The height of jazz piano technique

[cuberdrift]

Forgive my bringing this topic up again - I am well aware I had already posted a topic similar to this before.

If there is any jazz piano music I really like, it is often the technical ones - Tatum, Peterson, Jarret, Powell, etc. but since they are not classical performers (I know, Jarret does some Bach but does he really have an extensive knowledge of classical repertoire? I haven't found much from him in that respect in my searches) I sometimes doubt their assumed virtuosity.

I have taken a look at the Tatum transcriptions, for instance, and they don't look that hard - then again I have never performed them (I tackled "Tea for Two" before but quit it in the second page, it was too damn hard for my level at that time) so I am probably wrong.

Do these top-asses in jazz technique really rank as real virtuosi? I mean there are so many classical pianists who have monstrous technique, you know, Hamelin and co. and I am skeptical that a pure improviser could match up to their level of virtuosity. They may sound impressive (the jazz players) but the nature of their playing is just different.

I am just eager for a kind of discussion about how far an improvising jazz pianist is capable, technically. Oscar Peterson was a very good example of a technically advanced improviser but since he didn't 'perform' you know, Feux Follets or something, I don't really know how good he is next to Berman and co.

Can piano technique be advanced to really high standards through improvisation alone or does one have to score #1 in a piano competition playing the Grandes Etudes at tempo to prove that he is a true virtuoso? (lol I know this sounds a bit condescending...)

And here are two videos comparing a classical virtuoso showing off (Cziffra) and a jazz one (Peterson, showing off, too) just to visualize the stuff I just talked about;

Anyway, technique aside, both these men are giants. They are the pinnacle of musicality! Marvelous playing...

[j_menz]

And here are two videos comparing a classical virtuoso showing off (Cziffra) and a jazz one (Peterson, showing off, too) just to visualize the stuff I just talked about;

Cziffra was actually also an accomplished Jazz pianist - he started his professional career playing jazz in bars around Budapest.

[cuberdrift]

Cziffra was actually also an accomplished Jazz pianist - he started his professional career playing jazz in bars around Budapest.

Yeah, that's what made him one of my favorite pianists. A huge technique and a great improviser with strong Lisztian elements. I wish there were more jazz recordings of him available (he claims to have impressed a jazz big band! Wonder how he sounded like playing with them).