Ronnell Bright:
He's Done It All

© 1998 Bill Fogarty


Picture this scene: It's 1958 and the Brussels World's Fair is on. A Belgian casino has gone all-out and booked both Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan and their respective trios. The two greatest singers in jazz history work it out this way: Ella does most of her set, then invites Sarah up to join her for 15 or 20 minutes of scatting and swinging. Then, when it's Sarah's set, she does the same, bringing Ella on for more incredible music. It went on this way for a week. And though Norman Granz was there to tape it all, it never has been released. Maybe it never will.

What would you give to have been there? This is just one of many memories belonging to Ronnell Bright, now a resident of Mission, Kansas, and in semi-retirement after a remarkable career as performer, composer, musical director and accompanist. He knows about that Ella-Sarah week because he was Sarah's accompanist.

One way to give you an idea of the musical stature of Ronnell Bright is to simply list all the prominent jazz and popular performers he has worked with, songs he has written, singers who have recorded them, shows he has been musical director for, and recordings he has made as a leader or sideman. Can't do that here. We're limited for space. But to put the man in context still requires a partial listing of the names. Ready?

Dizzy Gillespie, Sarah Vaughan, Cannonball and Nat Adderley, Lena Horne, Jo Jones, Peggy Lee, Roy Haynes, Joe Williams, Coleman Hawkins, Anita O'Day, Teddi King, Max Roach, Lurlean Hunter, Carmen McRae, Terry Gibbs, Ella Fitzgerald, Doris Day, Chris Connor, Nancy Wilson, Abbey Lincoln, Lou Rawls, Quincy Jones, Al Hibbler, Zoot Sims... There are many more.

You've noticed that many of the above are singers. For a great deal of his career, Ronnell has been a highly sought-after accompanist and musical director, working with these headliners on anything from a single recording session to lengthy tours and years of employment. Over three years with Nancy Wilson, more than that with Sarah Vaughan, a theatrical tour with Lena Horne (which included hanging out with her pals Billy Strayhorn and Duke Ellington). Yes, Ronnell Bright has done it all.

Born in Chicago in 1930 to a minister father and teacher mother, Ronnell showed talent at an early age. By the time he was nine, he was an advanced classical player, winning the National Guild of Piano Teachers' student tournament. He was in the Chicago Youth Symphony at 14, and at 16 as on a summer scholarship at Julliard in New York. He started getting into jazz in his late teens.

By the time he was 24, Ronnell had a B.A. in music from Cal. State/Northridge and had been in Navy bands for over two years. (He also earned a Masters degree from the University of Southern California, a Ph.D in Religion and a Doctor of Metaphysics/Universal Life from the Theological Seminary in Modesto, CA.) He was soon working in Chicago night spots like the London House and the Blue Note, playing with Johnny Griffin, accompanying Carmen McRae and Lurlean Hunter and meeting all the jazz giants who came through, such as Oscar Peterson, Horace Silver and Billy Taylor. It was Taylor who encouraged him to come to New York.

"I knew I was the luckiest kid in the world," Ronnell recalls.

He was soon leading his own group, playing opposite headliners like Count Basie at Birdland and working briefly in Dizzy Gillespie's big band. John Hammond became interested and recorded him. He led the house trio for six months at the Cafe Bohemia, and his reputation as an accompanist grew. When Jimmy Jones left Sarah Vaughan after a decade, she snapped up Ronnell. He had already developed considerable skill in this department, and his tenure with Vaughan allowed him to broaden his abilities as an arranger and conductor.

Carmen McRae and Ronnell Bright, 1955

With all the great vocal names he has worked with, it's no surprise that Ronnell grades Sarah Vaughan as the best. "She is unquestionably the greatest, the only one who could claim the very highest standards of musicianship," he once told Leonard Feather. "She could tell you to move from F-sharp to an E in the middle of a 10-note chord, and she'd always be right."

She apparently regarded Ronnell highly as well. Among his treasures is a picture of Sarah with the inscription: "To my backbone."

