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By default, here we are discussing live performers, not robots that accurately reproduce the given parameters.

yes, and is it not the reason we are seeing such a variety of personalities?

-Rhodes74

Simon, we have some parallel preferences. I've heard some Ben Webster ballad playing that make me tend to agree. I'll throw in Johnny Hodges. IIRC Duke had a nickname "Rabbit" for Hodges. For me it's that darting phrasing with little starts and stops, like a rabbit or other rodent.

Also, ironically, I was listening to the Nat King Cole After Midnight Sessions just last week.

I'm going to submit Duke Ellington to add to Nahum's Billy Strayhorn. Duke, like Billy, didn't play a lot of extended single line melodies in his improv. He often filled with descending arpeggios and rhythmic punctuating jabs. I figure is was a consequence of playing with a big band where single lines wouldn't cut thru.

And of course, Keith Jarrett. I've often enjoyed listening to Keith's melodic fills at the end of a phrase.

I don’t think rodent is the same either metaphorically or literally.

I have a good chart for this original ballad by Monty Alexander

I have this ballad chart too.

These worthy questions deserve clear answers in the field of pianism and performance. Performance philosophy questions are interesting in themselves, but they are a separate topic.

Old Folks


1. Keith Jarrett's version

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oeuaiuUBBFI


Ernestine Anderson with Monty Alexander - my favorite vocal version ; can't hear it without tears!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-MvAPEwK02I


3.Monty Alexander's version

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OuyHSLFU3ms


1.It also introduces Jarrett's typical concept of intro-theme-improvisation-theme- outro = interlude ; as well as the above mentioned qualities of performance of the theme. Here 100% of the focus is on the melody, including variation; but without any remplissage; while the left hand is correctly accompanying. Every note is functional!
I read somewhere that Jarrett had a period when he worked exclusively on the performance of naked melodies. He even copied a specific vocal performance with all the peculiarities; e.g. Peggy Lee's with George Shearing version of Don't Ever Leave Me in album The Melody At Night, With You .
About improvisation, I can only say that it is based on motivic development (as opposed to variation), which turns the performances of K.J. in one long, continuous (thanks to the brilliant rhythm section) line - from the first to the last note. The division into choruses is abolished. It's like the idea of ​​a long sustain of a single sound, transferred to the concept of playing the whole piece from the very first to the very last note, where pauses, sometimes long ones, are just as functional as the notes.


2.Here Monty Alexander is undoubtedly influenced by both the singer and the version of Jarrett that appeared 2 years earlier. Throw in the Fender Piano with its long sustain, and you have fantastic accompaniment - every vocalist's dream, and a masterpiece of improvisation, especially at the beginning. Unfortunately, further there is a confrontation between dynamic development and the tendency to brilliant remplissage , which is not always logically justified .

I googled it. Reportedly Duke said Hodges looked like a rabbit when he played. I still think of his playing like a rabbit - hopping and darting around, then stopping for a moment or two, then darting around. Duke also reportedly sometimes called Hodges "Jeep".

just taking exception to your equivocation of 'a rabbit' with 'other rodent'

If a band leader called you a rabbit because of your playing, it probably would cause a few raised eyebrows and a grin; calling you a rodent however is not good in any way and finally, rabbits are not rodents.

I stand corrected. I thought I'd read that rabbits were rodents. I was really thinking more of the behavior. I watch squirrels in my front yard thru the window while playing piano. I saw a chipmunk video recently and observed that behavior.

Back to music. I love the stories around Ellington and the human ecosystem he enabled (another potential language dispute ? ). I read someplace long ago that on occasion when Hodges played something exceptionally well or inventively, he would rub his thumb and index finger together, signaling to Duke he deserved a tip. And sometimes Duke would tip him.

The concept of performing a ballad has repeatedly changed in the history of jazz: first it was a blues ballad (St. James Infirmary), then a dancing slow fox, which turned into a slow swing; and only in the late 50s, in the concepts of Bill Evans and Miles, the ballad took shape as what is familiar to us today (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVJ5jgZU6gU).
At the same time, two points should be noted: the solo pianistic style of the ballad proceeded, and still proceeds from Chopin's prelude technique; and also, K. Jarrett pushed ballad performance much further than Bill Evans, changing the traditional 4/4 = 12/8 feeling to 8/8, which changed the sense of swing in the ballad, and required new types of techniques .KJ is a resolutely innovator of jazz pianism, and just during the period of his "Standards" series !

Bill Evans was apparently the first to use in ballads highlighting soprano of LH chords on every beat - unlike Erroll Garner . K. Jarrett developed this transparent rhythmic effect by shifting repetition from soprano to other chords voices.

3.Monty Alexander's concept is different: he tightly fills all the pauses of the theme with passages and remplissages ; not allowing the rhythm section to be an equal partner.
It's pity- sometimes he just doesn't give the melody a chance to breathe.I would put it this way: he has a wonderful motivic thinking, in which passages a la Peterson interfere. He has so many ideas , unlike others , that he should have limited himself.

Thank-you Mr Indigo!

Ballads and rabbits? I don’t know much about that.

Yeah Monty sometimes has more technique than he knows what to do with, he often is guilty of too many notes as is Peterson He is also inconsistent in quality, but that is par for the course with many improvisers and I accept it. But somehow I prefer his musical character. Evans and Jarret could never play “Feelings” like Monty does in the video above. “ Montreux Alexander” is my all time favorite jazz piano trio album. When I’m dying that’s what I want to listen to. Monty has a different sounding soulfulness, more bluesy, more busy, more show-ey, than the other two men. I’d rather listen to Monty than many of the greats (Monk, McCoy, Corea) and that sounds sacrilegious but that’s me. I prefer him to Peterson too, although Peterson is s greater pianist and musician.

That sounds intriguing but I don’t understand what you wrote.

I agree. I wanted to mention McCoy: he runs from long melodic notes, unless it's an octave tremolo. It's clear why - his sound without pedal includes a short sustain.




I fell into a little despair!