Reviews for Jazz piano

The average rating for Jazz piano based on 2 reviews is 5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2014-03-26 00:00:00 Thomas Ryan There are many names missing from this book that keep me from rating this book higher. Where is: Dave Grusin, Joe Sample, Lyle Mays, Diana Krall, George Duke, Art Lande, Rainer Bruninghaus, Don Friedman, Stanley Cowell, Bobo Stenson, Marcin Wasilewski, Tord Gustavsen, Clifford Carter, or Jim Beard? Anyway, aside from those omissions, Robert does a good job with his musical bio of 88 other well-known jazz pianists and three bios stood out. My personal hero, Paul Bley’s bio stands out because in it Keith Jarrett said Paul showed him how silence could be as important as the notes themselves. In the Bill Evans bio, we learn he spent countless hours playing actual orchestral scores on the piano, spending up to 8 hours a day with written music. He told a French magazine that he stole ideas and concepts from many of the different other pianists. The Jarrett bio, had two instructional bits. The first is that before you go out on stage to begin free improvisation, be in “a state where there is nothing to lose and nothing to gain. No ideas to purge. Because the piano sound itself is instructive.” The second instructional bit was to play so they think you are going to go this way but you go that way which that makes the audience members more alert… A good book.

Review # 2 was written on 2012-03-11 00:00:00 George Spontak Good read! Essays of the jazz greats! From Jelly Roll to Rubalcaba with stops along the way to visit Mary Lou Williams, Horace, Herbie, Cecil and Mulgrew. There's an entire chapter titled "Everybody Loves Bill Evans." Oh yeah!