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Dimitrije Vasiljevic
STATEMENT OF PURPOSE
playing. Throughout its the history of jazz, jazz musicians have been
idiom. While most of these stylistic changes have been clearly visible
in the piano playing styles of great jazz masters, some of them have
thus creating a two-part counterpoint. Later, Bill Evans and Keith Jarrett
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many ideas from 18th and 19th century counterpoint and have created a
representatives among them are Fred Hersch, Brad Mehldau and Kenny
large.
PROJECT BACKGROUND
and changing over time. During the New Orleans Jazz period, which
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began in the early 1910s and lasted roughly two decades, prominent
pianists such as Jelly Roll Morton, James P. Johnson, Willie The Lion
which was based on the bass-chord left hand concept. Virtuosic runs
in the right hand and Harlem Stride in the left hand posed a textbook
between the melody and the accompaniment. In the 1930s and 1940s,
the bass part of their left hand accompaniment style. Instead, they
which provided a harmonic basis for their melodic passages in the right
hand. The texture of this jazz piano playing style remained homophonic
and it wasnt until the appearance of jazz pianist Lennie Tristano on the
scene, that the polyphonic jazz piano texture was introduced. His
turning point in terms of texture in jazz piano playing, for the majority
of songs in this album were polyphonic walking bass in the left, and
counterpoint of second and third types (2:1 and 3:1) is the foundation
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number of other pianists, both his contemporaries and the ones those
that came after him. They contributed in their own ways to the newly
Evans, Ketih Jarrett, Dave McKenna, and in more recently times, Fred
exclusively using the walking bass lines in his left hand like Tristano,
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the more linear approach of Tristano and McKenna. They have done so
by making the inner voices pitches of a chord voicing more active, both
Fred Hersch and Brad Mehldau have perfected the use of counterpoint
Tristano who had based his contrapuntal style around two-voice texture
and fugues.
RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
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and Fred Herschs arrangement of You Aand the Night Aand the
(Kln Concert), Bill Evans (The Solo Sessions Vol. 1 & 2), Esbjorn
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- According to the jazz history books and recordings, who are some
METHODOLOGY
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setting.
- For the exercises development and practicing, I will refer to Jean-
Olmsteads Solo Jazz Piano: The Linear Approach and will build
playing styles.
LITERATURE REVIEW
will show that the contrapuntal approach to jazz piano was first
introduced around the late 1950s and the early 1960s, almost
style of J.S. Bach and labeling him as a pioneer of a new and original
jazz piano sound. The same book follows the historical evolution of
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Tristano founded evolved, mainly within the styles of Bill Evans and
Keith Jarrett. However, Gridley does not cover the work of the more
recent jazz pianists such as Fred Hersch, Brad Mehldau, and Kenny
around several method books on jazz piano playing. Jeff Gardners Jazz
structures into lines and then voice leading these lines independently
and practice melodic improvisation played over a walking bass line, the
jazz pianists of todays jazz scene, in his Its About Music: The Art and
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one part and singing another part, and then gradually adding
additional parts.
important to jazz music. Also, in what way has it impacted not only the
jazz, then, in what ways has jazz changed its influence on the modern
culture? Has this silent revolution in jazz piano playing really been able
to inspire the avalanche of changes in the jazz music itself, the one
that ultimately led to how some artists and scholars tend to perceive
rather than just a music style limited by its own boundaries which are
gradually evolved from dancing music to the form of art. Jazz/Not Jazz,
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The Music and Its Boundaries edited by Ake, Garret and Goldmark,
who adopted jazz and adjusted it to their own needs and traditions. It
explores the idea of jazz today being a musical style that is on the
constant move and that varies in shape and definition, while being torn
between jazz purists and jazz innovators, both of which who keep
definitive entity.
as well as jazz audiences have been shaping over the course of the last
identify jazz in the society that seems to be less and less adequate for
it. Jazz piano counterpoint and the reasons for its emergence at a
certain place and time on the jazz history timeline, could be analyzed
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jazz is now! edited by Heble, Ajay, and Wallace. The book also explores
lives and belief systems, but its main connection to the topic of jazz
techniques in the process. This analysis will provide a fertile ground for
pianist/musician nowadays.
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distinctive and fairly popular aspect of jazz music today, has not been
Brad Mehldau, Fred Hersch, Kenny Werner, Taylor Eigsti or Craig Tabor
technique and the style for itself. Used both in a solo piano and a band
personal feeling and taste. His book is fully textual and does not
piano pieces that use counterpoint, performed in both, solo piano and
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influential jazz pianists currently active on the scene, and they will
aspects are the ones that build on the Tristanos and McKennas
contemporary jazz pianists like Hersch, Mehldau and Werner have not
appearing mostly in the form of melody over the walking bass,, all
the way to the present day when it has become a fully developed jazz
piano concept.
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a larger scale in jazz music and its meaning on todays scene. And I
will try to prove that counterpoint in jazz piano playing has been and
METHODOLOGY
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setting.
- For the exercises development and practicing, I will refer to Jean-
Michel Pilcs Its About Music: The Art And Heart of Improvisation,
exercises.
- Three interviews will be conducted through the e-mail.
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playing styles.
CHAPTER OUTLINE
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
INTRODUCTION
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CONCLUSION
Appendix A: Interviews
Appendix B: Discography of contrapuntal jazz piano recordings
TIMELINE
SUMMER 2016:
FALL 2016:
SPRING 2017:
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Since there has not much been written about counterpoint in jazz
notated excerpts taken from the jazz piano repertory and by using the
with the method for practicing this technique. Additionally, a new light
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Ake, David, Charles Hiroshi Garrett and Daniel Goldmark, eds. Jazz/Not
Jazz: The Music and Its Boundaries. Berkeley: University of
California Press, 2012
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Gioia, Ted. The Imperfect Art: Reflections On Jazz and Modern Culture.
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988.
Gridley, Mark C. Jazz Styles: History & Analysis, 9th ed. Upper Saddle
River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2006.
Heble, Ajay and Rob Wallace, eds. People Get Ready: the future of jazz
is now! Durham: Duke University Press, 2013.
Hersch, Fred. Floating. With John Hebert and Eric McPherson. 2014
by MRI. B00K6D1OJ2. Compact Disc.
Levine, Mark. The Jazz Piano Book. Petaluma, CA: Sher Music Co., 1989.
Olmstead, Neil. Solo Jazz Piano: The Linear Approach. Boston: Berklee
Press, 2003.
Pilc, Jean-Michel. Its About Music: The Art and Heart of Improvisation.
Montrose, CA: Glen Lyon Books, 2012
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http://www.polishookstudio.com/2014/07/bach-inventions-and-
counterpoint-in-jazz.html
Santisi, Ray. Berklee Jazz Piano. Boston, MA: Berklee College, 1996.
Stevens, Jan. The Hal Galper Interview. The Bill Evans Webpages,
April 2002, accessed April26, 2016.
http://www.billevanswebpages.com/galperintview.html
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