Walt Harper

Walt Harper & All That Jazz: Be My Guest/Gee Baby, Ain't I Good to You

by Jack Bowers
September 25, 2003

These albums by pianist/composer/singer Walt Harper aren"t new – Be My Guest was recorded in 1991, Gee Baby five years later – but they warrant an appraisal for at least two reasons: (1) good music, especially swinging jazz, is timeless; and (2) owing to the deplorable nature of the music business, Harper still has copies of each album available.

A third reason, at least with respect to Be My Guest, is that Harper's ensemble is strengthened by the presence of ...

Walt Harper: West Coast Online

by Jack Bowers
April 4, 2003

Pianist Walt Harper, who makes his home in Pittsburgh, PA, took Horace Greeley’s advice eight years ago and went west to record this splendid album with a group of all-star sidemen from Southern California. It was good advice. Those who appreciate big-band jazz that strives to blend Ellington’s unrivaled ingenuity with Basie’s elegantly swinging groove will surely dig West Coast Online, whose perceptive charts by John Clayton uphold the classic tradition while at the same time expressing an agreeably contemporary ...