Piano Solo

Joe’s music was a personal expression of musical feeling, a body of poetry which happens to find the piano as its vehicle. Like many of the Chicago collegues, Sullivan never cared to become analytical about jazz. He believed in absorbing, then expressing, the feeling of jazz. Gut feeling was still important to Sullivan when the music on this CD was recorded. He wanted every note in its right place, yet improvised and delivered with the passion of the moment. He instinctively went after perfectly balanced form. To hear him at his best – as he is in a fair number of these performances – is to enjoy one of the great listening pleasures in all of jazz. Joe, seated at the piano, was all music and all heart.