StLJN Saturday at the Movies: Piano players, past and present

As the headline implies, this week's videos showcase a couple of piano players with roots in St. Louis.

First up is a clip featuring the late, great John Hicks, seen here performing the Kenny Barron composition "Sunshower," which served as the title track of his final CD. This video was shot in October 2001 at the Lenox Lounge in NYC, and the group features Hicks' spouse Elise Wood on flute, fellow St. Louisan Ronnie Burrage on drums, bassist Curtis Lundy and tenor saxophonist Craig Handy. Whatever the musical context, it's always a pleasure to spend a few minutes with Hicks, and he's still fondly remembered and dearly missed by his many fans and friends.

The second clip shows University City native Peter Martin performing the Gershwin standard "A Foggy Day" with singer Dianne Reeves, bassist Reuben Rogers, drummer Greg Hutchinson and the Philharmonie Berlin. The clip is undated, but would seem to be recent.

Though the orchestral arrangement here is, as you'd expect, more structured than what's heard in Hicks' quintet clip above, Martin delivers a nicely understated intro behind Reeves, plus some succinct comping and commentary throughout. After serving as Reeves' music director for a number of years, recently Martin has been gigging with trumpeter Chris Botti.