The Foundation: Ragtime, Stride 2/7/2014 12:17:00 PM

1. Classical Piano Ragtime 1897-1917

Crossing the barline = syncopation
the time was ragging John Stark
Notated African American music associated with Scott Joplin and
Joseph Lamb and James Scott
Foundation of Jazz Syncopation
First music to syncopate melody over the barline
Lower bass notes typical fall on the first and third. Teicks of each
measure, alternating with chords on 2
nd
and 4
th
ticks
Simple European harmony
Not improvised
Well structured, thematically coherent, well notated with dynamics
and phrasing and played at a controlled tempo of about 80-110
bpm
Material for dance music, intended for solo piano
Artists:
Tom Turpin (1873-1922)
Joseph Lamb the only non Afro-American ragtime pianist at the
time.
James Scott

Transition:
Jelly Roll Morton (transitional figure) Jazz King of New Orleans
o Introduced swing
o Walking in 6
th
instead of 10
th

o Slurs, melody below harmony
o More advanced harmony
Dick Hyman

2. Harlem Stride Piano
Primarily Solo Piano
Influential on 20
th
century popular music
Repertoire from Ragtime, Originals, Broadway Musicals
Characteristics:
Chromaticism, European impressionist
symmetrical scales, Baltic
More Arpeggiations
Reharmonizations
Walking left hand
More improvisation
More range
Polyrhythmic
Marmonically complex
Left hand jigs: alternating between bass notes and chords in the
mid range (8ves or 10ths and chord or another octaves with inner
voicing)

Spectacular Practitioners:
James P. Johnson (father of)
o Classically trained, good use of dynamics, sustain pedal, and
range
o Introduced rolls, taken from Luckey Roberts
Carolina Shout, Back Water Blues, Thou Swell
William The Lion Smith
o Son of a maid of a Jewish house, trained in classical music
since age 8, exposed to Klezmer, love French music
o Former artillery, might explain his harsh sound
o Listening Example: Fingerbuster
Charles Luckeyth Roberts (grandfather of)
o Known for big stature
o Students include: Ellington, Hines, Gershwin, Johnson, Eubie
Blake, etc.
o Few recordings, usually society gigs.
o Listening Example: Pork and Beans
Thomas Fats Waller
o Pianist, organist, singer, composer, arranger, entertainer,
comedian, band leader
o Listening Example: Your Feets Too Big, Aint Misbehavin,
Smashing Thirds, Im Crazy Bout My Baby, Honeysuckle
Rose
George Gershwin
o Pianist, Composer, Bridge Jazz with Popular, Legitimized Jazz
o Probably but not totally self-taught, attended
o Made more than 100 piano rolls in his teen years
o American in Paris: Gershwin asked Maurice Ravel for
composing lessons but when Gershwin answered how much
money he made, Ravel neglected.

Three Stride Masters:
Dick Wellstood
Don Ewell
Ralph Sutton
Dick Hyman
Transition from Stride to Swing 2/7/2014 12:17:00 PM
Big Band Era:
Fletcher Henderson Orchestra
Paul Whitman Orchestra
Benny Goodman Band
Count Basie Big Band
Duke Ellington
Characteristics:
Piano reduced to ensemble role
Less bass activity

Swing Pianists:
Earl Fatha Hines
o Ensemble pianist
o Trumpet style right hand Octaves for the effect to cut
through the horns
o Horn like phrasing, influenced popular jazz through bebop
o Employing 10ths on both left hands and right hands, and
moving inner voice
o Video Example: Jazz Piano Workshop, Earl Hines and Jaki
Byard
o Listening Example: Undecided, Squeeze Me, Earl Explains
Teddy Wilson
o Most important pianist of the swing period
o Early style influenced by Hynes, but then changed at some
point from more percussive to more legato sound.
o Plays and records with Louis Armstrong, Benny Carter, Benny
Goodman (first interracial band!), Billie Holiday, Lester Young
o Early recordings reveal a percussive style, single-note ines
and bold staccatos, that was indebted to Earl Hines
o Refines his style to a distinctive legato idiom that served him
for the rest of his career
o Created great harmonic refinement often omitting the root
until the end of the phrase
o Listening Example: All of Me, What a Little Moonlight Can
Do with Billy Holliday and Benny Goodman on clarinet
Duke Ellington
o Stride Pianist
o Composer, arranger
o Bandleader
o Listening Example: Reflections in D
Billy Strayhorn
Count Basie
o Basie Big Band
o Minimal approach to piano
o Short blues riffs
o Listening example: Good Time Blues, Basies Boogie, Corner
Pocket

