Gretchen's Post--Jazz Piano: The Limitless Possibilities

As an instrument, the piano has always been of considerable interest to me. The capabilities of performing on a piano are endless—melodic innovation, harmonic innovation, percussive or lyrical ways of playing, the opportunity to play polyrhythms, or at least contrasting right and left-hand lines, as well as the overall expressive qualities of the instrument itself (the wide range of pitches available, timbre, option to sustain a pitch while playing other pitches, etc.). In accordance with the vast array of possibilities associated with this instrument comes a field ripe for endless improvisation and artistic innovation.

We heard several examples of pianists in class who took full advantage of the opportunity to go “out” in their improvisatory explorations of the piano. I must admit, while I was aware of Earl Hines’ skill and approach that differed from the quintessential stride pianists James P. Johnson and Fats Waller, I had not heard the extent to which he explored the possibilities of harmony, range, and tempo during his solos. I was particularly intrigued by the version of “East of the Sun” we listened to in class. He is definitely not afraid of taking chances, and the thing that makes it work is that his “chances” sound very intentional. He doesn’t back off the notes like “I’m not sure if that’s right.” Instead, he seems to play his riskier chords with an even louder, more percussive sound, just to say “Here I am!!”

I went back and listened to one of Hines’ earlier more “stride-like” pieces from 1928—“A Monday Date.” While primarily in the stride style, there are still some very “out” things that he incorporates into this piece. Check it out here at redhotjazz.com if you haven’t heard it before (it’s the first piece on the list at the bottom of the page). Notice when he completely alters the tempo throughout the piece, as he did in several of the examples we listened to on Friday.

http://www.redhotjazz.com/hines.html

In addition to the presentation on Hines, I enjoyed listening to the Nat Cole’s piano recordings. Just out of curiosity, I went around and asked a bunch of my friends—musicians included—if any of them knew that Nat King Cole had been a well-known jazz pianist. Not a single one of them did. I would be curious to find out exactly when he started to slip out of people’s focus as a jazz pianist, to the point that the majority of people didn’t even know that he was one. His incredible performance from Jazz at the Philharmonic that we listened to was in 1944, but by the late ‘40s, he had already become a pop-singer icon. Do audiences really forget that quickly, or were they just not aware of him as a pianist to begin with? Though unfortunate, it makes sense in a way. If you are interested in pop music, and don’t care about jazz at all, why would you know/care who the top jazz pianists are? With my thesis research, I have run into similar perceptions of Harry Connick Jr. Some people only know of him as a Hollywood actor, and have no clue that he is a musician. Others, who haven’t ever actually seen him perform, think of him as a front-of-stage pop vocalist, and don’t realize that he is also the pianist in his big band.

Accordingly, Dr. Porter’s suggestion for historical research is invaluable—if you want to truly learn about someone or something at a given time, you can’t only consult what people are saying today, you must consider reception as it was going on then. Furthermore, you must also take into account the type of audience whose reception you are considering. Today, you might say that Connick is at the peak of his performing career—and still people aren’t aware that he plays jazz piano. Therefore, it is not only crucial to consider comments from the time, but also from varying groups from the same time period (popular audiences, jazz audiences, musicians themselves, critics, etc.).

I wish Friday’s class could have gone on forever—I love listening to jazz piano, and the range of different styles and musicians we covered was particularly impressive. I enjoyed everyone’s presentations, and each artist presented was very different from the ones discussed before. I had never heard either Vijay Iyer or Craig Taborn. Just the simple fact that they are still young, play fresh jazz piano (aren’t copying the styles of previous jazz pianists), and have completely different approaches from each other further suggests to me that the possibilities of jazz piano are endless.