Tine Bruhn & Johnny O'Neal - Nearness (2013)

Tine Bruhn’s new release "Nearness" is a duo recording of standards with pianist Johnny O'Neal. Tine Bruhn and Johnny O’Neal started working together in the summer of 2011 when her regular pianist had to cancel on short notice and sent Johnny O’Neal as a sub! Since then they have been appearing almost weekly at Robert Restaurant in NYC.Mr. O'Neal has played with Art Blakey, Dexter Gordon, Lionel Hampton to name just a few. He has opened for Oscar Peterson at Carnegie Hall and he played the role of Art Tatum in the Oscar winning movie "Ray" based on Mr. Peterson’s recommendation. In a recent JazzTimes article, O’Neal is named as “one of jazz’s best-kept secrets”.
This recording is a natural ‘documentation’ of the musical relationship between these two very different musicians. Different in the sense of background, age, ethnicity, gender. But musicially they complement each other highly and the listener will hear a relaxedness and comfortness shining through. The music was recorded in only one day with just two takes per song. Johnny O’Neal states “We just went in there and laid it down! It just felt right!” Tenor saxophonist Stacy Dillard is feautured on four tracks. Ben Ratliff (NY Times) calls Dillard “a young saxophonist of serious promise,” and he has played with Wycliffe Gordon, Eric Reed and Roy Hargrove amongst many others.