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Nice Ben, baroque I assume...great control and timing...

Awesome! That is the beauty of recording. No one can ever take that away from you. Even if you don't remember a note of it next week, you nailed it forevermore in digital eternity. Great job.

Ben,

Wow! You are getting just scary-good these days. Very, very, nice...especially with only a few takes. Boy, do I envy the level of relaxed control you seem to have developed. Good work.

I haven't contributed to one of these for a long time but I got home early, thought - let's turn on the Zoom and see if I can knock "The Christmas Song." And it's not too bad - I mostly play classical these days so improvising around the chords and melody isn't what I'm usually doing. But it still seems to work OK ...

The Christmas Song

Ben, that's a wonderful performance on the Handel sonatina. Simply superb.

Andy Platt, you do a grat job with The Christmas Song. I like your arrangement a great deal.

Nice job keeping the solo rhythm on this tough song! That is always that hardest part when you flip into pop/jazz solo mode - all of a sudden you are on your own there. It sounded very nice.
Are you going to cross-post this?

This is fabulous piece, Ben. Excellent control, balance, rhythm you have with this. You're doing extremely well and I think I mentioned this in the recital previously as well. Great piece, thanks for sharing.

Good to see you out to the Bar again, Andy and hope more often now. This is really nicely done and really sets the correct mood for me. I love nice changes and this has it. The trouble for me has been I have never found enough interesting stuff in the Christmas line to bother to work on. But, perhaps have not dug deep enough. This one is a good idea for me now. Thanks.

I haven't heard many John Denver songs performed here in the Piano Bar but I thought I'd give this one a go. I've done this before on guitar but kind of like the way the accompaniment sounds on piano.

Annie's Song

Good idea ... I actually meant to post it in the Holiday Bar anyway and just didn't look carefully!

Mark... - I dunno - sounded pretty good to me. When this first started I thought it was the piece by Blood Sweat and Tears that I can never remember the name of (an instrumental) but then it took off in a different direction.

An interesting and introspective piece. I can see why you like it. Your piano has a nice full tone. Are you liking it any better?

BenPiano - I'll admit to not knowing much about Classical music but I would have bet that was Bach - I was surprised to see it was a Handel piece. A precise and crisp performance. You made this look easy.

Here's a performance from last night with a vocalist. This is my band (6 piece) and of course I'm on piano.

Look of Love (Burt Bacarach)
https://www.box.com/s/hsnz6z1jbqyz5k19eg2r

Mark - v relaxing. Not sure why you called it a ‘fun’ piece though.
Ben - Wow. Impressive. I couldn’t come near that LH RH independence
Bill – I think you said once before that looking back some songs seem better … Annie’s Song is one of those. Nice work, as always.
Greener - Good work. There’s something very familiar about the recurring passage which first appears at 0:50-60 seconds (reminds me of a Whitney Houston or someone similar)
KenJazz – Haven’t listened to them all yet.
Andy - classic piece.

BillM- Annie's song - your vocal comping is getting so good it is incredible. I like this version much better than John Denver.

Jazzwee - I was expecting to hear a super slow bossa groove on Look of Love, but this was an excellent treatment. Bacharach is an under-appreciated gift to jazz players. I like the staccato accents in the comp that you and the rhythm section put in. It kept the whole mix interesting. Very nice solo on your part. You must play with that drummer a lot. He (she?) had a lot of empathy for your playing even with what you were doing on the solo. Well, this is another one that has to go on the learn-it list.

Jazzwee - what a cool arrangement and fine, tight sound your band has. Surely someone in your band has a video camera - I'd love to see you and your band in action and think the commute from Maryland might be a bit much.

Bill, nice job on Annie's Song. This is one of the few John Denver tunes I enjoy hearing. Your version is excellent.

Jazzwee, your band does this one with style. The singer ain't too shabby, either.

Ken, Bill and Dennis -- Appreciate your comments!

Ken -- yes, it's my drummer for 2 years now. You're picking up on something important. As you get more into jazz, then the "conversation" between the instruments become very key. We pick up signals from each other. The fact that you noticed speaks nicely of your progress. Anyway, this uptempo and spirited version of Look of Love is really unique sounding I think. We take some old tunes and with a little refashioning of the groove, it sounds different. You may have heard some were we play standards with a funk backbeat.

Bill - there are "poor" videos (snippets). When I found that's a little better, then I can pass it along. Thanks again! BTW - I've been contacted by other ABF'ers who've wanted to catch a gig. Well, the answer is that I have a gig every week and sometimes many times/week so if anyone pops up in West Los Angeles, please come by and visit.

Dennis - so nice of you. Yes the band is getting a little better each time. I'm happy to hear a perceived improvement in quality since it translates to more gigs!

Sorry, I'm a little late in listening to the other tunes. I'll catch up. Just clearing my plate of gigs.

Mark - Sounds awesome! Beautiful piano sound and playing. Is that some sort of Jazz kind of piece? Really nice harmonies at the end there. Jazzy voicings.

Greener - Very pretty tune and nice transition in rhythm there. Really solid performance. Great job.

Kenjazz - Sampled Christmas time is here. I thought of playing this on a gig this week. I don't know it but maybe will have to learn it on the spot. Your rendition is beautiful with such a realistic backing tracks. Are those BIAB Real instruments? Sounds really authentic. Nice treat on the solo. Beautiful.

BenPiano - That was impressive! The evenness of the notes and touch and tone was wonderful. The piano tone coming out is really good. I like your developing touch here. Great work.

Andy Platt - One of my most favorite Christmas songs. Wonderful sound and really good improvising around the chords, particularly not an easy tune to play.

BillM - Such a treat to listen to you. A great sounding accompanist even if not playing for yourself which is more difficult. Your arrangements are wonderful. Beautiful singing and such a nice piano touch. There's something muddy on the low end though (pedal). Really pronounced on headphones.

My second time to post something not related but I've been getting back into singing again.

Thanks Jazzwee! These are all BIAB Real instruments except for the bell tree. The bell tree is a wave file from goldwave.com that I got off the internet. I think bought it from iTunes. I don't remember anymore.