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Jul 1, 2019 · The history of the jazz piano starts in roughly 1899. By my count, 20 pianists influenced the direction of jazz over the course of 75 years, between 1900 and 1975. Here are 20 sample tracks of those pianists in chronological order.
Jan 8, 2024 · Jazz is a style of music which emerged in the early 20th Century, primarily within the African-American community, which features improvisation and rhythmic invention at its heart. But of course, things are never as simple as that…. As you’d expect from a music which has been in a state of almost constant evolution over the last 120+ years ...
- Introduction
- Ragtime
- Scott Joplin
- "Jelly Roll" Morton
- Earl Hines
- Stride Playing
- James P. Johnson (1914) from New York
- Thomas "Fats" Waller
- Art Tatum
- The Swing Era
When speaking about the history of jazz piano, we should remember that the piano is a unique instrument. It can play melody, harmony and bass, making it capable of functioning as both an accompanying, as well as a lead instrument. Apart from that, it is a magnificent solo instrument. If that's not enough we can also see that as jazz piano music dev...
Ragtime, an American musical genre, started at the end of the nineteenth century. It was very popular for around twenty years, and then faded away. Ragtime can probably be considered the first station in the history of jazz piano music.There were originally four styles of ragtime, but only the classical style has remained familiar till today. The c...
In the late 1890's a black composer called Scott Joplin took the first steps that would eventually lead to the widespread acceptance of African-American musicians as serious musicians. He composed "Maple Leaf Rag", a piece named after the Maple Leaf Club in Sedalia, Missouri where he often played. The piece was a big hit and became a part of piano ...
"Jelly Roll" Morton was born into a Creole community in the Faubourg Marigny neighborhood of downtown New Orleans, Louisiana. New Orleans was an exciting place then, full of immigrants from many different countries. People from Italy, France, Germany and other countries had brought in their musical traditions from Europe. The African-Americans had ...
Earl Hines was one of the few jazz greats who weren’t born in Louisiana (he was born in Pennsylvania and in 1924 moved to Chicago). He tried to imitate the sensitive virtuoso line of his friend Louis Armstrong, while playing ragtime with his left hand. Without meaning to he was one of the first piano players that were improvising and swinging ...
Piano playing has transformed. Jazz migrated from New Orleans to Chicago and New York, the capital of ragtime. Ragtime was out! Blues was in!A new period started in the history of jazz piano music.It seemed as they play all the weird and ugly notes and it still sounded so great.Playing piano that way sounded loud and intense. It was plain "Stride p...
Johnson was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey. His family moved to New York City in 1908, where he first listened to "Jelly Roll" Morton playing the blues. This was to influence his piano playing enormously. Johnson was a terrific piano player with the gift of creating hits that were played endlessly in those years. His tune "Charleston" (which was...
Thomas "Fats" Waller was a native of Harlem who completed the fusion of the different styles of jazz piano: blues, ragtime and stride; while also inaugurating a jazz style at the organ. He had a sensitive touch on the piano, and a large range, from the most light and subtle sound to a very heavy and powerful impact. He knew exactly when to create t...
Art Tatum was born on Oct. 13, 1909 in Toledo, Ohio and despite being blind in one eye and only partially sighted in the other; he became arguably the greatest jazz piano player who ever lived. The starting point of Art Tatum's style was Fats Waller's stride. However, Art brought his own creative and original style to playing piano, taking the stri...
The swinging feeling, which was probably first played by Louis Armstrong, grew through the 20's to the 30's where big bands would play in a dazzling way. In 1929, as America entered the Great Depression, people looking for time off, would go to dance in halls where the big bands would play rhythmical and loud brassy music. Two of the largest big ba...
People also ask
What is jazz piano?
How is jazz notated?
What is jazz music?
How do I play jazz piano?
To play Jazz piano you'll need two things: A piano and a real book. A real book is a collection of lead sheets to different jazz songs. However the notation will look slightly different to that of most western music (like classical music). In jazz, songs are notated using a single melody line in the treble clef (there’s no bass clef usually).
Jazz piano is a collective term for the techniques pianists use when playing jazz. The piano has been an integral part of the jazz idiom since its inception, in both solo and ensemble settings. Its role is multifaceted due largely to the instrument's combined melodic and harmonic capabilities.
When it comes to jazz, you need to be able to translate the sheet music, while also fluently creating musical “sentences” of your own. It’s important that you get the basics down first, in order to give yourself the ability later to build upon them, and improvise. The basic jazz sounds are major, minor, dominant, and half-diminished—and ...
Feb 24, 2017 · The Original Dixieland Jass Band’s Livery Stable Blues was the first jazz recording but their later song Tiger Rag would be more influential (Credit: Wikipedia)
