Earl Kenneth Hines (December 28, 1903 – April 22, 1983), also called Earl "Fatha" Hines, was an American jazz pianist and bandleader. He was one of the most important people in helping jazz piano develop. One source said, "He is one of a small number of pianists whose playing helped change the history of jazz."

The trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie (who was part of Hines's big band, which also included Charlie Parker) wrote,

The pianist Lennie Tristano said, "Earl Hines is the only one of us who can create real jazz music and smooth rhythm when playing alone." Horace Silver said, "He has a style that is completely different. No one else can make that sound." Erroll Garner said, "When you talk about greatness, you talk about Art Tatum and Earl Hines." Count Basie said that Hines was "the greatest piano player in the world."

Biography

Earl Hines was born in Duquesne, Pennsylvania, 12 miles from the center of Pittsburgh, in 1903. His father, Joseph Hines, played the cornet and led the Eureka Brass Band in Pittsburgh. His stepmother was a church organist. Hines planned to learn the cornet like his father, but playing it caused pain behind his ears. The piano did not hurt him, so he chose to study the piano instead. By age 11, he was playing the organ at his Baptist church. He had a strong memory and could play songs he heard in theaters and concerts. He once said he played songs from shows months before the sheet music was available. Later, he claimed he was playing piano in Pittsburgh before the word "jazz" was even created.

With his father’s approval, Hines left home at 17 to work as a pianist for Lois Deppe and His Symphonian Serenaders at a Pittsburgh nightclub called the Liederhaus. He received room and board, two meals daily, and $15 a week. Deppe, a famous singer who performed classical and popular music, also used Hines as his accompanist and took him on concert tours to New York. In 1921, Hines and Deppe became the first African Americans to perform on radio.

Hines’s first recordings were with Deppe. In 1923, they made four recordings for Gennett Records. Only two were released, one of which was a song Hines wrote called "Congaine," a lively foxtrot that included a piano solo by him. A month later, he recorded spirituals and popular songs with Deppe, including "Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child" and "For the Last Time Call Me Sweetheart." He also accompanied Ethel Waters, describing his approach as playing "under what the artist is doing" by listening to the changes she made.

In 1925, after much family discussion, Hines moved to Chicago, Illinois, then the world’s jazz capital, where musicians like Jelly Roll Morton and King Oliver lived. He began at the Elite No. 2 Club but soon joined Carroll Dickerson’s band, touring with them on the Pantages Theatre Circuit to Los Angeles and back.

Hines met Louis Armstrong in the poolroom of the Black Musicians’ Union in Chicago. Hines was 21, and Armstrong was 24. They played piano together at the union. Armstrong was amazed by Hines’s unique piano style, which included fast octaves that made his playing stand out even on old pianos. In 1927, Armstrong joined Hines’s band at the Sunset Cafe. That same year, Armstrong reorganized his recording-only band, Louis Armstrong and His Hot Five, and hired Hines as the pianist, replacing his wife, Lil Hardin Armstrong.

Armstrong and Hines recorded some of the most important jazz records ever made. At the time, recording engineers could not play back a recording without damaging the wax master, so the band did not hear the final version of "West End Blues" until it was released weeks later. Armstrong later said Hines was surprised when the record came out because they had forgotten they had recorded it. Both men were pleased with the result.

The Sunset Cafe closed in 1927. Hines, Armstrong, and drummer Zutty Singleton decided to form a group called the "Unholy Three," agreeing to only play together if all three were hired. As Louis Armstrong and His Stompers, they tried to open their own venue, the Warwick Hall Club, with help from Lil Hardin Armstrong. Hines briefly went to New York and returned to find Armstrong and Singleton had joined a rival band at the Savoy Ballroom. Hines felt "warm" (disappointed) and refused to join them later.

Hines played with clarinetist Jimmie Noone at the Apex, an after-hours speakeasy, performing from midnight to 6 a.m., seven nights a week. In 1928, he recorded 14 sides with Noone and again with Armstrong (a total of 38 sides with Armstrong). His first piano solos were recorded that year: eight for QRS Records in New York and seven for Okeh Records in Chicago, most of which were his own compositions.

Hines lived with Kathryn Perry, whom he had recorded "Sadie Green the Vamp of New Orleans" with. He described her as charming, with a good voice and violin skills. They lived together in a large apartment, and her parents stayed with them. Perry recorded with Hines, including "Body and Soul" in 1935. They remained together until 1940, when Hines "divorced" her to marry Ann Jones Reed, though that marriage was soon postponed.

Hines married singer Janie Moses in 1947. They had two daughters, Janear (born 1950) and Tosca. Both daughters died before him, Tosca in 1976 and Janear in 1981. Janie divorced him in 1979 and died in 2007. Hines also had two children from Laurice Penn: Michael Gordon Penn (1960) and Sandra Penn Wilson (1962–2023).

On December 28, 1928 (his 25th birthday and six weeks before the Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre), Hines began leading his own big band at Chicago’s Grand Terrace Cafe, a prestigious position. He said, "All America was dancing," and for the next 12 years, through the Great Depression and Prohibition, his band was the orchestra at the Grand Terrace. The Hines Orchestra, or "Organization," had up to 28 musicians and performed three shows nightly, four on Saturdays, and sometimes Sundays. Stanley Dance wrote that Hines and the Grand Terrace were to Chicago what Duke Ellington and the Cotton Club were to New York—but fierier.

The Grand Terrace was controlled by gangster Al Capone, so Hines became Capone’s "Mr. Piano Man." The piano was later replaced with a $3,000 Bechstein grand. Hines later said:

From the Grand Terrace, Hines and his band broadcast music over the radio for many years, sometimes seven nights a week, across the United States. The Hines band became the most broadcast band in America. Listeners included young Nat King Cole and Jay McShann, who said his "real education came from Earl Hines." Hines’s most significant "student" was Art Tatum.

The Hines band usually had 15–20 musicians on stage, occasionally up to 28. Members included Wallace Bishop, Alvin Burroughs, Scoops Carry, Oliver Coleman, Bob Crowder, Thomas Crump, George Dixon, Julian Draper, Streamline Ewing, Ed Fant, Milton Fletcher, and others.

Style

The Oxford Companion to Jazz says Hines was "the most important pianist during the change from stride to swing" and adds:

Hines talked about meeting Armstrong in his own words:

In their book Jazz (2009), Gary Giddins and Scott DeVeaux wrote about Hines's playing style during that time:

In his book Louis Armstrong: Master of Modernism, Thomas Brothers described Hines's style:

Pianist Teddy Wilson wrote about Hines's style:

Oliver Jackson often played drums with Hines. He also drummed for many famous musicians like Oscar Peterson, Benny Goodman, Lionel Hampton, Duke Ellington, Teddy Wilson, and others. He described Hines's style as follows:

The Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz gives the following description of Hines's 1965 style:

Later, when Hines was in his seventies and after making many solo recordings, he said:

Discography

This information is limited to discs from the LP era, which began around 1950. Hines made many 78 recordings in the years before that. His first recording was in 1923.