| LearnJazzPiano.com archives: Rootless chords | |
| Jono -- 10/03/2004, 10:14:23 -- #7681 | |
| Iget fustrated listening to early bebop recordings. The pianists play fantastic right hand lines but the left hand always plays 'shell' voicings that always seem to sound muddy & incomplete. I was wondering, who was the first pianist to use rootless left hand voicings? | |
| Mike -- 10/03/2004, 11:11:34 -- #7683 | |
| Bud Powell is the genius who changed how piano players see their role and relieved them from feeling like they always had to be playing stride and such, making it possable for pianists to become masters of "fantastic right hand lines" Bud Powell invented a system of "shell" voicing that we all still use to some extent. Bill Evans is the genius who is credited with elaborating on this system of often rootless voicings and perfected a different system of rootless voicings that are fuller yet still allow the pianist to concentrate on "fantastic right hand lines" | |
| Barry -- 10/03/2004, 11:23:34 -- #7684 | |
| The commonly used "A" and "B" form rootless voicings are generally attributed to Bill Evans - although Mark Levine also attributes them in part to Wynton Kelly... | |
| Dr. Whack -- 10/03/2004, 11:52:41 -- #7686 | |
| I've tried both "A" and "B" voicings, but mine always sound like "L" | |
| Jazz+ -- 10/03/2004, 17:52:11 -- #7695 | |
| Rootless voicings were sometimes used by Errol Garner. They are an obvious extensions of the chords. They were also "popularized" rather than "discovered" by Ahmad Jamal in the late 1950s. "Rootless voicings" had been around even earlier. The myth is that it was Bill Evans that "discovered" rootless voicings. | |
| sid -- 10/04/2004, 03:53:43 -- #7702 | |
| George Shearing was an early rootless chorder. But probably Art Tatum did it first, just like he was ahead on everything else. sid | |
| Jazz+ -- 10/04/2004, 11:16:25 -- #7714 | |
| Ravel used all sorts of altered dominant like V7 +9, V7 +11, I Maj7 Lydian, etc "jazz" chords. And sometimes they were rootless. | |
| Dr. Whack -- 10/04/2004, 13:22:22 -- #7722 | |
| and so did Chopin (1810-1849) | |
| Jazz+ -- 10/04/2004, 17:34:49 -- #7729 | |
| The C triad is over Bb7, not a Bb Maj 7 = Bb7 +11 | |
| Mike -- 10/07/2004, 13:27:18 -- #7850 | |
| To quote a famous pianist whom I can not remember the name of who was giving a workshop; "Rootless voicings do not have the Root" He left it at that on purpose. It was later explained by someone else that this is how teaching should take place. It is not the teachers job to give you all the cool voicings we have worked out... You devolpe best by understanding the concept and putting together your own voicings on your own. | |
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