Talk:Mel Powell

Powell's piano playing
MEL POWELL was REALLY GREAT PIANIST!!!! greetings from Prague   najponk4.

Rewrite
It's too bad that this poorly written stub for an important jazz pianist, composer and teacher doesn't begin to do him justice! I took a minor class in composition with him at Yale and he was very helpful with my problems in composing.

I will rewrite what's there of the awkward paragraph or two but this is only a beginning. I can't expand the article as I don't have the time or information to do it. (But someone should do it!)

If you don't like the rewrite, you can revert it of course but it's really not acceptable as it stands.Ed (talk) 00:45, 1 March 2012 (UTC)


 * The article currently contains more than two paragraphs. How do you think it should be improved? Hyacinth (talk) 01:07, 1 March 2012 (UTC)


 * I've changed the two paragraphs slightly. For one thing, he was not born "Mel" Epstein but "Melvin" Epstein "Mel" being a common nickname which Powell used professionally. For another, it's not "the" Bronx but common usage is "The" Bronx (see that article). And you only need his death date and place in the last paragraph. All the information about his birth can easily go in the first paragraph.

If you think my version is more awkward than the previous, then you are welcome to revert it.Ed (talk) 13:28, 1 March 2012 (UTC)


 * I just completed an expansion and rewrite of the article. I agree with Ed above that previously it didn't really do Mr. Powell justice. I hope I've come closer, without getting to verbose or into minutia. As I researched more and more I found Mel to be a pretty fascinating guy. I wasn't quite sure about the "laundry list" of former students and its relevance, but for now I left it in. It does, however, need a citation of some reliable source. Sector001 (talk) 14:38, 4 August 2012 (UTC)


 * Many thanks for your rewrite and expansion, Sector 001. I hadn't realized that he also studied piano with my last teacher, Nadia Reisenberg. I agree, he was a fascinating guy. He always let me know what he thought which was sometimes what you'd call "tough love". For example, when I played the piano part of some flute pieces I wrote on a Yale recital, he announced to another party that he wished I'd played the piano as well as I wrote it. (No, the remark didn't hurt at all.!) But he came to my Masters Degree recital and came up after saying it was a treat.

I remember vividly a remark he made in an electronic music workshop class on polyrhythms saying: "In electronics we can do 2 against 3 perfectly," then he paused dramatically and added, "but...we want to hear the strain". I always treasured my study time with him even though I broke ranks with that style of writing after I left Yale.Ed (talk) 19:40, 18 May 2013 (UTC)

External links modified
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 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20061001185331/http://artofthestates.org/cgi-bin/composer.pl?comp=208 to http://artofthestates.org/cgi-bin/composer.pl?comp=208
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20040423031312/http://www.greenmanreview.com/powell.html to http://www.greenmanreview.com/powell.html
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Muscular Dystrophy onset
Greetings from a fellow Powell student, Midipedia. I don't have solid info on when Powell was diagnosed (misdiagnosed? I recall there being some question) with MD. When I studied with him (1982-84) he walked with a cane. He moved to a walker within a few years and then to a wheelchair. I understood him to be an avid tennis player into the 1970s. So "Shortly thereafter" seems to be inaccurate. Was there an earlier episode that required temporary use of a wheelchair? I don't know if any. And the "He had MD so he had to quit jazz" implication of the language is, I think, inaccurate. I don't think the first symptoms could have shown up until the late '70s but I'm deep into his biography now and will provide better information if and when I can. Jperrylsu (talk) 01:18, 2 January 2024 (UTC)