Provocative Piano

by Ken DrydenDick Hyman and His Orchestra pretty much stick to jazz-flavored, though often upbeat, easy listening arrangements on this studio session. No matter how flashy his piano is, the musical backgrounds are rather monotonous and the amount of actual improvising at the keyboard is minimal. The music includes reworkings of Chopin's "Polonaise" and his "Nocturne in E Flat," an excerpt from the first movement of Tchaikovsky's "Piano Concerto No. 1," as well as pretty if hardly memorable treatments of "Autumn Leaves," "Canadian Sunset," and Claude Thornhill's "Autumn Nocturne." Although Dick Hyman is a first-rate musician who is always dependable in a true jazz setting, this long unavailable LP will be of little interest to jazz fans.