The amazing Bud Powell

I was having lunch at the Cheesecake Factory in Las Vegas when I heard something familiar in the background music. I stopped and listened since this "music" is usually moronic rock or sappy strings. But I knew this piece: "It could happen to you", a piano solo by Bud Powell. Unheard of quality in a restaurant. Once upon a time I was helping to sell background music in London and it was a complete flop. As the poor guy trying to sell it said, "all they want is Knees Up, Knees Up Mother Brown". I once closed up Birdland in NYC at 4 am after sitting through a tremendous evening of Bud Powell playing. I also saw him in Berkeley at an all-star concert. He is the father of modern jazz piano and a member of the quintet that played Massey Hall in Toronto for "The Greatest Jazz Concert Ever". He could swing and improvise like no one before or since and paid the price with mental illness after being beaten by the cops in a drug bust. What is it with cops beating up helpless blacks? I once met a cop in Newport Beach whose name was John Coltrane, but of course he had never heard of the iconic sax man and composer. As for Bud Powell, no less a genius than pianist Bill Evans said, "No one could surpass him".