Bright also got into songwriting in those days, and has never really stopped. Sarah, Gloria Lynne, Bill Henderson and Blue Mitchell recorded his "Sweet Pumpkin." Johnny Hartman recorded "Don't Call It Love." Nancy Wilson recorded his "Tender Loving Care" (words by Johnny Mercer). Horace Silver and Cal Tjader did "Cherry Blossom." And Sarah recorded "Missing You" on the 1958 Mercury release, No Count Sarah.

Being a top-flight accompanist for the best singers is not something that every good pianist can handle. The work is demanding and calls for the highest standards of professionalism. The accompanist may also have responsibilities for the musical performance of everybody working behind the singer, be it trio or full orchestra. Ronnell can take a lot of satisfaction in having done that on a level with just a few others, including Lou Levy, Tommy Flanagan (10 years with Ella), Jimmy Jones and Don Abney.

In the process of achieving all this, however, there was a down side. You can get lost. You can spend years in a shadow.

"John Hammond once warned me, 'Don't lose yourself behind a singer.' But it was steady work, I was learning a lot and I was paying the bills for a growing family. I made a good living, but I did develop the uneasy feeling that what Hammond said had come true. Bill Basie once saw me working behind a singer and he scolded me: 'Are you still doing this?'"

(Basie was fully aware of Ronnell's pianistic gifts. On more than one occasion, Bright was called on to substitute for the Count.)

Ronnell hasn't worked as an accompanist in 15 years or so, except for impromptu occasions. As always, he is in to many different things. (We haven't even talked about his Hollywood stints as musical director of "The Flip Wilson Show" from 1970 to '74, or working on Carol Burnett's show for 11 months, or his occasional acting gigs on "Sanford & Son," "The Jeffersons" and "Mannix.") Today, he focuses mostly on his piano playing and singing.

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"...Jazz is about the truth. It's about creating and playing music from your center, so that what comes out is really you." -- Ronnell Bright

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As you might expect with his early classical background, Ronnell built up a strong set of chops very young. There's a trio album of his made in Europe in the late 1950s with Richard Davis and Art Morgan; the prowess and technique fairly jump out at you, as does the creativity and swing. In the years since, he has learned a lot about playing jazz despite all the other work he's done.

"I've found that it's not how articulate you are or how much technique you have. I traveled to all those cities and found that there were people in each one of them who were waiting to cut you -- sharpshooters with lots of technique.

"But jazz is about the truth. It's about creating and playing music from your center, so that what comes out is really you. It's not a matter of who's best; it's who's doing the best job of expressing what's inside. You have to go through a lifetime of effort to learn to play simple, and for me, simple is where it's at. I feel more like expressing passion than going heavy into technique."

With his musical background, West coast connections and reputation as a musical director, how did Ronnell Bright find his way to Kansas City? Because his wife Dianne is native of these parts, and because he lived here once before, having made a memorable stand at the Hilton on Main north of the Plaza. ("I really liked the laid-back ambiance of this town.") Before his return, he was involved in ministerial work in Denver and playing jazz and doing studio assignments in Los Angeles.

Currently, Bright has one formal gig and one informal one. You can catch him most Saturday afternoons at Tommy Ruskin's jam session at Fedora on the Plaza sometimes sitting in for 20 minutes or so. Recently, he had a go at Clare Fischer's "Pensativa," sang one of his own tunes, then did a standard most of us had forgotten -- a reminder of his very deep repertoire. Another time, he graciously played a request for some boogie-woogie -- several rousing minutes of eight-to-the-bar that was pure fun.

That's the informal gig. You can also migrate across the Plaza to The Club at Plaza III to hear Ronnell playing for Saturday diners, 6:00 to 8:00 p.m.. A lot of us have done that.

One of Ronnell's current projects is to resurrect some of the great, jumping novelty tunes Nat Cole used to do before he became big. Anyone remember "Hit That Jive, Jack?" Or "The Best Man?" Or "I Just Can't See for Lookin?" Nat was an early idol for Ronnell, and one of his challenges today is to play and sing those delightful pieces his own way, not just reprise them.

So here's Ronnell Bright -- currently listed in the 1998 edition of A Marquis Who's Who in American Entertainment ("on the same page as Lloyd Bridges!") and ready to swing as much as ever.

I predict that the Kansas City jazz crowd will be picking up on this world-class talent soon in far greater numbers.

If not, this may not be the jazz-hip town we like to think it is.


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