Boogie Woogie
At the same time with jazz swing, 12/24-bar blues, different left
hand happening
Harmonically simple, not much chords or tensions, ostinato left
hand (1-bar/2-bar patterns)
Boogie Woogie piano playing possibly originated in the lumber and
turpentine camps of Texas and in the sporting houses of that state.
A fast, rolling bass giving the piece an undercurrent of
tremendous power power piano playing.
Explanations: west Africans, sound of railroads
Percussive blues piano style
Improvised right hand
Very rhythmic and percussive
Righthand syncopation similar to Ragtime
West African ostinato percussive traditions underlying improvised
lead percussion parts
Played in different house parties
o Rent parties.. People throw in parties, charge people
admission and sell food to help pay rent
Boogie Woogie Pianists:
James Yancey
o Established BW style with slow, steady, simple LH bass
patterns
o Variations on three or four bass patterns, rarely playing more
than single bass notes
o Profoundly influenced other musicians
o Listening Example: Bear Trap Blues, Yancey Special
Pine Top Smith (1904-1929)
o Most influential blues figure of the 1920
o Piane Tops Boogie Woogie became a template for
subsequent blues tunes.
o Influenced: Ray Charles
Hersal Thomas
Meade Lux Lewis
o depression era
o Boogie Woogie pioneer
o Helped establish boogie-woogie as a major blues piano style
in the 1930s-1940s
o Discovered with Ammons and Johnson by John Hammond
(talent scout), brought to Carnegie Hall, brings back BW to
popularity
o Boogie Woogie served as influence to Rock n Roll music.
Albert Ammons
o A lot hard hitting
o One of the big three of the late30s BW along with Pete
Johnson and Meade Lux Lewis
o Performed Carnegie Hall, Spirituals To Swing
o Also played Swing and Stride Piano
Pete Johnson (1904-1967)
o Appeared in the From Spirituals to Swing concert in
Carnegie Hall
o Screaming right hand octave
o Rocket 88 considered one of the oldest Rock n Roll records,
Count Basie put in horns
o Listening Examples: Death Ray Boogie
Pre-Bebop 2/7/2014 12:17:00 PM

Art Tatum
Influenced by Fats Waller, 20
th
century classical composers, Earl
Hines
Set the standard for technical dexterity
Played in little club
Revered by not only jazz pianists but also classical: Fats Waller,
Gershwin, Oscar Peterson, Hank Jones, Herbie Hancock, Igor
Stravinsky, Vladimir Horowitz, Sergei Rachmaninoff
Primarily Solo pianists
o Trio with Slam Stuart, Tiny Grimes
o Small Group: Benny Carter, Roy Eldridge
Loved Classical, improvised over it(listening example: Chopin, Valse
in C# Minor, Op. 64, No. 2)
Style
Balance and Touch
Techniques
Played stride but was not primary approach
Played blues (listening example: Blues in B Flat (1954) w Benny
Carter and Louis Bellson)
Pursuing perfection
Clarity in up-tempo playing
Cascading lines
Melodic and harmonic inventions
Flawless accuracy
Pedaling technique (listening example: Yesterdays, Earl Hines
Rosseta)
Technique
Fingers flat on the keys to get his tone and speed
Play scales with his thumb and first two fingers
Pedaling to achieve tone
Impeccable Time

Dave McKenna
Repertoire
Standards, Pop, TV Tunes
Left Hand
Walking Bass
Stride
Four to the bar strum (imitating guitar)
Right Hand
True To Song and Melody
Pentatonic and Bop Lines
Predominantly eighth note swing


Listening Quiz

1. Tea for Two Art Tatum
guess: Teddy Wilson, Fats Waller
stylistically stride, funky feel than James P. Johnson, looser feel, comical
character

2. Tenderly
guess: Art Tatum
harmonically complex, moving inner voice below the melody, intricate pedal
work

3.
guess: Jelly Roll Morton
swing feel, feels like playing notated piece

4.
guess: luckeyth roberts
certainly stride pianist, rolls, hard touch, rhythmic

5.
guess: Teddy Wilson!!!
flowing lines, legato, incomplete stride voicing

6. Sweet Georgia Brown
guess: Dave McKenna
walking bass line, occasional comping, stride in the middle of the tune

7.
guess: Earl Hines
not much stride lines, but the feel certainly is.

8.
guess: George Gershwin
sounds more thoroughly composed, not too much improvisation, not much
stride as well, bass only at 1 many times.

9.
guess: Scott Joplin
melodic opening for the waltz, not swinging.

10.
Albert Ammons

Big Band-Bop 2/7/2014 12:17:00 PM
Bebop: response to Big Band music, which took much improvisation.

Founding Fathers: Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie

Bebop Pianists:
Bud Powell
o Influences include Fats Waller, Art Tatum
o Modernized jazz Piano
o Foremost of the bop pianists
o Transforms Charlie Parkers vocab to the piano
o Does away with the left hand striding
o Minamal left hand shell voicings, placed off the beat
o Listening Example: Un Poco Loco, Off Minor, Bouncin With
Bud/Bebop in Pastel, Get Happy, Anthropology
Thelonious Monk
o Was a stride pianist
o One of the architects of Bebop
o Impact as a composer and pianist has had a profound
influence on every genre of music
o Trained as a composer and pianist - Julliard
o listening example: Trinkle Trinkle Monk/Coltrane, Well You
Neednt, Just A Gigolo
o give more space, not really looking for tone/really percussive,
angular piano style
o Playing emits humor and wit
Lennie Tristano
o Influenced by Charlie Parker and Bud Powell
o First to perform and free jazz (before Ornette Coleman was
regarded Founder of Free Jazz)
o Integrationalist: soloists would not only be playing in the
moment but sharing the same moment
o Over the bar line phrasing, Extended melodies-phrases (often
criticized for this)
o Work for spontaneity
o Played left hand bass line
o Overdubbing recordings
o Listening example: C Minor Complex, Wow, Tautology
Barry Harris
Sonny Clark

