Erroll Garner totally amazing technique.

[lostinidlewonder]

I find watching the jazz masters play completely bewildering and amazing. They can keep the hands the same shape all the time, something us classical pianists really could learn from.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73W_F76H2Tk

Incredible.

[allchopin]

I find watching the jazz masters play completely bewildering and amazing. They can keep the hands the same shape all the time, something us classical pianists really could learn from.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73W_F76H2Tk

Incredible.

Not to mention he seems to be enjoying himself a lot more than most classical pianists bother to do.

[tehpro]

Not to mention he is black.

[Petter]

You should really check out Art Tatum   

Humouresque

Yesterdays

[liszt-essence]

Yes this is truely amazing.. What a swing, and what joy on his face.

[counterpoint]

He (Erroll Garner) has a funny way to play the piano - you couldn't play classical music that way.

[arensky]

I find watching the jazz masters play completely bewildering and amazing. They can keep the hands the same shape all the time,

because they're always playing the same thing. Errol Garner is always playing Errol Garner, he never has to change his finger articulation and touch to play Mozart as written, and then switch to Chopin then to Bartok et al in the course of a recital. Jazz pianists are always playing themselves, which requires only one touch and style. This makes life easier for jazz pianists in terms of performing and interpretation since they only have to play one part, if you compare a recital to acting in a movie or play. It's like method acting.

something us classical pianists really could learn from.

Yes. Many classical pianists excel at certain composers or styles, such as Horowitz playing the late Russian romantics, Cziffra playing Liszt, Rubinstein playing Chopin and Serkin in the Vienese classics. They gravitated towards the music that suited and fit them the best, size=10pt]allowing them to be themselves[[/size], the way a jazz pianist always is, and the way Beethoven Chopin and Liszt were when they played their own music. This is a connection frequently lost in classical playing where pianists have to change roles frequently. The analogy to aacting is probably the best way to describe what "us classical pianists" can learn from jazz players.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73W_F76H2Tk

Incredible.

Yeah 

[ted]

Lostinidlewonder and Arensky are both right, of course. I admit that the underlying conundrum of how much effort I should put into the technique of playing other people's music and how much into the peculiar expression of my own ideas, is one I have never resolved. Most jazz pianists and improvisers do not strive for universality of technique, preferring to concentrate on what they have to say personally. Those who do play classical, for example Jarrett, usually keep to those composers whose music makes technical demands most closely resembling their own strengths.

I too have been struck by the ease and fluency, the complete union of physical and creative means, which is exhibited in some of those old clips on youtube. Waller is a case in point. Sadly, few shots exist of his playing, but in those available, for example about a minute into Aint Misbehavin, the fluency and delicacy is impressive in such a big man, who was talking, joking, singing, and was probably drunk into the bargain. It is conjectured that Waller, who, it is known, played a lot of Bach and Rachmaninoff privately, made classical recordings which RCA suppressed for fear of altering his public image. What a pity if this is true.