A Rare Gathering: The 1965 Berlin Jazz Piano Workshop

Footage from a 1965 concert in Berlin captures has been hailed by many as the greatest piano jazz summit ever documented on film. It captures an extraordinary moment in jazz history: a single stage shared by some of the most influential pianists the music has produced.

The concert, often referred to as the Berlin Jazz Piano Workshop, brings together Earl Hines, Teddy Wilson, Bill Evans, John Lewis, Lennie Tristano, and Jaki Byard—figures whose careers collectively span the development of jazz piano from the swing era through modern and avant-garde approaches.

The surviving black-and-white television footage, now widely circulated online, documents individual performances followed by a closing two-piano duet between Jaki Byard and Earl Hines. While these musicians are frequently discussed separately in jazz history, this concert places them in direct proximity, offering a rare opportunity to hear their contrasting approaches within the same musical framework.

Earl Hines

Earl Hines was already regarded by the mid-1960s as one of the foundational figures of jazz piano. Emerging in the late 1920s, particularly through his long association with Louis Armstrong, he developed a style that departed from strict stride conventions.

His right-hand phrasing often mirrored horn lines, while his rhythmic freedom influenced later pianists including Bud Powell. By the time of the Berlin concert, Hines had experienced both periods of mainstream popularity and relative neglect, but his importance to the language of jazz was firmly established.

Teddy Wilson

Teddy Wilson represents a different strand of jazz piano history. Closely associated with the swing era, Wilson became widely known through his work with Benny Goodman’s small groups in the 1930s.

His playing emphasised clarity, balance, and melodic coherence, and he was admired for his refined touch and consistent swing feel. In contrast to more overtly virtuosic pianists, Wilson’s influence lies in his restraint and precision—qualities clearly audible in his Berlin appearance.

Bill Evans

Bill Evans, by 1965, was one of the most influential pianists in modern jazz. His work with Miles Davis at the end of the 1950s, particularly on Kind of Blue, helped redefine harmonic thinking in jazz piano. Evans drew heavily on impressionist composers such as Debussy and Ravel, favouring extended harmonies, subtle voice-leading, and interactive trio playing.

His presence at the Berlin concert places a post-bebop, harmonically exploratory approach alongside earlier swing-based traditions.

John Lewis

John Lewis, pianist and musical director of the Modern Jazz Quartet, occupied yet another position within the jazz landscape. Lewis was known for integrating classical forms and counterpoint into jazz structures, often favouring composed frameworks over extended improvisation.

His work with the MJQ brought a chamber-like sensibility to jazz performance, and his playing in Berlin reflects his emphasis on structure, economy, and balance.

Lennie Tristano

Lennie Tristano stands somewhat apart from the others stylistically. Active primarily from the late 1940s onward, Tristano pursued a highly linear approach to improvisation, focusing on melodic development and rhythmic independence rather than chord-based playing.

He was also an early advocate of free improvisation, recording pieces without predetermined harmonic structures as early as 1949. Tristano’s appearance at the Berlin concert highlights a more analytical, concept-driven approach to jazz piano.

Jaki Byard

Jaki Byard, the youngest of the group, was known for his stylistic breadth. Byard could move fluently between stride, swing, bebop, and free jazz, often within the same performance. His career included work with Charles Mingus as well as teaching positions that influenced later generations of musicians.

In Berlin, Byard’s role is particularly notable because the concert concludes with a two-piano duet between Byard and Earl Hines, a pairing that places an early jazz innovator alongside a pianist who actively drew on the full history of the instrument.

The duet

The duet does not function as a competition or technical display. Instead, it presents a shared musical space in which both pianists retain their individual identities.

Hines’s rhythmic authority and characteristic phrasing coexist with Byard’s stylistic flexibility, creating a dialogue that reflects continuity rather than contrast. It is one of the few filmed examples of Hines in a direct two-piano setting with a later-generation modernist.

The Berlin Jazz Piano Workshop footage is valuable not because it presents a definitive statement from any one pianist, but because it documents coexistence. Jazz history is often told in terms of stylistic succession—one movement replacing another—but this concert shows multiple approaches existing simultaneously, without hierarchy or explanation.

For listeners and viewers today, the video offers more than historical curiosity. It allows close observation of touch, timing, and musical priorities across generations, captured in real time. Few recordings place such divergent piano philosophies side by side in such a direct and unmediated way.

The video above preserves this moment as it was recorded for television in 1965. While incomplete as a document of the full concert, it remains one of the clearest visual records of jazz piano history unfolding on a single stage.