It's my pleasure to announce the release of "Jeff Brent's Jazz Piano Notebook."
In Volume 4 of the “Jazz Piano Notebook†series Jeff shares detailed analysis of transcriptions of live performances. He covers everything from the shape of the songs to the tricks and licks he uses in improvised lines to the ideas behind his lush chord voicings.
Almost all of the numbers in Jeff Brent’s Jazz Piano Notebook are transcriptions and analysis of live performances.
By presenting you with some of his soloing ideas and comping techniques, it’ll give you ideas for your own improvisational journey through common jazz progressions.
This book includes detailed analysis 6 tunes and several pages of blues licks. Each song and the blues licks are accompanied by a thorough examination of what's going on in the music. If you ever wanted to get in the head of a pro jazz pianist, this will put you right there.
The first song is, "Whatever You Like" and is a study in half-note harmonic rhythm. Apparently the title is based on my answer to Jeff's question, "What should the book be about?" I'm a big believer in author autonomy (translated: I don't want to deal with it.)
The next song is, "Lovers No More." It is based on "Just Friends" (one of the most important top ten tunes!) and covers a lot of the things that will be played during a typical performance, as well as a detailed discussion explaining it.
Short excerpt from "Lovers No More"
After that we have a nice look at "Here Now" (Out of Nowhere - another top ten tune) with a nice detailed analysis.
After that there is a left hand only tune called "Diana's Inn" which is based off the chords to "Indiana/Donna Lee". The discussion is about left handed comping which is quite useful for solo jazz pianists.
Do you want to make some $$ playing jazz piano? You need to learn how to play solo jazz piano and you can't do that effectively with rootless voicings. This chapter, and the next "Artois" (based on chords to "Stella by Starlight" - ANOTHER top ten tune), will give you some great ideas for left hand solo jazz piano comping.
"Artois" which I mentioned briefly above is basically a PHD look at "Stella By Starlight." Two pages of music, four pages of analysis. Good stuff.
Next Jeff explores stride piano with "Winterland" which is based off "Walking in a Winter Wonderland." There are a lot of right hand and left hand stride piano tricks here, and it's all based on the music and playing of Art Tatum.
Last but not least, we have a couple pages of blues licks and their explanations. Jeff calls them CESH lines: "Chromatic Embellishment of Static Harmony" (blues licks)
Jeff Brent's addition to the Jazz Piano Notebook series is by far the most cerebral of the books with analysis on transcriptions that could be in a college text book. Everything is spot on and fun to go through so I recommend checking this out and getting a few more tricks of the jazz piano trade under your fingers.
Are you a jazz pianist and composer? Let Scot know if you want to share your ideas with the world and make a little bread at the same time.
If I'm not back in 24 hours, call the president.
Scot is available for skype jazz piano lessons (and google hangouts, phone call, etc...)
Use the contact link at the top of the page.