Innovations of Bebop
Instrumental music not singable
Increase in complexity over earlier styles
More diversified
Rhythmic textures
Harmonic vocabulary emphasis on the improvisation of rapid
melodies
Improvisation favored over composition

BlueNote Records are designed simply to serve the uncompromising
expressions of hot jazz or swing, in general. Any particular style of playing
which represents an authentic way of musical feeling is genuine expression.
By virtue of its significance in place, time and circumstance, it possesses its
own tradition, artistic standards and audience that keeps it alive. Hot jazz,
therefore, is expression and communication, a musical and social
manifestation, and Blue Note records are concerned with identifying its
impulse, not its sensational and commercial adornments.
Alfred Lion, 1939, Statement of Purpose of Blue Note Records

Listening example: Star Eyes Charlie Parker

The Birth of Block Chords 2/7/2014 12:17:00 PM
The music more accessible than bebop.
Example: Claire de Lune - Debussy

Milt Buckner (1915-1977)
Pioneer Block Chords
Popularized the Hammond Organ with Leslie Speakers
Multi Instrumentalist: piano, organ (with pedals), vibes, valve
trombone
Bluesy, R&B jazz style
Developed a uniquely percussive technique, parallel tonal pattern
George Shearing, Oscar Peterson, Red Garland, Bill Evans, Erroll
Garner
Listening Example: Robbins Nest, Sunny Side (Milt Buckner, Illinois
Jacquet, Jo Jones)

Erroll Garner (1921-1977)
Most accessible of pianists
Popular without compromise
Loyal to melody
Used piano like an orchestra
Flowery block chords
Learned everything by ear, didnt read music
Novelty Rags of the twenties
Fats Waller, Earl Hines
Driving left hand comping rhythms of Freddie Green
Arpeggios in left and right hands
Filled octave treatment of melodies and solo lines
Pizzicato, super-syncopated introductions
Listening Example: Long Ago Far Away, How High The Moon,
Indiana, I Get A Kick Out of You (unison far octaves)
Lesson Erroll Garner 1 Dick Hyman

George Shearing (1919-2011)
Early influences: Fats Waller, Earl Hines, Bob Zurke, Milt Buckner,
Teddy Wilson
Big Sounds The Shearing Sound
o Locked Hands
o Vibes plays clarinet lead
o Guitar plays lower saxophone parts in unison
o Vibraphone doubled what his right hand played
o And the guitar double the left
Listening example: September in the Rain, Conception
(George Shearing Quintet), Lullaby of Birdland, To
Antonio Jobim (with Jim Hall on classical guitar)
Boogie Woogie pianists from Britain, influenced with Bebop
Listening Example: Break Out The Blues, Consternation, Swedish
Party
Ive spent my life on touch and sound, and very little on Hanon
exercises
Shearing Sound came to represent the essence of sophisticated hip
for countless listeners worldwide who preferred their jazz on the
gentle side

Listening: Duo Joy Spring (Cesar Carnago)

Nat King Cole (1919 1965)
Pianist and Vocalist/Singer
Nats Sound
o Influenced by Earl Hines, Teddy Wilson, Alfred Ammons and
Art Tatum. Ray Charles the biggest
o Tight Arrangements
o Short Solos
o Trio consisting of Piano, Guitar and Bass
Influenced Oscar Peterson and Bill Evans
Listening Example: I Got Rhythm, Tea For Two, Sweet Lorraine
Compare Aint That Fine (Ray Charles) with That Aint Right (King
Cole Trio)
Civil Rights activities, actor, first African-American TV Show host
New Orleans 2/7/2014 12:17:00 PM
New Orleans: Birthplace of Jazz and Funk
Henry Roeland Byrd Professor Longhair/Fess
o Pioneer, Father of New Orleans R&B
o Latin-tinged rhumba-rocking piano
o Croaking, yodeling vocals
o Second-line beats
Listening: Tipitina, Big Chief
James Booker
o Considered a piano prodigy (classical)
o Instant musical recall
o Photographic memory in sight reading
o Elaborate embellishments on the simplest of songs
o Influences: Chopin, Errol Garner, Liberace
Listening: Tico-Tico, Junco, Classified
Video: Little Coquette/Yes Sir Thats My Baby 1983
Malcolm John Dr. John Rebennack Jr.
o Blues
o Boogie Woogie
o Rock and roll
o Born in Louisiana
Listening: Dorothy, Iko Iko, When The Saints Go
Marching In

Otis Spann
o Jackson, Mississippi
o Chicago Shuffle/Blues
o House pianist for Chess Records and Checkers
o Muddy Waters, Howlin Wolf, Robert Jr Lockwood, Bo Diddley,
Fleetwood Mac, Little Walter, Sonny Boy Williamson
Listening: Take A Walk With Me, This Is The Blues

Post-Bop 2/7/2014 12:17:00 PM
Oscar Peterson, Ahmad Jamal, Phineas Newborn, Hampton Hawes, Red
Garland, Wynton Kelly, Barry Harris, Horace Silver, Bobby Timmons, Les
McCann, Gene Harris, Monty Alexander, Kenny Barron, Tommy Flanagan


