#jazz songs on piano

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

The Broken Piano In 1975 by Marti Leimbach

My favourite piece of music is Keith Jarrett’s Köln Concert, an hour-long piece improvised, as all of Jarrett’s concerts are, on a solo piano in front of a live audience. You know the story, right?

For the concert, he’d requested a particular piano, a Bösendorfer. The Bösendorfer originated in Vienna early in the nineteenth century. It is said to be the first concert piano able to stand up to the playing technique of the young virtuoso, Franz Liszt, whose tough, unforgiving treatment of the pianos he played destroyed them in short order. Perhaps the Bösendorfer’s durability was the reason Jarrett requested one for the concert. The 29-year old jazz musician was known for his eccentric stagecraft, his improvisations played with enormous athleticism and physicality. It’s fair to say he is tough on an instrument, that he plays unconventionally, even wildly, racing over the keys, standing up, sitting, leaning, panting, moaning. His performances move him—and anyone listening—through the disorder and miracle of creative endeavour.

Watching him is watching genius itself, that raw work that is cleaned up only by its imitators.

In short, he needs a good piano.

January 24, 1975. Jarrett arrives to the venue the afternoon of the concert, He is presented with his Bösendorfer. He stands with Manfred Eicher, the man who will one day found ECM Records and who arranged Jarrett’s sell-out concert tour. The piano he has been given for the concert is a Bösendorfer, all right, but it is puny, ancient, totally unsuitable.

Jarrett taps a few keys and finds it is not only the wrong size, incapable of producing enough volume for a concert performance, but also completely out of tune. The black keys don’t all work. The high notes are tinny; the bass notes barely sound and the pedals stick.

Eicher tells the organizer, a teenaged girl named Vera Brandes, that the piano is unsuitable. Either they get a new piano for Jarrett, or there will be no concert.

In a panic, the girl does everything she can to get another piano, but she can’t find one in time. She manages to convince a local piano tuner to attend to the Bösendorfer, but there isn’t much they can do about the overall condition of the instrument.

In the end, Jarrett agrees to play. Not because the piano was fixed up to the extent that he felt comfortable performing, but because he took pity on poor, young Vera Brandes, just seventeen years old and not able to shoulder so great a failure as losing the only performer on a sold-out night.

So he performs on the dreadful instrument. He does what he has to do, not because he thinks it will be good, but because he feels he has no choice.

Tim Harford [described it best], “The substandard instrument forced Jarrett away from the tinny high notes and into the middle register. His left hand produced rumbling, repetitive bass riffs as a way of conveying up the piano’s lack of resonance. Both of these elements gave the performance an almost trance-like quality.”

Jarrett overcame the lack of volume by standing up and playing the piano very hard. He stood, sat, moaned, writhed, and pounded the piano keys. You can hear him on the recording, the agony of the music, his effort at creating any sound at all. He sweated out what must have been an excruciating hour, and he triumphed. The Köln Concert has sold 3.5 million copies and is perhaps the most beautiful, transformative piece of music I’ve ever heard. It makes me cry to hear it, especially if I recall the courage it took for him to perform in front of a live audience on an unplayable piano with that desperate girl in the wings, wringing her hands, hoping beyond hope that he didn’t rise from the stool and walk out.

Hoping nobody noticed her great failure to produce the right piano for this most important occasion. [...]

Keith Jarett later said, "What happened with this piano was that I was forced to play in what was — at the time — a new way. Somehow I felt I had to bring out whatever qualities this instrument had. And that was it. My sense was, ‘I have to do this. I’m doing it. I don’t care what the piano sounds like. I’m doing it.’ And I did.”

[mishalikessoundsandcolours]

For some reason this song title reminds me of The Man Who Fell To Earth in a way

Like partially it's because of the word 'subterranean' since Bowie's track Subterraneans from Low was initially written when he tried to do the soundtrack for tmwfte and other than that it's just the feeling of the song ig? I know it's not what it's really about, that was just my first association, it is really beautiful though (me and my piano teacher went on a tangent about Radiohead today so that's what I've been listening to all evening lol)

[the-cheese-man]

So I was playing the piano and just doing some improv jazz and I ended up playing kiras theme. Nice. My ass is gonna get exploded one of these days.

[ask-emma-the-cat]

Disney Pixar's Soul Soundtrack 2021 | Disney Soundtrack | Solo Piano Smo...

[wanderingwithstars]

“Hide and Seek” now on Spotify.

For the whimsical lovers.

[astronomicalthingz]

Song of the day:

Take Five - The Dave Brubeck Quartet

(From the 1959 Single, "Time Out")

Today feels like a Jazzy day.

The song is known for its distinctive two-chord piano/bass vamp (E♭m-B♭m7), saxophone melodies, drum solo, and unorthodox meter, from which Dave Brubeck derived its name.

Rhythmically, the five beats to the bar are split unevenly into 3 + 2 quarter notes; that is, the main accents (and chord changes) are on the first and fourth beats.

Released as a promotional single in September 1959, "Take Five" became a sleeper hit in 1961, and then went on to become the biggest-selling jazz single of all time. The track still receives significant radio airplay.

Dave Brubeck – piano Paul Desmond – alto saxophone Gene Wright – upright bass Joe Morello – drums

Here are the different sections of the recording:

[pearls-place]

Lucy and Margaret by Pearl!

[angelsdean]

my sister and i went to see billie eilish at MSG last night and we had fun but. we quite literally only went for the opener (i only know billie's popular songs) jdkfgkfg they're my sister's fav artist and she dropped [undisclosed amount of money] so we could be in the pit and it was very worth it but it's also wild that at the start of this year we paid $25 tickets to see them play in a tiny-ass bar in brooklyn standing literally feet from them. anyways, always always give your energy to the openers!

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Oscar Peterson - Hymn To Freedom

[azinamuse]

Persona fans give me a boost, maybe?~ Music fans, too? 🥺

[pianistbynight]

🎶 my day in music 🎶

morning/afternoon:

- waltz for debby, bill evans - autumn leaves album, bill evans - high energy jazz playlist - it's christmas eve and i'm all alone in the library (a dark academia playlist) - winter night jazz playlist - davidsbündlertänze, op. 6 no. 18, robert schumann

evening:

- widmung (dedication), schumann-liszt - nocturne op. 55 no. 2 in e flat major, chopin - étude op. 10 no. 11, chopin - salut d'amour (op. 12), edward elgar - rondo in d major, k. 485, mozart - humoresques (op. 101), poco lento e grazioso, dvořák

[naturemelody15]

Rainy Day Vibes: Relaxing Music for Mind and Body #youtube

[easypianosheetmusic]

(通过 'Kimi no Na wa ' by (君の名は) - piano sheet music | PiaNoProblem)