BBC Music Jazz (until Sunday)

My super hero jazz piano artist Bill Evans explains a long term creative process and self teaching of improvisation. He stresses the importance of simplicity and breaking everything down so that you understand the structure that you can build upon and knowing the rules. He was trained originally as a classical pianist.

It looks so easy but the proper way is to study and analyse and requires self descipline. ( and of course he talent helps to get to the top 0.00000001% )

Wonderful! Thanks for posting this Kuma.

I saw Bill Evans at Ronnie Scots club in London many years ago & was lucky enough to be there on a night when Lee Konitz was also in London. He came to the club & sat in with Bill for a few numbers, how good is that!!

also well worth watching:

The Art of the Improviser : Keith Jarrett

Interview and music from Keith Jarrett, one of the world's great jazz improvisers. Keith shares his philosophy and his musical history:

OMFG! 

No. It can't get any better than that than a little short of him playing in your living room or be a fly on the wall at the 30th Columbia Studio!

I very much enjoyed that, Evans being a favourite artist of mine.  Interestingly, I've tried to 'get' Jarrett over many years but he leaves me cold by comparison.

G

Just out of interest, here is a link to a BBC Radio and Jazz FM poll for the greatest Jazz artist of all time.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-34827355

I’m a bit disappointed at the lowly 6^th place for my own personal favourite, Charlie Parker let alone no mention of Ornette Coleman, Sonny Rollins, Clifford Brown, Bud Powell, Lester Young, Sidney Bechet or the great Jelly Roll.

Morton.

Interesting that Bach was also Evan's influence as he did on Jarrett. ( altho, not surprising as all piano students play WTC as a finger exercise )

From Wiki:

"Bach changed my hand approach to playing the piano. I used to use a lot of finger technique when I was younger, and I changed over a weight technique. Actually, if you play Bach and the voices sing at all, and sustain the way they should, you really can't play it with the wrong approach." Evans valued Bach's Well Tempered Clavier and his three-part inventions as excellent practice material."  ---Bill Evans

I've listened to Jarrett's music over the years, but his style of playing isn't my fave as I tend to favour more bop influenced piano players in general.

I've recently picked up his Bach WTC recording but surprisingly his playing is not as improvisatory and free as I expected. Certainly less spirited than Gould. 

Here's funky groovy hard-bop Bach by Bud Powell. ( he's one of my piano Gods)  

I did enjoy his improve. of 'Over the Rainbow' at the live gig and 'Last Dance' with Charlie Haden which was released last year but Jarrett's music making remains just as an intellectual level than in my gut level. ( which I look for in any music )

It's amasing to discover many jazz musicians are influenced by Bach.

Maybe the pole probably reflected what they aired?

Certainly Ellington and Armstrong have a wider reach amongst people but they were influencers to those came after them. I agree that Parker should be higher up, too. I think that probably due to most of Parker's catalogue were done in 78's and he didn't live long enough in the 12" LP era signed up with a major label.

The only reason people still know who Rollins is that he's still touring!

The rest died too young or too obscure. ( I didn't even know who Bechet was! ) :/

FWIW Apparently the top 10 was derived from a shortlist of 50 as selected by BBC jazz presenters, Jazz FM presenters, jazz musicians, critics, and journalists:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/playlists/zzzzwz

Keith Jarrett would be in my ten 10, as would Miles, Coltrane, Bill Evans, Gary Burton, Joshua Redman, Chick Corea........ Too many to choose from 

Dave

That's the nugget.

No amount of practice will over come the lack of *that something extra*. 

Suer you can get pretty decent by practicing but you listen to the Masters from the past playing on a decent hifi rig, why bother!! You reliase you're never gonna get there. It's about how your brain is wired.

Still hoping I get to see the next super star ( what Stravisnky calls them 'doers' ).

+1

Evans is my favourite too.  Appreciate Bud Powell and Wynton Kelly but Jarrett leaves me pretty much cold.  Peterson also misses the mark - for me he is the antithesis of what great jazz is about his is all pyrotechnics - with Evans less is more.

Yawn.  

Who knew Davis would be voted #1?  He was always a master of self-promotion and although he was undeniably a genuine talent IMO there were greater jazz talents - even just in terms of trumpet jazz - certainly Gillespie was a more inventive and interesting player IMO.  Certainly much of the credit for Davis' contribution to modal, or so called "cool jazz", should be shared with Gil Evans.

Cool jazz is a style of modern jazz music that arose following the Second World War. It is characterized by its relaxed tempos and lighter tone, in contrast to the bebop style. Cool jazz often employs formal arrangements and incorporates elements of classical music, e.g. Miles Davis “Birth of the Cool”

Modal jazz is jazz that uses musical modes rather than chord progressions as a harmonic framework. Originating in the late 1950s and 1960s, modal jazz is epitomized by Miles Davis's 1958 composition "Milestones", 1959 album "Kind of Blue", and John Coltrane's classic quartet from 1960–64. Other important performers include Woody Shaw, Bill Evans, Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, McCoy Tyner, Larry Young, Pharoah Sanders, Joe Henderson, Chick Corea and Bobby Hutcherson.

Modal Jazz = Cool Jazz? I don't think so.

Dave

Full marks for your use of Wikipedia Dave; I don't recall saying modal jazz was equal to cool jazz - Davis was associated with both - though  many people characterise Davis' work from KInd of Blue as "cool jazz" FME (they obviously haven't consulted Wikipedia).

With you on all that bluedog.

G