Critique by Reed Kotler of "The Jazz Piano Book"
©1999 Reed Kotler.A fine book by Mark Levine that is an absolute must for everyones library. Mark is
an excellent jazz pianist and this is what makes this book so exceptional. He shares freely his very practical knowledge in a very articulate manner
The strongest part of this book is it's treatment of chord
voicings. In addition the lions share of the book in terms of pages deals with topics regarding chord voicings. It has an amazingly vast array of practical voicings that one will hear over and over again on the
recordings of top artists.The voicings are all demonstrated in the context of actual jazz and standard tunes. There is no other book that contains such a thorough treatment of chord voicings.
My main criticism
of the book is it's treatment of right hand improvisation.
There is an extensive treatment of chord scale theory. For me the treatment explains alot about the harmonic implications, in terms of chord voicings, of
chord scale theory but completely misses the mark in terms how mainstream players such as Bill Evans, Oscar Peterson and others approach approach the right hand in improvisation. There is alot of information
about certain specific techniques that can be used for right hand improvisation but these techniques are generally a spice in the pallet of a more or less mainstream player and not the diet staple. As such, you'll be
unable to adequately explain an Oscar Peterson or Bill Evans improvisation using the theory as outlined in this book. For example, such players make extensive use of chromatic approach notes to make their playing
work and there is essentially no explanation of how this works.In addition, their approach to alterations on dominant seventh chords does not fall so simply into scale categories such as mixolydian, diminished, altered
or lydian b7 scales as the book implies. These players in general have a more global view of sections of tunes and explanations such as contained in this book that map each chord to a different scale miss the point here.
That said, the right hand improvisation methods explained have validity and will explain certain sitiuations that one would find in analyzing right hand improvisation transcriptions.
My main point is that one
wishing to get some basic bebop right hand stuff happening will not find those answers in this book
Nevertheless, this is a must book for every jazz musician.
..
$28.00 plus S&H
CA residents add sales tax