Oscar Peterson (1925-2007)
Classically Trained, brilliant technique, light, often compared to Art
Tatum
Sounds the same for 40 years
Soloist, Accompanist, Composer
Inexhaustible improviser
Swing, Blues, Bebop
11 Grammys, Ten Honorary Doctorates, Chancellor of York
University
Musical Associates: Clark Terry, Ella Fitzgerald, Joe Pass, Niels-
Henning rsted Pedersen, Ray Brown, Ben Webster, Milt Jackson,
Ed Thigpen, Dizzy Gillespie, Herb Ellis, Coleman Hawkins, Roy
Eldridge, Stan Getz, Martin Drew
Influences
o James P. Johnson
o Teddy Wilson
o Nat King Cole
o Art Tatum
Listening example: Pete Kellys Blues, Sweet Georgia Brown,
Sandys Blues, Woody-N-You, Corcovado, Hymn to Freedom, 52
nd

Street

Hank Jones (1918-2010)
Unlike Peterson, develops a lot
Musical Associates: Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, Roy Eldridge,
Charlie Parker
Staff pianist for CBS, Ed Sullivan Show
Influences:
o Bud Powell
o Earl Hines
o Fats Waller
o Teddy Wilson
o Art Tatum
Listening examples: Hank Jones on Bebop

Ahmad Jamal (1930 - )
Influences:
o Erroll Garner
o Art Tatum
o Teddy Wilson
o Count Basie
o Nat King Cole
o Billy Strayhorn
o Mary Lou Williams
Sense of development: technical in the beginning then suddenly
continue sparse, use of space
Known for his arrangements
Soft touch,
sparse lines,
melodically and harmonically inventive,
complex left-hand chord voicings,
bud powells right hand emphasis,
a chamber-like sensibility, classical formality
Got contacted by Miles Davis to play in his band but he declined so
Miles Davis has to go with Bill Evans instead
Listening: Darn That Dream, Poinciana

Phineas Newborn, Jr. (1931-1989)
Initial influences
o Jelly Roll Morton
o James P. Johnson
o Fats Waller
Swing Style pianists
o Teddy Wilson
o Count Basie
o Nat King Cole
o Art Tatum
o Milt Buckner
o Oscar Peterson
Initially R&B pianists, had a family band (Phineas Newborn, Sr.,
Calvin Newborn), preparing to become a concert pianist
Multiinstrumentalist: piano, vibes, trumpet, sax
Left hand usually stride, later years often simulated a refined
version of stride by playing on all four beats with his left hand
Riffs and chromatic runs became a part of improvisation
The Newborn school of piano, founded the double octave technique
later used by Oscar Peterson
Listening: Celia, Lush Life, Jazz Scene USA 1962, All the Things
You Are, Im Beginning To See The Light

Red Garland (1923-1984)
Hardbop pianist born in Dallas Texas
Disctinctive shimmering sound, hard bop lines, block chords
His main influences were Count Basie and Nat King Cole, from
whom he drew lessons in touch, phrasing and conception. He also
learned from James P. Johnson, Luckey Roberts, Teddy Wilson, Bud
Powell, and Art Tatum
Garlands Sound block chord
o Constructed of three notes in the right hand and four notes in
the left hand, with the right hand one octave above the left.
The right hand played the melody in octaves with a perfect 5
th

placed in the middle of the octave
Listening: If I Were A Bell, Willow Weep for Me, Stompin At The
Savoy

Hampton Hawes (1928-1977)
Anchored in chord-change based jazz
West Coast and funk-jazz or rhythm school
Got in jail for heroin addiction, the only person who got presidential
pardon by John F. Kennedy 6 months later
Listening: Hamps Paws, Blues The Most
Hard Bop 2/7/2014 12:17:00 PM
Horace Silver (1928-)
Pioneer of the style Hard Bop
The Blue Note Sound
o Soulful modern jazz that incorporated the language of be-bop
o Trumpet, Tenor, Piano, Bass Drums
o Pioneer for the Jazz Messengers with Art Blakey
Combines elements of rhythm-and-blues, gospel, and jazz
Horace Silver was one of the major musicians of the hard-bop and
soul jazz movement of the 50s and 60s
Shell voicing left hand and variations
Listening: Song for My Father, The Natives Are Restless, Safari,
Thou Swell

Bobby Timmons (1935-1974)
Major contributor in shaping the soul-jazz sound of Blue Note
Bop Powell bop lines, dominant left hand reminiscent of the stride
and boogie players, his sense of that down home chording and
timing immediately made him recognizable
More bluesy
Listening: Moanin

Les McCann
Blues, gospel and swing, heavy emphasis on the groove
influenced by the church and Erroll Garner
One of the first users of electric piano, clavinet, and synthesizer
Listening: The Truth, Compared to What

Gene Harris (1933-2000)
The Tree Sounds, Ray Brown Trio, Philip Morris Big Band
Soulful style influenced by Oscar Peterson and Junior Mance
Most accessible and amiable of Jazz Pianists
Superior command of the blues and ballads
Listening: Blues for Sam Nassi, Summertime, You Make Me Feel So
Young, Funky Genes

