There is very little camera footage of Art Tatum playing, but it was often said that he made playing look effortless – he didn’t move around at the piano or make faces. Art Tatum was so good, in fact, that he felt playing with other musicians slowed him down! Tatum’s use of extended harmony (adding notes like like b13ths and #9s to a dominant chord) was well ahead of its time, and would serve to be highly inspirational to later pioneers of jazz harmony like Charlie Parker. He utilized incredibly fast flourishes and a pulsing stride rhythm to dazzle his audiences. Recommended listening: “ Locomotive,” “Blue Monk,” “Well, You Needn’t”Īmerican jazz pianist Art Tatum is one of the most virtuosic pianists of all time. There will never be another Thelonious Monk, and it is well worth your time to listen to, understand, and emulate his captivating and carefree style in your own playing. On the contrary, Monk only wrote 70 tunes, but all of them have become immensely popular jazz standards, and he is now the second most recorded jazz composer of all time (Duke Ellington takes the number 1 spot). Monk struggled with unidentified mental health issues for a large part of his adult life, but his music was not affected negatively. One of my favorite jazz professors, however, told me that he thought that Monk never hit a note that he didn’t intend to hit. Monk stabbed at the piano with such a ferocity that he would sometimes hit notes adjacent to those he was aiming for. He was known for suddenly standing up and walking around to watch the rest of the band play, as if he was in a trance. His eccentric playing style is defined by unusual pauses and messy, angular melodies. Monk was born in North Carolina, but moved to New York City as a child, where, as a teenager, he began to gig as a professional pianist. One of the best ways to get better at playing piano is to listen to great pianists, so I encourage you to listen to what these giants of jazz have to offer!Īmerican jazz pianist and composer Thelonious Monk’s unmistakable flat-fingered playing has been heavily influential to many generations of pianists. If you are a classical pianist or a beginner that is interested in learning more about jazz piano, this list is for you! I hope that these recommendations can serve as a stepping stone for you to become more immersed in the world of jazz music. I’ve compiled this list of great jazz pianists that have been influential to me in my own playing. Great jazz musicians do this by developing short musical ideas or motifs into long passages that are cohesive and meaningful. Listening to jazz has taught me how to tell a story using music. Playing jazz has taught me how to improvise a melody over any chord progression in any key, and while studying jazz, I’ve also learned how to harmonize a melody, add color tones to chords, and play basslines. Jazz is fundamentally about improvisation in the moment. I wasn’t exposed to jazz until a few years later, and it took some time for me to understand and appreciate it. When I first started learning to play piano, I only played and listened to classical music. It can be easy to get discouraged with your own playing in the face of such greatness, but I’d like to point out that there is one thing every great pianist has in common, regardless of time period or style – they all were inspired by and influenced by those who came before them! There are countless innovative and unique artists that have taken composition and performance to new heights. The number of truly wonderful pianists is astounding.
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