“With a name revered in the jazz world but almost totally unrecognised elsewhere, Tommy Flanagan, who died in 2001 aged 71, was the complete pianist. In the late 50s he played on John Coltrane’s Giant Steps and Sonny Rollins’s Saxophone Colossus, followed by years as accompanist to Ella Fitzgerald and Tony Bennett. It wasn’t just that he was reliable; Flanagan made even the very best sound better. ”
