Reader's Digest 3 CD Set - Cocktail Piano Moods (1994)

Program notes by Rosemary Seeger Ever wonder what it is that makes the sound of a piano so evocative? That immediately establishes an atmosphere, an ambiance, so intense it's almost visual? It's more easily recognized than explained, maybe. Something about a pianist, chording smoothly and decoratively through a popular standard, conjures up visions of a past-especially an urban past-that we treasure. Manhattan of 50 or 60 years ago, a galaxy of lights twinkling in the background as the martinis flow and William Powell and Myrna Loy trade wisecracks at the rooftop bar. Pete Hamill put it nicely in an article in New York magazine: "Once there was another city here, and now it is gone. There are almost no traces of it anymore, but millions of us know it existed, because we lived in it: the lost city of New York." Or anywhere, for that matter. A way of life, of looking at ourselves and one another. We still want it, miss it, long for it. And that's what's wonderful about the sound of the piano, playing good old songs. They bring back the past, make it live. Reassure us that yes, there are some eternal verities still afoot. The late Tony Tamburello, cocktail pianist supreme, used to say that someone playing standards in a classy lounge was one of the few real truths of American life. Listening to this collection, with its parade of masterful pianists and richly textured settings, it's easy to understand exactly what he meant-and just how right he was.