Jazzzzzzz

[rimv2]

and LANGLANG

Do you all think that if this guy started to play jazz, he could add even more moiztah to his playing.

If can do anything on the piano, imagine what he could do if he played what ever came from the back of his brain

[presto agitato]

Keith Jarrett is the best jazz pianist ever and he began his "classical" training at the at  age of 3.

[prometheus]

Keith Jarett isn't that popular under jazz people as he is under classical people.

Also, Lang Lang's weak points make him a less worse classical pianist than they make him a bad jazz pianist. I don't think that at this time he has many things comming from the back of his brain.

[orlandopiano]

Keith Jarett isn't that popular under jazz people as he is under classical people.

You've got to be kidding.

[prometheus]

Why? I am just suprised so see him mentioned again and again. If you read here he seems something special. If you talk with jazz people they probably only mention his name.

[orlandopiano]

Why? I am just suprised so see him mentioned again and again. If you read here he seems something special. If you talk with jazz people they probably only mention his name.

I don't know what jazz people you talk to, but mention the name Jarrett to any serious jazz musician and they almost unaninimously agree he is at the top.  He may be a fairly respected classical musician, but he is THE most versatile jazz pianist in the world today, and has been for 30 somewhat years. 

Most jazz people will tell you the four most important jazz pianists since the 1960s are McCoy Tyner, Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, and Keith Jarrett.

[presto agitato]

Most jazz people will tell you the four most important jazz pianists since the 1960s are McCoy Tyner, Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, and Keith Jarrett.

You forgot to mention Patrick Moraz (The best european jazz pianist of the 70s)

[orlandopiano]

You forgot to mention Patrick Moraz (The best european jazz pianist of the 70s)

I also "forgot" Bill Evans, Oscar Peterson, Michel Petrucciani, among a host of others... I love all those guys, in addition to the more recent giants like Brad Mehldau. But I think generally speaking the Big Four that people keep returning to are Tyner, Corea, Hancock and Jarrett. They are the most versatile jazz pianists of the 70s to the present.  FWIW, I think Bill Evans is the most important and influential jazz pianist of the last 40 years, but Jarrett can do much much more.

[gilad]

ahmed jamal is also great imho.

[silvaone]

Art Bleedin' Tatum you fools!

On meeting Art Tatum Ray Charles became speechless, he later said in countless interviews his reason was ''What do you say to God?''

there you have it

- Silva

[gilad]

art tatum for sure,i omitted him because i felt it was granted .

[orlandopiano]

Art Bleedin' Tatum you fools!

Uh, read my post again. I was talking about post-1960s. Art Tatum wasn't even alive then.

[arensky]

Art Tatum is the greatest Jazz Pianist who EVER lived.

Bar none. On all levels. His HARMONIC innovations are astounding even today. He was the first Jazz musician on any instrument (of course it has to happen at the piano first) to improvise in a truly complex sophisticated harmonic language. James P. Johnson and Earl Hines approach this in some of their recordings, like Johnson's "You've Got to be Modernistic" (1930) but they did not have Tatum's transcendental technical command. And Tatum's harmonic progressions/substitutions often happen so fast you don't realize what he is doing.
 
Many of his critics dismiss him merely as technique without function. They are incredibly ill-informed, and have a generational bias. After 1945 thre role of the LEFT HAND in jazz piano is greatly diminished, as pianists slavishly imitated Bud Powell, so they could fit in with the saxophonists, who began fronting the new smaller "Bop" groups and began to displace trumpeters as the main front men. The ability to play SOLO piano became less improtant than the ability to race around with your RIGHT HAND, ala Charlie Parker, while the LH played short punctuations of 3 or 4 notes. Solo piano was soon regarded as "cocktail music", and looked down on by the intelligentsia    The greatest solo jazz pianist after Tatum was Errol Garner, who soon began to appear in concert with bass and drums, although he didn't need them...

Anyway, guess where Parker got his inspiration for those fast harmonically complex runs that characterize Bop? TATUM, that's where; he invented modern jazz, on his own; with both hands, not one and a half!

When people think of Tatum, they usually think of the fast runs and the extraordinary LH. His MELODIC PHRASING is of extraordinary beauty, combining perfect proportion with daring invention. It is never wrong, he never plays a bad phrase. Listen to "I  Surrender Dear" and "I Gotta Right to Sing the Blues"; there is no finer melodic playing on any instrument by any Jazz artist. Miles Davis and Charlie Parker are at the same level, but even they make bad phrases; with Tatum this never happens.

TECHNIQUE. He is the greatest ever in jazz piano, and will probably remain so. IMO only Charlie Parker can challenge him in this area on another instrument, and he was a disaster at the end. 

Tatum's critics will also argue that he did not compose a great deal, and that his repertoire of standard commercial tunes is trite, and betrays superficiality. But when a jazz artist plays anything they are composing, whether they wrote the "vehicle" or not. And Tatum's interpretations of those standard tunes set the stage for and made possible everything that came after him. RESPECT da Tatum...