The Hod O'Brien Trio - Fine and Dandy 

Hod O'Brien was an American jazz pianist born in Chicago in 1936. His family moved to Connecticut and while there he studied at The Hotchkiss School in Lakeville. From there he moved onto Oberlin College and The Manhattan School of Music from 1954 to 1957. According to the excellent and thorough liner notes contained in "Fine and Dandy" (compiled by Alun Morgan), "Throughout the late Fifties and early Sixties Hod led small groups of his own, worked in Oscar Pettiford's sextet and became house pianist at the Toten Villa on Staten Island, a long-running gig under under bassist Teddy Kotick's leadership which gave him plenty of opportunities to play with such soloists as Zoot Sims, Bob Brookmeyer and Stan Getz." Hod started recording for the Fresh Sound label in 1998 after meeting with producer Dick Bank. The album being reviewed here was his second effort with Fresh Sounds. On this session, Hod is accompanied by bassist Tom Warrington and drummer Paul Kreibich, two well known and very experienced jazz musicians located on the West Coast of the US. The album itself was recorded over two days (December 19 - 20, 2000) at Entourage Studios in Hollywood. The selection of songs was taken with due care and attention, with all being well regarded compositions by a number of noted composers such as Duke Ellington, Gerry Mulligan and Todd Dameron. The liner notes, which are comprised of an eight page booklet, are exceptionally detailed and very thorough, and deserve mention. The music itself is outstanding, with two of my favourite tracks being "The Squirrel", a blues written by Todd Dameron and "I Waited For You", written by Bob Russell and Dizzy Gillespie. This was one of five cd's I found at a thrift store that were being sold for a dollar each. I hope to review each one. I have already reviewed "So In Love" by Gene DiNovi, and this is my second review.