Any Jazz Pieces You'd Recommend?

[rhythmique]

I've alwys loved jazz music and I've been wanting to learn a couple of pieces to play.  But I don't know where to start looking.

Any pieces you'd recommend?

[thierry13]

The best advice I could give you is to NOT start looking into jazz, if you want to play any good music. I mean, if it's to play trash, simply do not play, it will better serve the music.

[indutrial]

The best advice I could give you is to NOT start looking into jazz, if you want to play any good music. I mean, if it's to play trash, simply do not play, it will better serve the music.

Don't listen to Thierry. His opinions on jazz music are all hot air and no substance. He is ostensibly a musical failure who has nothing better to do besides pontificate about immaterial nonsense like "serving the music." Attitudes like his are common to all those unfortunately negative individuals who simply suck at life and want to evaporate the joy out of others.

As for jazz, I would recommend seeking out the Real Book (5th or 6th edition) and a slightly more esoteric volume called JAZZLTD (a lot of filesharers have this out-of-print item). Both of these feature loads of change sheets for works by good post-1960 jazz/latin composers like Wayne Shorter, Carla Bley, Joe Henderson, Gary Burton, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Herbie Hancock, etc... In conjunction with an interesting jazz theory text like Mark Levine's (Levine also wrote a book on jazz piano voicings), you can learn a lot about how to appreciate work from that genre.

Did I mention not to listen to Thierry.

[nyonyo]

If you are a classically trained pianist, it may be difficult for you to produce a real Jazz sounding performance. Therefore, I suggest you check out many Japanese Jazz piano books. They arrange many standard Jazz pieces. What you need to do is to practice, and you will sound like a professional Jazz pianists. I love these books!

[gyzzzmo]

If you want to play jazz without the need of improvising, you could try music of Dave Brubeck.
I like his numbers like Take Five, Rondo alla Turka or 'its a raggy waltz' alot.

good luck,
gyzzzmo

[Petter]

I agree with the Mark Levine book if you want to start learning to improvise. https://www.marklevine.com/
There´s also alot of transcribed solos by artists like Tatum, Oscar Peterson, Keith Jarrett (ducks  ), Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock and Bill Evans. And Kapustin looks like fun.

[ted]

That's right gyzzzmo, the Brubeck volume is very good.

There is a wealth of excellent transcriptions of early jazz nowadays. The complete Morton, transcribed by Dapogny is available in Schirmer. Posnak and Scivales have transcribed much of Waller and other stride, and their scores are available from several places on the internet, e.g. amazon. Then there is the very large collection of transcriptions John Farrell made (212 discovered so far). These are available at:

https://johnfarrellcollection.com/701.html

A lot of this stuff is far from easy physically and musically but the pleasure of playing them well is worth the effort.

[jazz-piano]

Yes, you can start reading and playing some great jazz themes like Autumn Leaves, All the things you are, Take Five, Summertime, and other well known jazz standard.

But playing jazz means above all improvising YOUR music.

Welcome to this wonderful world!

[ganymed]

spam

[thalbergmad]

You could start at the beginning and work your way forward.

Play some Joplin, move onto some James P Johnon and Willie "the lion" Smith, then some Fats Waller, Tatum...............................

Thal

[gyzzzmo]

I know jazz is alot about improvising, and i like to play some jazz now and then. But learning how to improvise is just not interesting enough for me to spend my time on, classical music gives me much more fun. Thats why i play the Dave Brubeck stuff 

[counterpoint]

Kapustin is the best thing you can get if you're looking for printed Jazz music.
The 24 Preludes op.53 include some very nice pieces, that are playable at a medium level.

[arensky]

Billy Taylor's compositions and arrangements in this book are excellent, if you don't already improvise they will provide what you're looking for. "A Tune for Howard" and "A Bientot" are particualrly good imo.

https://www.sheetmusicplus.com/a/item.html?id=69435&item=2959782


You can watch him play on youtube. Of course if you really want to play jazz out of the Real Books as indutrial suggests it's time to start studying, either with a teacher, in a class or on your own.

Must run to a jazz gig! 

People keep mentioning Kapustin, it's great stuff but it's not jazz.

More later

[Petter]

Kapustin is the best thing you can get if you're looking for printed Jazz music.
The 24 Preludes op.53 include some very nice pieces, that are playable at a medium level.

Where is the best place to order these from europe? I keep ending up at the japanese amazon.

[counterpoint]

Where is the best place to order these from europe? I keep ending up at the japanese amazon.

I ordered them from noten4you.de

I got them after 2 or 3 days.

Oh, I just recognized you're from Sweden. I don't know if they deliver to foreign countries.

[indutrial]

In the past couple of decades more and more musicians from jazz and classical backgrounds are blurring the lines on the genres. This evening I listened to a pair of exquisite piano trio albums featuring pianist Vassilis Tsabropoulos, drummer John Marshall, and (most famously) Norwiegian bassist Arild Andersen. Both of these were put out by ECM, a record label based in Norway that has always done a good job producing both jazz and classical records, the latter through its sub-label ECM New Series. Out of the bottomless back catalogue this label boasts I would highly recommend checking out the following records, most of which are probably on ITunes or pretty simple to find:

Vassilis Tsabropoulos, Arild Andersen, John Marshall - The Triangle, Achirana
* the discs I mentioned above.

