On this day back in 1924 one of the greatest jazz pianists off all time, Bud Powell, was born. Bud came from a family of musicians, his grandfather was a flamenco guitarist and his father was a stride piano player, which is what led Bud to adopt the piano early on as his instrument of choice. Famous for his large hands and left-handed stride style of playing, in which he would outline simplified chord structures using the root and fifth (with the occasional seventh and tenth note), led Bud to be known as the "Charlie Parker of the piano." Sadly Bud Powell suffered from mental illness for most of his life and was frequently in and out of mental institutions, where he was subjected to electro-shock therapy and large doses of Largactil, which left him unable to learn new tunes later in his life and led to his eventual death from self neglect. Below is a video of him hamming it up during a recording of his friend, Thelonius Monk's famous song 'Round Midnight:
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