Jazz Pianists

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Comment by Ghalib Ghallab on October 21, 2009 at 3:19pm

As a Jazz pianist I've its a Blessing to take audiences on musical journeys, to entertain them with joy and happiness. To heal those who are sick and those spiritually depressed and give them some joy through special antidotes of music which brings them back to life. This is all done form and instrument called the piano. Wether its straight ahead , the blues, smooth jazz, rock , classical, RnB, Latin, funk, Brazilian just as long as its jazz its Kool.
I've performed all over this world bringing folks that kool sound that G-d Bless me with and I'm digging it too, jazz.

So you ask me what do i bring to the network well I say to you I bring you MY STYLE OF JAZZ, jazz.

Comment by Christopher Fields on October 21, 2009 at 2:22pm

I was born a Poet, but I have always said that the first instrument outside of myself that I would learn to play would be the Piano - Let's combine the Piano with Poetry, smooth it all the way out and make some great music!

Comment by Beni Williams on October 19, 2009 at 3:29am

Okay, about me? My best and worst subject! After noodling around for the 'piano lesson' years (when you aren't supposed to be messing with original music) on the family's beautiful Broadwood upright - frequently interrupted by my Mother saying: 'Do you have to play such sad stuff?' - I wrote my first complete piano composition when I was around 12. It was called 'Butterfly' and was a nocturne - the changes it went through were chromatic, with a fluid sense of tonality-in-transition. Already, that was what I was hearing in music, great unexpected changes that transported you beautifully to a new place. It is true to say that all my years as a player have really been in search of those moments, looking for the rare, fine, and unexpected - like an old by-line of jazz 'The Sound of Surprise!' - I like that definition. I began developing my improvisatory 'vocabulary' at an early age - the noodling I mentioned - that is what is essential, experimentation and the 'pursuit of accidents' - the beautiful unexpected phrase or change - it is also what annoys the casual listener more than anything ("Can't you play a piece?!" "Why d'you keep changing it?!" etc., etc.). Fear of these impromtu critiques have stopped many from developing their own sound - so they sound more or less like everyone else, sad to say. For years, I was a musical Chameleon; my piano technique was always in service of the style I was absorbing - or in service of the piece I was writing - the only time I was guaranteed to sound like myself was in improvised music, which jazz - at its best and most demanding - certainly is. At a certain point, though, I was able to look back and pinpoint the worryingly few things I'd written and played that were completely my own voice - that sounded like no-one but myself - that came only from my experience - that was in the mid-'80s - since then I have concentrated on those things, and consciously developed them - or accentuated those aspects of my playing. Like many players, I always had a doubt in the ability of my left hand to really keep up with my right, in its speed of execution, and so, again like many, relegated it to basic rhythmic and chording functions - often using the 'horn style' linear concept in the right. Coming back to Art Tatum - recorded after hours in a club somewhere - there is a moment when his hands execute two tumbling runs down the entire keyboard that are completely independent of one another yet come up spluttering - like kids diving into a creek - exactly together for the next vamp! This blew my mind, I said to myself 'C'mon now, don't be lazy!' and set to work on improving the dexterity of my left. But the big sea change came when I went beyond the effect of manual independence - and actually allowed the left to do its own thing. The what I call the 'secret soldier' takes over - the part of your mind that always remembers the way home, that can walk against the crowd at busy interchanges without bumping into any of two hundred people walking towards you - impossible if you think about it - the part that requires stillness of your waking mind to operate fully, the almost uncannily infallible part that has been listening all along, and remembering every note. Weirdly, this part of your mind can - and does - sing unison with every line you play, in perfect tune. After many years, it simply starts to come out of your mouth, there's something disturbingly incontinent about it, and it takes a conscious effort to silence it (some players don't bother, which accounts for the endliss rasping growl Herbie does, or the mewling of Keith - I think Chick shuts up, which says something, I'm not sure what). In playing solo piano, my personal Everest has been to perform at length - I recorded one piece that lasted 53 minutes, trying to sustain a certain level of creative invention throughout - it was hard, hard, hard - it takes a level of relaxation beforehand that takes hours to reach, it takes intense listening and a kind of rule book that can be ripped up at any point, in favour of the happy accident that just occurred - it also takes a ear for long compositional arcs, so comprovisation, though a tad pretensious, is not an innaccurate term for what goes on. Like all improvisation, these extended sessions are not 'free' - we are always bounded by our listening experience, technique and level of self-awareness. But there is a reliance on Zen in what I do. A definite plus in stilling the clamour of the mind, to let the hands suggest things that I then take up and extend or transform - I feel like I'm on a long climb - or carving something out of the surface of the sound. First you have to generate the sound - in order to start sculpting. When I start to bore myself, and predict my next move - I try to make my hands go somewhere else, then deal with that transition, and make some new kind of sense of it. Personally, I quickly tire of hearing piano that reeks of an obvious stylist - NOT the person I'm actually hearing - let's face it, how many players can avoid the influence of a Monk or a Bud Powell? - but for Goodness Sake DO something with it, at least - THEY covered their tracks, so should we! Miniature rant over. I can recommend a lengthy discussion about the changing state of jazz piano on the 'musician's corner' part of Geaorge Duke's site. I can also recommend anyone checking out Vijay Iyer's music - as a great new pianistic talent to watch. All the best to one and all. Thanks to Jaijai for making all this possible.
Peace and Blessings
Beni

