Frogman and Learsfool, this post proves you both are totally "Out to Lunch"; since that's a New York phrase, I know you both know what it means.
From Wikipedia,
André Previn (2012)
André George Previn, KBE (/ˈprɛvɪn/; born Andreas Ludwig Priwin; April 6, 1929)[1] is a German-American pianist, conductor, and composer. He is considered one of the most versatile musicians in the world and is the winner of four Academy Awards for his film work and ten Grammy Awards for his recordings (and one more for his Lifetime Achievement).
Learsfool, how many awards have you and Frogman won between the two of you?
Previn made dozens of jazz recordings as leader and sideman, primarily during two periods of his career: from 1945 to 1967, and then again from 1989 to 2001, with just a handful of recordings in between and afterward (while he focused his career on conducting/recording classical music, and later on composing contemporary art music). Previn also did several crossover recordings with classical singers like Eileen Farrell, Leontyne Price or Kiri Te Kanawa, too, as well as several Easy-Listening records with piano and orchestra in the 1960s.
Like Oscar Peterson, whom Previn admires a lot,[8] and Bill Evans – or more recently Keith Jarrett, Brad Mehldau or Esbjörn Svensson – Previn has worked a lot as a trio pianist (usually with bass and drums). Following his performance on Shelly Manne's huge hit record Modern Jazz Performances of Songs from My Fair Lady in 1956, Previn released several albums of jazz interpretations of songs from broadway musicals as well as several solo piano recordings focussed on the songbooks of popular composers (André Previn Plays Songs by Vernon Duke, 1958; André Previn Plays That Old Black Magic, Come Rain or Come Shine, Stormy Weather, Over the Rainbow and Other Wonderful Songs by Harold Arlen, 1960; Ballads. Solo Jazz Standards, 1996; Alone: Ballads for Solo Piano, 2007), the late recording of songs by Harold Arlen with singer Sylvia McNair and bass player David Finck (Come Rain or Shine. The Harold Arlen Songbook, 1996), and his TV shows with Oscar Peterson (1974)[9] – which Marlon Brando simply called "one of the greatest hours I ever saw on television"[10] – and Ella Fitzgerald (1979)[11] respectively.
Jazz critic and historian Ted Gioia wrote in his book about West Coast Jazz, the scene to which Previn belonged:
[His] projects varied greatly in terms of quality and jazz content, but at his best Previn could be a persuasive, moving jazz musician. [...] Despite his deep roots in symphonic music, Previn largely steered clear of Third Stream classicism in his jazz work, aiming more at an earthy, hard-swinging piano style at times reminiscent of Horace Silver. Long before his eventual retreat from his jazz work, Previn had become something of a popularizer of jazz rather than a serious practitioner of the music. At his best, however, his music reflected a strong indigenous feel for the jazz idiom.[12]
And Dizzy Gillespie has stated,
He has the flow, you know, which a lot of guys don't have and won't ever get. Yeah. I heard him play and I knew. A lot of guys, they have the technique, the harmonic sense. They've got the perfect coordination. And, yeah, all that's necessary. But you need something more, you know? Even if you only make an oooooooo, like that, you got to have the flow.[13]
Jazz Recordings as leader/co-leader[edit]
Collaboration (RCA Victor, 1955) - with Shorty Rogers
Double Play! (Contemporary, 1957) with Russ Freeman
Pal Joey (Contemporary, 1957)
Gigi (Contemporary, 1958)
André Previn Plays Songs by Vernon Duke (Contemporary, 1958)
King Size! (Contemporary, 1959)
André Previn Plays Songs by Jerome Kern (1959)
West Side Story (Contemporary, 1959)
The Subterraneans (Soundtrack) (MGM, 1960)
Like Previn! (Contemporary, 1960)
André Previn Plays Songs by Harold Arlen (Contemporary, 1960)
André Previn and J.J. Johnson Play Mack the Knife and Bilboa Song and Other Music from the Threepenny Opera, Happy End, Mahagonny (1961, with J.J. Johnson, Red Mitchell and Frank Capp)
Duet (1962, with Doris Day, Red Mitchell and Frank Capp)
A Different Kind of Blues (1980, with Itzhak Perlman, Jim Hall, Red Mitchell and Shelly Manne)
Nice Work if You Can Get It (1983, with Ella Fitzgerald and Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen)
After Hours (1989, with Joe Pass and Ray Brown)
Uptown (1990, with Mundell Lowe and Ray Brown)
Old Friends (1992, with Mundell Lowe and Ray Brown)
Kiri Sidetracks: The Jazz Album (1992, with Kiri Te Kanawa, Mundell Lowe and Ray Brown)
André Previn and Friends Play Show Boat (1995, with Mundell Lowe, Ray Brown and Grady Tate)
Sure Thing. The Jerome Kern Songbook (1996, with Sylvia McNair and David Finck)
Ballads. Solo Jazz Standards (1996)
Come Rain or Shine. The Harold Arlen Songbook (1996, with Sylvia McNair and David Finck)
Jazz at the Musikverein (1997, with Mundell Lowe and Ray Brown)
We Got Rhythm. A Gershwin Songbook (1998, with David Finck)
We Got It Good and That Ain't Bad. An Ellington Songbook (1999, with David Finck)
Live at the Jazz Standard (2001, with David Finck)
Alone: Ballads for Solo Piano (2007)
Jazz Recordings as sideman/group member[edit]
With Benny Carter
Jazz Giant (Contemporary, 1958)
With Helen Humes
Tain't Nobody's Biz-ness if I Do (Contemporary, 1959)
Songs I Like to Sing! (Contemporary, 1960)
With Barney Kessel
Music to Listen to Barney Kessel By (Contemporary, 1956)
Carmen (Contemporary, 1959)
With Shelly Manne
Shelly Manne & His Friends (Contemporary, 1956)
My Fair Lady (Contemporary, 1956)
Li'l Abner (Contemporary, 1957)
Bells Are Ringing (Contemporary, 1959)
With Lyle Murphy
12-Tone Compositions and Arrangements by Lyle Murphy (Contemporary, 1955)
Classical music (as conductor and/or pianist – selection)[edit]
Chamber music / solo piano music[edit]
As in Jazz, Previn, the classical pianist, worked most of the time as a trio pianist (with violin and cello) in classical chamber music. Accordingly, most of his recordings as pianist are in this genre.
