Billboard : 06/30/1956
Score of 79

While this LP may not rank among the top Powell sets, from a critical point of view, it is one of the more commercial offerings by the pianist to date. Collectors of Powell’s LPs are in for a bit of surprise on this one. The intensity and unrelieved drive of so much of his past work gives way to a gentler, almost mellow mood. The original harmony constructions and shifting rhythm patterns that “fingerprint” his style are there, but Powell seems unusually relaxed and undemonstrative. The material consists of pop and jazz standards like Shearing‘s Conception, Parker‘s Ladybird, Powell’s own Willow Grove, East of the Sun, Heart and Soul, etc. For a wild, swinging selection, demonstrate Crazy Rhythm. Powell is backed by George Duvivier and Art Taylor.

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Army Times
Tom Scanlan : 06/16/1956

Bud Powell, the pianist who has undoubtedly influenced more modern-styled pianists than anyone else, is in good form on another interesting new 12-inch LP. Unlike some of his followers, Bud swings. recommended for anyone on the modern kick. Tunes include Conception, East of the Sun, Heart and Soul and Crazy Rhythm. George Duvivier, the bassman, is excellent throughout.

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Down Beat : 08/08/1956
Nat Hentoff : 4.5 stars

Piano Interpretations, a mild title for Bud, was cut I think, about a year ago. Art Taylor keeps a strong pulse sounding, and the bassist is the firm, flowing, sympathetic George Duvivier, who has all too few and too short solos. The first side is unrelieved intensity with Bud wailing rhythmically and for my taste, making his own major sense conception-wise, however jaggedly percussive (as in the attacking Crazy Rhythm).

Bud’s one original on the date, Willow Groove, is a very good one. Second side begins with a lucid, lyrical but characteristically charged Willow, Weep. There is an electricity in Bud that ignites excitement when he is generally cohesive and consistently involved as in this set.

Ladybird, the penultimate track, is by Tadd Dameron, not Charlie Parker as the envelope says.

Stairway is taken at ballad tempo but is no less laced with emotional sharpness than the other tracks. For my ear, this is one of Bud’s better sets in the last couple of years and indicates what is finally being realized by some of those who have control over him – that Bud is in increasing control over himself, and that it is no longer necessarily true that the best of Bud is behind him. Now that he has a son, and the help of a new lawyer with compassion and understanding, Bud may be beginning a second career. I know that everybody in jazz hopes so. Recommended as more of the testament of one of the most unusually stimulating musicians in the history of jazz.

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Liner Notes by Unknown

According to Billy Taylor, a fine pianist himself, writing in The Saturday Review not long ago, “The Bud Powell influence is… one of the most commonly encountered ones in modern jazz piano…” What one is to deduce from this is, simply, that modern pianists have not at all disowned the perennial source, Art Tatum, but instead have added to the well-spring, as it were. As a very predictable result, the piano you hear today is generally of a high order, derivative as it may sometimes be.

And as for Bud Powell, personally, he has shown an unwillingness to be merely a static “source.” This is predictable, too, considering that jazz is dynamic, ever-moving. Bud Powell, in short, is moving ahead – beyond what he has set down before. For a restless, self-driving and fiercely inquisitive mind there can be no bounds on creativity. This dearth of self-satisfaction is a form of punishment, of course; but this being a stick with two ends the gain in achievement is nonetheless rewarding. Where Powell leaps forward is in the realm of ideas and the listener is forced to keep up with these ideas – this is in no way “music to relax to;” it is music to listen to with both ears straight up, alert to all nuances.

In this album, to cite examples, Powell takes a George Shearing original dating back nearly a decade, Conception and for all of Shearing’s brilliance with the song Powell gives it a fresh, invigorating interpretation with an intriguing pattern of ideas. Probably the one characteristic of Powell’s piano that is so obvious is its subtlety and is generally most discernible in the standards since any deviation is easier to spot. Stairway to the Stars, for instance, is not often heard as a jazz vehicle but here it serves well for Powell’s meandering style with its oddly placed rhythms and construction. Lest Bud Powell be thought of as merely a gentle mood merchant he can also swing with a vengeance – as in, just to cite one, Crazy Rhythm.

Earl “Bud” Powell, of course, was in the forefront of the bop movement (or upheaval) and the bop lines – with its unusual intervals and offbeat phrasing – have remained as a part of the Powell style. A native New Yorker, Powell came from a musical family and first hit prominence as a featured member of the Cootie Williams band. He has worked with a number of other top rank jazzmen, including Dizzy Gillespie, Don Byas and John Kirby as well as leading his own group.

Powell’s trio includes George Duvivier, bassist who has toured with such artists as Pearl Bailey, Lena Horne and Billy Eckstine; and drummer Art Taylor, who has also been heard with Coleman Hawkins and Buddy De Franco.