“Teddy Wilson in 4 Hands” – Two-piano and solo piano solos by Dick Hyman & Chris Hopkins – Victoria Company

What a treat for fans of jazz piano duos, of which I’m certainly one!  This is the most enjoyable two-piano disc I’ve heard in the past year. It’s all in a fairly traditional stride and swing-influenced piano style that never seems to venture much past about 1945, but the clever arrangements and imaginative treatments of the tunes is a kick and a half.  These guys are keyboard geniuses with the greatest musicianship – they do one terrific turn of tune after another, nonstop, and all over the keyboard.

Recorded in 2005 in a church in Switzerland, veteran keyboardist Dick Hyman – 79 years old – is on the right channel and amazingly prolific keyboardist Chris Hopkins – 34 years old – is on the left channel. Each of the pianists gets their own few pages of personal notes, and Hyman has plenty to say about the great Teddy Wilson. One standout comment is that Wilson was the model for most pianists of his time because the other contemporary – Art Tatum – had such inconceivable technical chops that it made all other pianists despair.  All 17 tunes come from Wilson’s long career – he either wrote them or played them frequently. Some tracks keep close to Teddy’s own versions and others just providing a starting point for the creative improvisations of Hyman and Hopkins. Two of the tunes are solos by Hyman and two more are Hopkins’ solos. The rest are an aural trip if you sit properly balanced between your two front speakers, or better yet, listen on headphones to exaggerate the left/right spatiality.  (This is most fun I’ve had listening to the two piano combo since I once recorded a duo binaurally with the dummy head sandwiched between the two instruments.)

 – John Henry