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  • Four Hundred Saturdays

    SRCD0010

    Artist: Frank Hewitt Quintet

    Label: Smalls Records

    Frank Hewitt (piano), Chris Byars (tenor sax), Mike Mullins (alto sax), Ari Roland (bass), Jimmy Lovelace (drums). Recorded 8/21/99 live at Smalls, New York.

    On this, the third volume of the recordings of the late jazz pianist Frank Hewitt, we begin the presentation of recordings made at Smalls. Those who are not yet familiar with the story of the late Frank Hewitt and his music will find additional biographical information in the notes to the first two volumes in this series, We Loved You (Smalls SRCD-0001), and Not Afraid To Live (Smalls SRCD-0007). Hewitt was a rare piano talent of the first order who was featured for more than eight years at Smalls. He was entirely neglected, sometimes willfully so, by disengaged producers and critics. In response we created Smalls Records as a platform for his music, and for the music of other artists like him. Sadly, Hewitt died unexpectedly in September 2002 as the first of his albums neared release. Now, in a somewhat bitter twist of irony, Hewitt has become increasingly lauded for his brilliance since the posthumous release of the first two volumes of his recordings. Fred Kaplan writes in The Absolute Sound (June-July 2005): “Frank Hewitt, who died three years ago at age 66, may have been the greatest unknown jazz pianist of our time.” Meanwhile, Tom Conrad, writing in Jazz Times (June 2005) poses the central conundrum: “So how could an artist of this importance -- who did not die young, retained his creative powers to the end ...