Herbie Nichols Trio Herbie Nichols Trio

• 1. The Gig
• 2. House Party Starting
• 3. Chit-Chatting
• 4. The Lady Sings The Blues
• 5. Terpsichore
• 6. Spinning Song
• 7. Query
• 8. Wildflower
• 9. Hangover Triangle
• 10. Mine

One of jazz’s most tragically overlooked geniuses, Herbie Nichols was a highly original piano stylist and a composer of tremendous imagination and eclecticism. He wasn’t known widely enough to exert much influence in either department, but his music eventually attracted a rabid cult following, though not quite the wide exposure it deserved.

Nichols was born January 3, 1919, in New York and began playing piano at age nine, later studying at C.C.N.Y. After serving in World War II, Nichols played with a number of different groups and was in on the ground floor of the bebop scene. However, to pay the bills he later focused on Dixieland ensembles; his own music - a blend of Dixieland, swing, West Indian folk, Monk-like angularity, European classical harmonies via Satie and Bartók, and unorthodox structures - was simply too unclassifiable and complex to make much sense to jazz audiences of the time. Mary Lou Williams was the first to record a Nichols composition - “Stennell,” retitled “Opus Z,” in 1951; yet aside from the song he wrote for Billie Holiday, “Lady Sings the Blues,” none of Nichols’ work got enough attention to really catch on.