ballads—My Friend Mr. Blues, Pennies from Heaven—with a voice like a curdled trumpet backed by a solid boomp-a-cha beat. Jimmy sometimes wheezes now, but his talent for reading a message of ageless evil into the simplest of lyrics—"Sometimes I think I will/Then again I think I won't" —is as strong as it ever was.