Monty Alexander (1944-)
Jamaican roots with jazz
Harmonization
Influences: Oscar Peterson, Gene Harris and Nat King Cole
Listening: Forever lovin Jah, Jammin, Jamento, Smile, Im Walkin,
What a Friend We Have in Jesus, Jamento
Double Trio format, Jazz trio combined with reggae trio, featuring
guitarist/vocalist listening: Monty Alexander Jazz and Roots
Jammin

Tommy Flanagan
Jazzdisco.org/tommy-flanagan/catalog/album-index
Soloist, ensemble pianist, accompanist, composer
Lyrical melodic
Style Polished
Elegant sound
Harmonic and rhythmic punch of bebop
Fond of quotes
Tours with Ella Fitzgerald
Recorded Giant Steps with John Coltrane
Influenced by Teddy Wilson, Nat King Cole, Bud Powell, Art Tatum
Listening: It Dont Mean A Thing, Giant Steps (Trio), Verdandi, How
High The Moon (with Ella Fitzgerald)

Kenny Barron (1943-)
Rich piano sound
Even Rhythmic Articulation
Bebop, post-bop and modernstylings drawn from McCoy Tyner and
Herbie Hancock
Frequent use of Brazilian Rhythms
Listening: There is No Greater Love

Live at Maybeck
Innovators 2/7/2014 12:17:00 PM
McCoy Tyner (born 1936 in Philadelphia)
Innovations:
o Quartal harmony
o Pentatonic permutations
o Modal improvisations
o Block chords
Influences: McCoys decision to study piano was reinforced when he
encountered the legendary bebop pianist Bud Powell, who was a
neighbor of the familys. Another major influence on Tyners playing
was Thelonious Monk, whose percussive attacks would inform
Tyners signature style
Tyner joined John Coltrane in 1961 for the classic album My
Favorite Things, and remained at the core of what becae one of the
most seminal groups in jazz history, The John Coltrane Quartet
More recently he has arranged for big bands, employed string
arrangements, and even reinterpreted popular music
Listening Examples: Walk Spirit Talk Spirit, JaCara, Giant Steps,
Have You Met Miss Jones, Softly As A Morning Sunrise (1962), My
Favorite Things, Shes Leaving Home, Will You Still Be Mine,
compare to Cecil Taylor

Cecil Taylor (1929 in Long Island, NY)
Pioneer of Free jazz: uncompromising figures of Avant-Garde
abandons most conventional notions of rhythm and melody
Got masters degree from New England Conservatory for Classical
Piano
Listening Examples: This Nearly Was Mine

William John Bill Evans (1929-1980)
Listening Examples: Turn Out the stars, B minor waltz, On A Clear
Day, Waltz for Debby, Displacement, My Bells (with orchestra),
Funkallero, Your Story
Classically trained
Considered the father of modern jazz piano
Reform of chord voicing system
Modern trio concept of equal interplay bass and drums being
equal parts of the trio, no longer reduced to supportive role
Rhythmic explorations
Brought new songs into jazz repertoire
Common chords and tensions
Short rhythmic motive, repeat and extend it with increasing
complexity, end it in a burst of notes that resolved those
complexities
He used complex relationships, adding to the swing that comes
from the more usual duple/triple conflict in jazz by layering other
duples and triples over the more basic ones.
Transposition to add interest and contrast
While Evans was open to new musical approaches that would not
compromise his musical and artistic vision such as his occasional
use of electric piano, and his brief associations with avant-garde
composer George Allen Russell
Bill Evans is considered the most important jazz pianist of his
generation and remains on of the most influentional musicians of
the post-bop jazz piano
Musicians who played and recorded with Bill Evans often recognized
him as the one who made the difference
His inescapable influence on the very sound of jazz piano has
touched virtually everybody of prominence in the field after him (as
well as most of his contemporaries), and he remains a monumental
model for jazz piano students everywhere
Contemporary Jazz 2/7/2014 12:17:00 PM
Keith Jarrett (1945)
Child prodigy performing classical and original compositions in
grade school
Absorbs jazz and improvisation through the recordings of Art
Tatum, Oscar Peterson, Erroll Garner, Bill Evans, Ahmad Jamal
Joined Art Blakeys group followed by Charles Lloyd in mid sixties
Joined Miles Davis in 1970
Launches his solo career: Facing You 1971
Contrapuntal LH, linear RH
Innovative contemporary harmony
Complex melodies
The Kln Concert
Photographic Memory
Formed his Jazz Standards Trio (w Jack DeJohnette, Gary Peacock)
in early 1980s, only records live performances, rather than record
in the studio, a belief that the audience is, an integral part of each
and every performance
o Rubato intros
o Linear, lyrical right hand
o Extensive improvisation
o Sparse comping
o Delicate nuances in his touch
Solo Solo improvisation
Fresh spontaneity to American standards
Recorded and performs classical; Bach, Mozart, and Shostakovich
Free improvisation
One of the highest paid jazz musician, up to $250k per concert
Listening: Charles Lloyd Forest Flower (1965), Semblance,
Bemsha Swing, Im Old Fashioned

