Phineas Newborn Jr.
[4] Before moving on to work with Lionel Hampton, Charles Mingus, and others, Newborn first played in an R&B band led by his father on drums, with his brother Calvin on guitar, Tuff Green on bass, Ben Branch and future Hi Records star Willie Mitchell.His trios and quartets at that time included his brother Calvin on guitar, bassists Oscar Pettiford, George Joyner and drummers Kenny Clarke and Philly Joe Jones.The most often-noted feature of Newborn's playing is fast-tempo parallel improvisation, two octaves apart in the manner of Oscar Peterson, a method involving intense ambidexterity.In the early 1990s the four-player Contemporary Piano Ensemble was formed by pianists Harold Mabern, James Williams, Mulgrew Miller, and Geoff Keezer to pay tribute to Newborn; it recorded two albums and toured internationally."[13] Evidence of his technical prowess can be heard on tracks such as "Sometimes I'm Happy", from the album Look Out – Phineas Is Back!, on which Newborn performs extended, complex, and brisk solos with both hands in unison.