Advanced Jazz Piano #1 - Octave Improvisation

[dfrankjazz]

Piano friends, please enjoy this exploration of two hand octave improvisation in different regions of the piano.

[themeandvariation]

I really enjoyed this.. a lot of fun!  I like the way you created the effect of a dropping portamento on a couple of accented chords. The rhythm was infectious - i was bouncing along.. Great stuff!

[dfrankjazz]

hi nice to meet you, can you explain the dropping portamento thing you referred to?

[maxim3]

Are you Dave Frank? I recently saw your presentation on Art Tatum. Hugely informative, entertaining, etc. etc.

I've only heard a little Keith Jarrett, but can it really be the case that another human being is somewhere around Tatum's level? That is astounding. I must look more into Jarrett.

[dfrankjazz]

Keith is sick and nobody knows what is wrong with him( He only had one concert in 2018 in March at Carnegie and he cancelled that "due to illness with no chance of it being rescheduled", and since that time nobody has heard a peep from him..maybe he lost his peep...

[maxim3]

Let us hope that Jarrett will recover and has a few more years to go.

I watched your video on Jarrett and I don't think I'm developed enough yet to appreciate such subtlety. For the time being I prefer the monstrous virtuosity of Tatum! But perhaps my ability to appreciate new things has not become completely fossilized.

On another note, I wonder if you have any opinions on Hanon exercises. I find them very interesting, especially in keys other than the default C major. And since you're a jazz expert, do you think that improvisational pianists tend to find Hanon more valuable (in all keys of course) than classical pianists?

[dfrankjazz]

In my book series Joy of Improv (Hal Leonard) I have 52 Jazzhanon exercises as part of the curriculum) These are hanons, played with swing 1/8th, in all keys with a jazz fingering..

[themeandvariation]

hi nice to meet you, can you explain the dropping portamento thing you referred to?

Hi Dave. Yes, I was referring to the few places where you 'glissed' downwards on a few punctuated chords... but it was the subtle way that you did this that caught my attention, there. IIRC, the top note of the chord wasn't affected - just some dropping underneath.
Cool!

[dfrankjazz]

haha I call that a "smashchord"..