Armando Anthony Chick Corea (1941- )
Jazz, Classical, Rock, Fusion, Latin/Flamenco
Clean, clear attack
Precise, clean articulation
Percussive touch
Complex harmonic sensibility that combines jazz and latin and
classical music
Lyrical, Angular lines
Classical ornamentation
Swing is more on top/angular
Timeline:
o 1966: First LP under his own name, Tones for Jones Bones
o 1971: RTF original compositions empsizae the fusion of jazz
traditions with Brazilian and Latin-American music, Light As a
Feather, Return to the seventh Galaxy
o 1985: Chick Corea Elektric Band
o 1990: Chick Corea Akoustic Band return to standards
o Classical recording, many duets, solo projects, solo piano

Herbie Hancock (Born in Chicago 1940)
Signs with Blue Note Records in 1962
o Takin Off
o Empryan Isles
o Maiden Voyage
Miles Davis Quintet 1963-1965 (with Wayne Shorter, Ron Carter,
Tony Williams)
Herbie Hancock has been an integral part of every jazz scene since
the 1960
A member of Miles Davis Quintet, he became on of the pioneers of
avant-garde scene
Academy awarded for film score round midnight plus fourteen
Grammy awards
Creative chair for Jazz at the Los Angeles Philharmonic
Chairman of the Thelonious Monk Institute
Graduated as electrical engineering. Hired by Fairlight Synth,
developer for Bose, Yamaha CP70 and Fender Rhodes
Voices are entirely his own, with their own urbane harmonic and
complex, earthy rhythmic signatures
Listening: Watermelon Man, Oliloqui, Stella, Head Hunters 1973

2/7/2014 12:17:00 PM
Michel Petrucciani
Influences: Bach, Debussy, Ravel, Mozart, Bartok, Horowitz
Duke Ellington, Bill Evans, Keith Jarrett
Block Chords
Orchestral approach uses the full span of the grand pianos
registers
Makes full use of the instruments pedals
Extroverted soloist
Aggressive tempos work
Passionate bond with his audience
Listening: Green Dolphin Street, Giant Steps, Les Grelots, Looking
Up (Music Viceo)
Book in Library

Kenny Werner (1951-)
Classical studies at Manhattan School of Music, Berklee College of
Music
Private studies with Madame Chaloff, alongside Keith Jarrett, Chick
Corea, Herbie Hancock, Mulgrew Miller, Steve Kuhn
Loves to paraphrase songs
Books/Articles Playing for the Right Reasons, Effortless Mastery
Listening: Inspiration

Brad Mehldau (1970 -)
Child Prodigy
Classically trained
Hundreds of transcriptions
Jazz studies with Fred Hersch, Kenny Werner, Jackie McLean
Percussion studies with Jimmy Cobb
Two-Hand Independence
o Proficient and contrapuntal left hand
o Plays a separate melody with each hand in unusual hythmic
meters
o Creates an ostinato in his right hand while developin a motivic
idea in his left hand
Odd meters, contrapuntal, odd reharmonization and arrangements
Won Berklee Colleges Best All Around Musician during sophomore
in highschool
Incorporates Classical stylistic methods into jazz
o Lyrical-emotional intensity of Romantic (Schumann, Brahms)
o Economic use of material, melodic fragments
o Contrapuntal aspects of Baroque
Influences: Classical from the Baroque and Romatic periods,
Wynton Kelly, Red Garland, McCoy Tyner, Bill Evans, Keith Jarrett
Listening: Get Happy, Ill Be Seeing You, All The Things You Are,
Good Bye Story Teller

Jess Dionisio Chucho Valds
Starts his first jazz trio at the age of 16
Founded Irakere with Paquito DRivera in 1972 while playing with
the Orquestra Cubana de Musica Moderna
An incredibly inventive and fluid pianist, Chucho combines the
influences of Art Tatum, Bill Evans and McCoy Tyner with Afro-
Cuban roots and a blazing technique, Avant Garde pianist Cecil
Taylor
He writes most of the bands compositions and arrangements and
has released dozens of albums, both with Irakere and as a solo
performer
Revered as a national treasure in Cuba, the Duke Ellington of Cuba
When you hear current Cuban jazz or popular music, whether
Gonzalo Rubalcaba, N.G. La Banda or Charanga Habaera, you hear
the influence of Chucho Valds and Irakere
Listening: A Mi Madre, Chucho s Steps

Finals:
Brad Mehldau
Herbie Hancock
Bill Evans
Keith Jarrett
Kenny Werner
Gene Harris
McCoy Tyner
Kenny Barron
Chucho Valdes
Chick Corea
Michel Petrucciani
Monty Alexander
Hampton Hawkes
Red Garland
Oscar Peterson
Cecil Taylor
Finals 2/7/2014 12:17:00 PM
Brad Mehldau
Child Prodigy
Classically trained
Hundreds of transcriptions
Jazz studies with Fred Hersch, Kenny Werner, Jackie McLean
Percussion studies with Jimmy Cobb
Two-Hand Independence
o Proficient and contrapuntal left hand
o Plays a separate melody with each hand in unusual hythmic
meters
o Creates an ostinato in his right hand while developin a motivic
idea in his left hand
Odd meters, contrapuntal, odd reharmonization and arrangements
Won Berklee Colleges Best All Around Musician during sophomore
in highschool
Incorporates Classical stylistic methods into jazz
o Lyrical-emotional intensity of Romantic (Schumann, Brahms)
o Economic use of material, melodic fragments
o Contrapuntal aspects of Baroque
Influences: Classical from the Baroque and Romatic periods,
Wynton Kelly, Red Garland, McCoy Tyner, Bill Evans, Keith Jarrett
Listening: Get Happy, Ill Be Seeing You, All The Things You Are,
Good Bye Story Teller

