Powell, Bud (Earl) 1924-66
US jazz pianist

He was born in New York City. A jazz virtuoso, he was the most influential bebop stylist on his instrument. Playing from the age of six, he became interested in jazz as a teenager, involving himself with the modern jazz movement in the 1940s with encouragement from Thelonious Monk. His mental instability brought periodic visits to mental hospitals, and a concomitant unevenness (and ultimate decline) in his creative powers. That instability was exacerbated by narcotics, and the death of his brother, pianist Richie Powell, in a car accident in 1956 which also killed the brilliant trumpeter, Clifford Brown. He moved to Paris from 1959 to 1964, where he led a trio featuring American expatriate drummer Kenny Clarke, another bebop innovator. He died in New York.

Bibliography: A Groves, The Glass Enclosure (1993)