[penguinofwar]

ive been playing piano for 4 years now. ive always wanted to learn jazz music. you guys know any good jazz?

[jengoesup]

Well, there's always bebop, which is the style of jazz I prefer (I suppose you could say I haven't broadened my tastes enough, but this is the stuff I keep returning to...I don't really like the more experimental stuff): Thelonious Monk (pianist), Charlie Parker (alto sax), Dizzie Gillespie (trumpet). A good record with all three of them on it is the Yardbird Suite. If you want to play their songs, you might want to try out a Real Book, a book which is full of jazz standards (and PLENTY more besides the first three artists I mentioned). Jazz standards are well known, popular jazz pieces (like My Funny Valentine, Song For My Father, Birdland) that lots of musicians play and commonly include in their gigs, in between original songs (or at least in their repertoire, should someone request the song). Now, the Real Book will give you the melody and the chord changes, but it's not going to give you an accompaniment in the left hand. I don't have any sources that you can look at so that you can learn how to effectively add an accompaniment based on the chords, but I do know that there are full transcriptions available of some songs which have vocal parts (such as Mood Indigo or 'Round Midnight).

By the way, they just published a legal version of the Real Book (all previous editions, 1 - 5, were illegal, go wikipedia the full story). So if you ever happen to meet up with any other jazz musicians and you've got the legal one and they've got the illegal 5th edition, there will be discrepancies between the two books. The illegal version is available on the net, and if you're curious you can always PM me. I don't think I'm really at liberty to actually divulge it on here

Sorry if that was way too much info, feel free to digest it or toss it at your leisure

~Jen

[Kenny C.]

In addition to what jengoesup said I'll post a list of some fairly significant jazz pianists you should check out.

Count Basie*
Dave Brubeck*
"Jelly Roll" Morton
Gil Evans
Herbie Hancock*
Ray Charles (I guess you could put him here)*
Chick Corea
Nat "King" Cole
Jaime Cullum (Same as Ray Charles)
Norah Jones (Same as the other two)
Duke Ellington*
Bill Evans*
Vince Guaraldi
Hiromi*
Scott Joplin (same as those others)*
Thelonious Monk*
Sun Ra
Art Tatum
Fats Waller

The ones with astericks are my personal favorites.

[s0233425]

Scott Joplin

He's not Jazz he's Ragtime!!!

Check out Oscar Peterson for the best in piano jazz. His "Night Train" album is sublime

[Kenny C.]

Yeah, I know. I just figured I'd add him since Ragtime helped influence jazz a bit. Either way, he's insanely awesome.

[Flutey]

I just had a jazz concert today and I think that the best Jazz/ ragtime has to be Joplin. Joplin is hard to play though and some are not able to play the octave moving bases.

[jengoesup]

As long as you take the left hand apart from the right and get used to moving around, it's really not that difficult. Practice practice practice