A player of harmonic ingenuity and boundless improvisational prowess, Powell was crucial for the invention of bebop. He played alongside the greats of his era, including his lifelong friend and mentor Thelonious Monk. Around 1949, he became a staple of the Blue Note label – one of his earliest sessions with Max Roach and Curly Russell even was pronounced “one of the most important pieces of art of the 20th century” by critic Harold Bloom. Falling on hard times in the 1950s, his star rose again when he relocated to Paris in 1959, before returning to the US for good five years later.
