4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A jazz piano book that is more useful than most, December 30, 2008
This review is from: Jazz Piano Best of Bk/Cd (Signature Licks) (Paperback)
I don't remember exactly what I was thinking when I purchased this book, but it had something to do with learning licks and styles from accomplished jazz musicians. That is to say, I was looking for a shortcut. I'm finding out what I already suspected, however: there are no shortcuts. What this is then is a road map, with signposts giving a clear concise sampling of solos and riffs in differing styles from eleven great jazz pianists. There are some easy runs and some hard runs, and some slow songs and some fast songs, bits of fifteen different songs in all. There's no fingering marked in the text, so having an instructor to point things out will make this book more practical. The book is staple bound so it works well on the music stand. As near as I can tell, this contains only pieces of songs, so the serious musician will definitely have to have a songbook handy (but what jazz pianist doesn't already have
The Real Book: Sixth Edition?). The highlight of this book is the CD that comes with it, which contains samples of the songs, usually both with a backing band and without, as well as examples of the solos at a slower pace and at speed. Fast forwarding through them and back to them is a bit of a chore (there are 94 sample tracks), but having that resource is really great, and the book includes markings for where each track is used, making the pair way more useful. There are also brief biographies of each of the musicians covered, which I think is a nice touch. In short, it is hard not to like this book and CD set. It is well thought out, well executed, interesting, and productive. No, it isn't a shortcut and you will still have to practice. (Sorry.) And though it might not fit every pianist's concept of a learning tool, it fits mine to a `T' and I will get a lot of use out of this book for quite some time.
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