History of Jazz Piano

The piano keyboard offers unlimited tonal possibilities for jazz players.

Nearly a century old, jazz piano is firmly interwoven into America's musical fabric. Unlike many musical genres, however, jazz piano styles defy easy categorization. Through restless exploration, players such as Thelonious Monk have shown a remarkable ability to reinvent themselves, even in the face of public indifference. As the transition from big band, to bebop, cool and free jazz styles demonstrate, the business of what constitutes an acceptable jazz piano performance is far from settled.

History

Popularized by composers such as Scott Joplin, ragtime--which emerged during the 1890s--is seen as the birth of jazz piano. By accenting the second and fourth beats of a musical passage, instead of the first and third, ragtime pianists such as Joplin turned the approach of classical music inside out. Viewed as a lower form of entertainment, ragtime's danceable rhythm assured it of exponential popularity until the World War I era, when a looser, less rigid approach began to prevail.

Significance

Regarded as the first true jazz piano composer, "Jelly Roll" Morton is credited with freeing ragtime of its major limitation--lack of room for improvisation. Keeping the syncopation, Morton introduced a more laid-back style that opened virtually limitless variations on the main melody. Successors such as Earl Hines and James Johnson, active during the 1920s and 1930s, characterized the "stride" school, whose blues-tinged approach injected greater rhythmic urgency to the music.

Jazz Hands of Fury

Arriving in New York in 1932, Art Tatum pushed jazz piano into a more complex, polyphonic approach that scholars credit with dramatically raising the bar for improvisation. Built around uncommon virtuosity and dizzying speeds that reached up to 400 beats per minute, Tatum's style frequently proved far too complex to perform with a band. As the decade progressed, however, composers such as Duke Ellington tamped down this approach by writing pieces that demanded a similar degree of discipline, with less emphasis on rhythmic gymnastics.

Effects

Following World War II, the bebop revolution--featuring angular, denser musical passages that used the entire keyboard--came into vogue. Thelonious Monk and Bud Powell epitomized this school, whose emphasis on smaller, four- and five-piece bands, marked another break from the big band past. Players such as Bill Evans and Lenny Tristiano countered with a controlled style over their bebop counterparts' more freewheeling approach.

Considerations

Harmonic approaches grew more complex in the post-WWII jazz era.

Breaking with the past became a preoccupation of free-jazz pianists such as Cecil Taylor, who emphasized complex, atonal passages that abandoned recognizable chords and melodies. The 1960s and 1970s saw trumpeter Miles Davis lead the so-called "fusion" school, whose blending of jazz and rock proved controversial--yet attracted sidemen such as Chick Corea and Herbie Hancock, whose subsequent music would embrace pop, funk and even hip-hop. Hancock's 1983 smash "Rockit"--built around turntable techniques such as "scratching"--served notice of its writer's determination to push the envelope of musical acceptability.

References

• History Of Jazz Music
• History Of Jazz Piano

Resources

• How To Play Piano: Free Tutorial
• Jazz Music Makers
• Learn Jazz Piano