Jazz Piano?

Check out Night Divides the Day: The Music of the Doors by George Winston

In my previous post, I failed to include a couple of fine pianists that should have been included. Beyond the obvious omissions of Oscar Peterson and Dave Brubeck, I should also have listed Tommy Flanagan, Ahmad Jamal, Barry Harris, Roland Hanna, George Cables, Keith Jarrett, and one of my personal favorites, Kenny Barron. If you want to branch out a bit and listen to some fine foreign jazz pianists, check out Abdullah Ibrahim (also known as Dollar Brand), Tete Montoliu, Eliane Elias, and Gonzalo Rubalcaba.

My favorites include Art Tatum who is probably the most technically proficient of any jazz pianist I have ever listened to. Very clean and articulate lines as if he were classically trained. He is a must if you are investigating where to start.

I personally like Errol Garner and Earl Hines. Bill Evans is quite enjoyable as well. There are many choices in this genre and many of the above mentioned would be included on my list.

Please consider Alan Pasqua on two recent recordings with the Peter Erskine Trio: Badlands, and Live at Rocco. He's tremendously sensitive with a great touch, and the music is melodic and easily relatable for someone new to jazz. I think you can still preview these on Amazon, if interested.

Art Tatum's piano teacher was his mother-who was classiclly trained.

At the risk of putting too fine a point on it,Tatum can be broken down into three periods. His third period is over my head but I listen to his second period stuff with my mouth opened in amazement.(See volume three of John Mehigan's JAZZ IMPROVISATION series for more.)

If you Google "Art Tatum"---"I feel lucky" ,you'll connect to a site of a private individual who will sell you an anthology disk(s). It sounds like a remaster of 50 to 60 year old recordings,but that's ok. The artistic merit of the work justifies it.