Michel Petrucciani
Influences: Bach, Debussy, Ravel, Mozart, Bartok, Horowitz
Duke Ellington, Bill Evans, Keith Jarrett
Block Chords
Orchestral approach uses the full span of the grand pianos
registers
Makes full use of the instruments pedals
Extroverted soloist
Aggressive tempos work
Passionate bond with his audience
Listening: Green Dolphin Street, Giant Steps, Les Grelots, Looking
Up (Music Viceo)
Book in Library

Kenny Werner (1951-)
Classical studies at Manhattan School of Music, Berklee College of
Music
Private studies with Madame Chaloff, alongside Keith Jarrett, Chick
Corea, Herbie Hancock, Mulgrew Miller, Steve Kuhn
Loves to paraphrase songs
Books/Articles Playing for the Right Reasons, Effortless Mastery
Listening: Inspiration

Herbie Hancock
Signs with Blue Note Records in 1962
o Takin Off
o Empryan Isles
o Maiden Voyage
Miles Davis Quintet 1963-1965 (with Wayne Shorter, Ron Carter,
Tony Williams)
Herbie Hancock has been an integral part of every jazz scene since
the 1960
A member of Miles Davis Quintet, he became on of the pioneers of
avant-garde scene
Academy awarded for film score round midnight plus fourteen
Grammy awards
Creative chair for Jazz at the Los Angeles Philharmonic
Chairman of the Thelonious Monk Institute
Graduated as electrical engineering. Hired by Fairlight Synth,
developer for Bose, Yamaha CP70 and Fender Rhodes
Voices are entirely his own, with their own urbane harmonic and
complex, earthy rhythmic signatures
Listening: Watermelon Man, Oliloqui, Stella, Head Hunters 1973

Keith Jarrett (1945)
Child prodigy performing classical and original compositions in
grade school
Absorbs jazz and improvisation through the recordings of Art
Tatum, Oscar Peterson, Erroll Garner, Bill Evans, Ahmad Jamal
Joined Art Blakeys group followed by Charles Lloyd in mid sixties
Joined Miles Davis in 1970
Launches his solo career: Facing You 1971
Contrapuntal LH, linear RH
Innovative contemporary harmony
Complex melodies
The Kln Concert
Photographic Memory
Formed his Jazz Standards Trio (w Jack DeJohnette, Gary Peacock)
in early 1980s, only records live performances, rather than record
in the studio, a belief that the audience is, an integral part of each
and every performance
o Rubato intros
o Linear, lyrical right hand
o Extensive improvisation
o Sparse comping
o Delicate nuances in his touch
Solo Solo improvisation
Fresh spontaneity to American standards
Recorded and performs classical; Bach, Mozart, and Shostakovich
Free improvisation
One of the highest paid jazz musician, up to $250k per concert
Listening: Charles Lloyd Forest Flower (1965), Semblance,
Bemsha Swing, Im Old Fashioned

Armando Anthony Chick Corea (1941- )
Jazz, Classical, Rock, Fusion, Latin/Flamenco
Clean, clear attack
Precise, clean articulation
Percussive touch
Complex harmonic sensibility that combines jazz and latin and
classical music
Lyrical, Angular lines
Classical ornamentation
Swing is more on top/angular
Timeline:
o 1966: First LP under his own name, Tones for Jones Bones
o 1971: RTF original compositions empsizae the fusion of jazz
traditions with Brazilian and Latin-American music, Light As a
Feather, Return to the seventh Galaxy
o 1985: Chick Corea Elektric Band
o 1990: Chick Corea Akoustic Band return to standards
o Classical recording, many duets, solo projects, solo piano

McCoy Tyner (born 1936 in Philadelphia)
Innovations:
o Quartal harmony
o Pentatonic permutations
o Modal improvisations
o Block chords
Influences: McCoys decision to study piano was reinforced when he
encountered the legendary bebop pianist Bud Powell, who was a
neighbor of the familys. Another major influence on Tyners playing
was Thelonious Monk, whose percussive attacks would inform
Tyners signature style
Tyner joined John Coltrane in 1961 for the classic album My
Favorite Things, and remained at the core of what becae one of the
most seminal groups in jazz history, The John Coltrane Quartet
More recently he has arranged for big bands, employed string
arrangements, and even reinterpreted popular music
Listening Examples: Walk Spirit Talk Spirit, JaCara, Giant Steps,
Have You Met Miss Jones, Softly As A Morning Sunrise (1962), My
Favorite Things, Shes Leaving Home, Will You Still Be Mine,
compare to Cecil Taylor

