Customer Reviews

Oscar Peterson Plays Duke Ellington: Piano Artist Transcriptions

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This book is great for anyone who listens to an Oscar Peterson recording and wants to try it out. The transcriptions are fantastic-- great way to begin to understand how OP would perform a piece. Also gives you insight into how talented this man truly was. Perfect for the aspiring jazz pianist.

Although I've been playing keyboards for over thirty years, I've only been playing jazz piano for six months, and let me say right away: I can't play a darn thing out of this book...yet. But, shortly after I got "Night Train", I went on a Duke Ellington kick, and it didn't take me long to figure I wanted to have a look at how one master of jazz treated another. So, although I've only delved briefly into this book, I expect it will be providing me tons of ideas and licks to insert in my own weighted-toward-the-standards jazz repertoire. And when I can finally play a little of what Oscar actually played, I'll know I've arrived. Anyway, this book is well organized, contains a great selection of songs, and is true to Peterson's and Ellington's work, making it a very valuable piece of written music for any jazz pianist.

This book provides great insight into Oscar Peterson's famous style. Unlike the other Hal Leonard book on Duke Ellington piano solos, thankfully the chord changes in this book are accurate. Enjoy studying and playing his chord voicings. Be aware that OP plays many of these pieces in a key to suit his preferences, so it is not always the standard key that you may expect for the tune.

Heralded as one of the greatest pianists to ever live by critics. This book is a good resource for those to see the genius of Peterson and how he composed and improvised. The licks and chord voicings are wonderful.

This is a great volume of sheet music to get, it includes many classic Ellington tunes as perfomed by Oscar Peterson. I didn't realise when I purchased it that, the version of C-Jam Blues here is an exact transcription of the recording on the Night Train album. This alone makes the purchase worthwhile.

Naturally these transcriptions are very difficult and will require a lot of time and effort to get anywhere near the original recordings. Its worth pointing out, that most, if not all the recordings these transcriptions are based on, are available to buy. So at least you will be able to hear how they are supposed to be played, even if you never quite reach that standard!