Comment by Ghalib Ghallab on October 18, 2009 at 5:26pm

Ghalib Ghallab
October 1, 2009 at 5:30pm to December 31, 2009 at 10:30pm – The Range Steakhouse in Harrah's Las Vegas Hotel & Casino
Jazz at Harrah's Las Vegas Hotel & Casino in The Range Steakhouse Featuring Jazz pianist/vocalist Ghalib Ghallab every Thursday, Friday and Saturday 5:30PM - 10:30PM
Organized by Ghalib Ghallab | Type: jazz, supper, club
You are attending.

Comment by Earl R. Johnson, Jr. on August 24, 2009 at 8:27pm

Come out and enjoy as Pianist Earl R. Johnson, Jr. lights it up LIVE in concert as one of the Headline Performers at the Inland Empire Community Festival on Saturday August 29th- 7:30pm show. The festival will be held at the Ontario Mills Mall (Ontario, CA) and is FREE to the public!! (So, there REALLY isn't any good reason not to come on out!!) Earl will also perform for a special "finale jam" with Malcolm Jamal Warner later that evening!!

This performance is going to be especially HOT as Earl will perform several songs from his award-winning debut CD, "JUICY" along with a few other surprises.

"JUICY" is Contemporary, Jazzy, with a Seriously Funky R&B Twist!! Earl was recently nominated (for the 2nd time this year!!) for "2009 Jazz Artist of the Year" by the Los Angeles Musi Awards which takes place in November. He already won this same coveted award at the South Bay Music Awards back in April of this year. Johnson and his CD have been receiving rave reviews all across the country, most recently in Atlanta where he tore it up before a wildly receptive crowd at Saambucas!!

The "JUICY" CD is available in stores and online at CDBaby.com, iTunes, and Amazon.com.

Comment by Wm. L. Kauffman on August 5, 2009 at 1:33pm

Newark based pianist, Ernie Edwards and bassist, Jacob Webb perform at The Back Room @ Piano's Bar and Grill 36
Broad Street, Bloomfield, NJ Sets @ 8:00pm Thursday September 3, 2009

Comment by Earl R. Johnson, Jr. on July 22, 2009 at 2:45am

I'm performing LIVE in Atlanta on Thursday Aug. 13 @ Sambucas Restaurant (3102 Piedmont Rd., NE) Two shows- 7:30p & 9:30p $15 You don't want to miss this dynamic, electrifying performance!! Contemporary, Jazzy, w/ a Seriously Funky R&B Twist!! For more info, please cal (404) 237-5299. I hope to see (and met) you ALL on Aug. 13th!!

Comment by Wm. L. Kauffman on June 8, 2009 at 9:45am

Newark based pianist, Ernie Edwards perfoms solo at Piano's Bar and Grill 36
Broad Street, Bloomfield, NJ Sets @ 8:00pm every Thursday in June. 2009
Musicians welcome to sit in.

Comment by Carol on February 17, 2009 at 2:54am

Piano is my instrument, but I'm not in the caliber of the greats: I do love to play, and to listen to others. I'm convinced the piano is THE foundation of the great jazz groups

Comment by Carol on February 17, 2009 at 2:52am

who's great but not yet world famous? Steffan Karlsson. He taught piano in the Jazz Dept @ UNLV in Las Vegas before transferring to Texas: boy do I miss him. He's the best keyboard artist it's ever been my pleasure to see perform. Awesome guy, from one of the Scandinavian countries

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