Cecil Taylor (1929 in Long Island, NY)
Pioneer of Free jazz: uncompromising figures of Avant-Garde
abandons most conventional notions of rhythm and melody
Got masters degree from New England Conservatory for Classical
Piano
Listening Examples: This Nearly Was Mine

William John Bill Evans (1929-1980)
Listening Examples: Turn Out the stars, B minor waltz, On A Clear
Day, Waltz for Debby, Displacement, My Bells (with orchestra),
Funkallero, Your Story
Classically trained
Considered the father of modern jazz piano
Reform of chord voicing system
Modern trio concept of equal interplay bass and drums being
equal parts of the trio, no longer reduced to supportive role
Rhythmic explorations
Brought new songs into jazz repertoire
Common chords and tensions
Short rhythmic motive, repeat and extend it with increasing
complexity, end it in a burst of notes that resolved those
complexities
He used complex relationships, adding to the swing that comes
from the more usual duple/triple conflict in jazz by layering other
duples and triples over the more basic ones.
Transposition to add interest and contrast
While Evans was open to new musical approaches that would not
compromise his musical and artistic vision such as his occasional
use of electric piano, and his brief associations with avant-garde
composer George Allen Russell
Bill Evans is considered the most important jazz pianist of his
generation and remains on of the most influentional musicians of
the post-bop jazz piano
Musicians who played and recorded with Bill Evans often recognized
him as the one who made the difference
His inescapable influence on the very sound of jazz piano has
touched virtually everybody of prominence in the field after him (as
well as most of his contemporaries), and he remains a monumental
model for jazz piano students everywhere

Gene Harris (1933-2000)
The Tree Sounds, Ray Brown Trio, Philip Morris Big Band
Soulful style influenced by Oscar Peterson and Junior Mance
Most accessible and amiable of Jazz Pianists
Superior command of the blues and ballads
Listening: Blues for Sam Nassi, Summertime, You Make Me Feel So
Young, Funky Genes

Monty Alexander (1944-)
Jamaican roots with jazz
Harmonization
Influences: Oscar Peterson, Gene Harris and Nat King Cole
Listening: Forever lovin Jah, Jammin, Jamento, Smile, Im Walkin,
What a Friend We Have in Jesus, Jamento
Double Trio format, Jazz trio combined with reggae trio, featuring
guitarist/vocalist listening: Monty Alexander Jazz and Roots
Jammin

Kenny Barron (1943-)
Rich piano sound
Even Rhythmic Articulation
Bebop, post-bop and modernstylings drawn from McCoy Tyner and
Herbie Hancock
Frequent use of Brazilian Rhythms
Listening: There is No Greater Love

Oscar Peterson (1925-2007)
Classically Trained, brilliant technique, light, often compared to Art
Tatum
Sounds the same for 40 years
Soloist, Accompanist, Composer
Inexhaustible improviser
Swing, Blues, Bebop
11 Grammys, Ten Honorary Doctorates, Chancellor of York
University
Musical Associates: Clark Terry, Ella Fitzgerald, Joe Pass, Niels-
Henning rsted Pedersen, Ray Brown, Ben Webster, Milt Jackson,
Ed Thigpen, Dizzy Gillespie, Herb Ellis, Coleman Hawkins, Roy
Eldridge, Stan Getz, Martin Drew
Influences
o James P. Johnson
o Teddy Wilson
o Nat King Cole
o Art Tatum
Listening example: Pete Kellys Blues, Sweet Georgia Brown,
Sandys Blues, Woody-N-You, Corcovado, Hymn to Freedom, 52
nd

Street

Red Garland (1923-1984)
Hardbop pianist born in Dallas Texas
Disctinctive shimmering sound, hard bop lines, block chords
His main influences were Count Basie and Nat King Cole, from
whom he drew lessons in touch, phrasing and conception. He also
learned from James P. Johnson, Luckey Roberts, Teddy Wilson, Bud
Powell, and Art Tatum
Garlands Sound block chord
o Constructed of three notes in the right hand and four notes in
the left hand, with the right hand one octave above the left.
The right hand played the melody in octaves with a perfect 5
th

placed in the middle of the octave
Listening: If I Were A Bell, Willow Weep for Me, Stompin At The
Savoy

Hampton Hawes (1928-1977)
Anchored in chord-change based jazz
West Coast and funk-jazz or rhythm school
Got in jail for heroin addiction, the only person who got presidential
pardon by John F. Kennedy 6 months later
Listening: Hamps Paws, Blues The Most

Jess Dionisio Chucho Valds
Starts his first jazz trio at the age of 16
Founded Irakere with Paquito DRivera in 1972 while playing with
the Orquestra Cubana de Musica Moderna
An incredibly inventive and fluid pianist, Chucho combines the
influences of Art Tatum, Bill Evans and McCoy Tyner with Afro-
Cuban roots and a blazing technique, Avant Garde pianist Cecil
Taylor
He writes most of the bands compositions and arrangements and
has released dozens of albums, both with Irakere and as a solo
performer
Revered as a national treasure in Cuba, the Duke Ellington of Cuba
When you hear current Cuban jazz or popular music, whether
Gonzalo Rubalcaba, N.G. La Banda or Charanga Habaera, you hear
the influence of Chucho Valds and Irakere
Listening: A Mi Madre, Chucho s Steps