Peter Erskine - Juni, As It Is
* both of these records feature John Taylor on piano, a very tasteful improvisor who has made contributions to tons of good records.

ECM Records is a good place to look for a flavor of jazz music that is more closely related to European classical traditions and less geared towards bebop and the blues (although they have a fair amount of records featuring that as well).

Another great European jazz label that focuses on piano is Italy's Camjazz, which puts out records by the above-mentioned John Taylor (his recent disc, Angel of the Presence, was amazing), Antonio Farao, Enrico Pieranunzi (lots of ballads), and Salvatore Bonafede.

A sadly defunct label was the French Sketch label, which put out a TON of well-played and fabulous sounding piano discs, including a few by Marc Copland, an awesome solo record by Eduard Ferlet, and a variety of discs by Giovanni Mirabassi and Rene Urtreger.

I'll close this long post with a track by one of my favorite jazz pianists, Michel Wintsch. This is the first track on his album "Identity." Keep in mind that I'm not a pianist, so I don't really have a lot of technical knowledge of the physical demands of particular players' playing styles. I just know what I like to hear.

[indutrial]

Of course, wackier avant/free-jazz stuff is a lot of fun also 

[i heart xenakis]

Try the album "Sound Grammar" by Ornette Coleman

[indutrial]

Try the album "Sound Grammar" by Ornette Coleman

I've not heard that one, but I definitely want to.

I have his "Beauty is a Rare Thing" box set from Atlantic, which has him playing alongside tons of great players like Don Cherry, Billy Higgins, and one of my all-time favorite jazz musicians, Eric Dolphy. Pretty excellent stuff...and it certainly inspired countless other great records to follow.

My personal #1 favorite amongst jazz players and improvisors is alto sax player/composer Tim Berne, whose flavor of creative improv and writing style really sounds like nobody else's - a mixture of strong groove and jaunty experimentalism. Berne and the players he collaborates with stand out in a very special way. His latest album "Feign" by his group Hard Cell (sax-piano-drums) is excellent.

I would also highly recommend several jazz/not-so-jazz albums by cellist Erik Friedlander, whose work ranges from the intricately infectious rhythmically-driven works in his Topaz group (cello, sax, electric-bass, percussion) to the harmonically-dense chamber-ish pieces played by his other group Chimera (cello, upright bass, clarinet, bass-clarinet).

[Petter]

Indutrial have you seen Jazz on a summers day? I think it featured Eric Dolphy in a band with a cellist and a steel drummer. Do you remember or know what that band was called? It sounded a bit like 70´s psychedelica.

[rhythmique]

Thank you all.  I really appreciate the different suggestions you’ve listed.  Since I am classically trained (and I’m pretty terrible at improvising) I definitely think I’ll start with those Japanese Jazz Piano books and Mark Levine too.  I happen to love Take Five so I think I’ll check out some more by Dave Brubeck.

Anyways, thanks again for all the suggestions.

[richard black]

Billy Mayerl is one jazz composer who wrote down most (maybe all) his pieces. They might be hard to find outside the UK, though. You can get books of solos by famous jazz pianists like Waller, Tatum and Jelly Roll Morton, notated from their recordings, and various collections of pieces by early pianists like Zez Confrey.

[indutrial]

Indutrial have you seen Jazz on a summers day? I think it featured Eric Dolphy in a band with a cellist and a steel drummer. Do you remember or know what that band was called? It sounded a bit like 70´s psychedelica.

Not sure which session you're referring to. I know that Dolphy recorded a few sessions alongside bassist Ron Carter (of Miles Davis quintet fame), and that Carter would occasionally bust out the cello. The album that stands out in regards to that is an LP released under Carter's name called "Where?", which featured Carter, Dolphy, Mal Waldron on piano (very good underrated player), and a bassist and drummer. The first track, called "Rally" features some great bass clarinet riffing by Dolphy and a bowed cello solo by Carter.

Dolphy was pretty standoutish amongst a scene that was usually a lot tamer. I'm also a biased supporter of his because I've always been a big fan of guys who double up on sax and the bass clarinet, an instrument with some great tonal capabilities.

Dolphy playing solo bass clarinet:

Dolphy ripping a solo on "Take the A Train" with Charles Mingus's group.

It's a shame he passed away in 1964 because he almost certainly would have continued making great music.

[Petter]

I found the clip on youtube (where else?)

Some other good feats in that movie like Jimmy Giuffre.

[indutrial]

I found the clip on youtube (where else?)

Some other good feats in that movie like Jimmy Giuffre.

For anyone interested, there is a radio recording (flac and mp3) of Giuffre's famous trio with pianist Paul Bley and bassist Steve Swallow posted at:

https://inconstantsol.blogspot.com/2008/03/reunion-of-jimmy-giuffre-trio-live.html

I've not yet heard it, since I'm a little backlogged with new recordings to listen to, but I definitely liked the "The Life of a Trio" recordings I've heard from the same group.