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I've had the good fortune of getting a booking for a regular gig (once a week) at a country club/restaurant.
This gig will require me to perform with a saxophonist as a jazz duo.
I've never done duo work before. All of my jazz experience is in trios and quartets.

I was hoping members who have performed in this aspect could offer some advice on such things as:

choice of repertoire? (Tunes that shine as a duo)

What are some tunes that dont work or are very difficult?

What are easier to prepare tunes?

Your overall happiness or displeasure with duo work?

During your piano solos, do you keep the walking bass, use stride techniques, or play rooted or rootless chords behind your solos?

Really any advice will be appreciated.
Thank you in advance!

lucky you! i hope the piano is good.

playing duo with a saxophone player is a lot like playing solo piano. as you mentioned, you will need to walk basselines, play some stride and mostly spread voicings with the root since there is no bass player.

tune choice is really up to you, real book tunes will work fine.

you're going to love it! it can be very satisfying to play duo.

take a listen to one of my favorite piano duo recordings to get some ideas: kenny barron/stan getz "people time."

let us know how it goes.

JPO is right, any real book tunes should be great. (you could, for your amusement, pick lots of tunes in the keys of E,A and B hehe) Duo is great, as a pianist just be sure to keep the pulse somehow when swinging together(any of the methods you mentioned would be fine)and support yourself when you solo with the same techniques. Try not to let the pulse drop out once you got it going. It is fun to take some of the difficult tunes from the bebop repetoire (Bird tunz, etc. Joy Spring) and play the head together; trading fours or eights is nice and I especially enjoying improvising contrapuntally.

To get a moment's break from playing you could both shout "DRUM SOLO!)

Another great CD is Kids: Live at Dizzy's club. It's a Hank Jones and Joe Lovano duet album, and it one of my favorite CDs. Hank Jones is an absolute master at keeping the pulse going. I don't think he ever walks; he plays some bass notes, and them comps chords in the middle register and goes back and forth. It SWINGS.

Thank you for the replies.

I will listen to all of the Cd's that were recommended.

Unfortunately there is no piano at the club and I have to do the gigs with my trusty CP33.
This scares me a little because there is even less bottom end than when using an acoustic piano.

Never knew about that record, thanks...will have to pick it up. The Thad tune -Little rascal on a rock- is very hard. I use to play Thad's big band arrangement of it years ago. It was the hardest tune in the book to blow over.

Also check out Stan Getz & Kenny Barron. I believe it's called People Time. The solos are long and in many places KB plays a LOTTA notes...but it's good to hear how he supports SG with his comping.

A little known gem of Getz & Albert Dailey-Poetry is definitely worth hearing:
http://www.allmusic.com/album/poetry-mw0000114278

Don't have much to add except playing duo makes your time stronger because you're it, it's all on you. You have to be very definitive with your time-whether it's playing half note chords, dotted quarter note to eight note rhythms, walking the bass. You can experiment with pedal tones too. (I've made a career out of em' ) Yet don't make things too floaty where the time gets obscured.

Just relax and let the time be your guide. My experiences with these type of situations are, aside from the obvious bad piano, they are the hardest when the crowd is super noisy. You can't hear yourself and the sax can't hear you either.

It is almost better to use the DP so at least you can put it at a volume where both of you can hear. It is thinner sounding then even a bad piano of course..but it is what it is. You deal with it.

Like mentioned keep the solos shorter. Don't play the same grooves or tempos too many songs in a row. Mix it up. You can even take some Beatle tunes and re-harm or hip up the changes a bit. Don't go overboard with it to obscure the melody.

I've found if played right, at the right tempo, with short solos- even be bop tunes can be appreciated by Country Club types. Yardbird Suite, Ceora, No Greater Love, Lady Bird, Billies Bounce, Mellow Tone, etc.. And ballads like Child is born. Melodic stuff. Play it pretty and lock into a solid groove on the swingin' stuff.

edit- oops just noticed People Time had been mentioned already by Bill. If I think of any other duo piano/sax records I'll post them.

Thanks Dave for the suggestions.

You mentioned pedal tones. I know what pedal tones are, but I dont know how I would apply them in a jazz context.

Please tell me a little more.
Can you share an example?

Do you use them while soloing? During the head?

Thanks Dave.

Both, whenever one feels.
There are many many places you can use them but in the most basic form imagine a simple turnaround say Fmaj Dm Gmin C7
and then just add a C bass note underneath the whole turnaround, then you will have a dominant pedal.
These can be great device to add some tension or to momentary halt the relentless movement of bass notes.

Hundreds of sax/piano duos listed here …

http://forums.allaboutjazz.com/showthread.php?25750-Saxophone-Piano-Duos-The-Big-List

Houston Person and Bill Charlap ... You Taught My Heart to Sing

Dave, I'm totally with you on this one ... ! A lot of it's on Youtube. Here's Tune Up. Albert Daily's easily one of the great pianist's who's mostly under the radar.

Dave Liebman's always had a great duo with Richie Bierach. Their Round Midnight. Advance Music publishes a book of transcriptions by Bill Dobbins of an entire L/B duo album.

A fabulous duo recording with George Coleman and Richie Bierach.

Fred Hersch and Ralph Alessi - also great!

There's a lot of stuff out there!

Well I just got back from the second jazz duo gig.
It went much better than the first, not only because I now know the material better, but also because there seemed to be a better crowd tonight. They actually listened to us! It was weird because we are just meant to be background music, but it was very nice to play for people who we're listening.
We took everyone on the forums advice to keep pieces short(less soloing), which helped a lot.
The toughest time I had was with transitions. I find it very difficult to switch from accompanying the sax , say with left hand bass and rh chordal comping, to then totally switch gears to play a piano solo. Inevitably I screw up the first bar of the switch. It really blows my mind. Hopefully I will get better at it soon.

Overall, I was very happy with the gig and I am looking forward to the next one.

Thanks everyone for the help.

Hey Kevin,
Congrats on the gig! I'll share my thoughts on 2 of the topics you mentioned:
1. Choice of tunes: I've had the most success over the years by playing a mix of tunes I like, tunes the audience will like, and tunes that both me and the audience likes. Too many jazz musicians perform in a vacuum and don't try to connect with their audience, even in a restaurant. This doesn't mean "selling out" though; if you want to play a ballad, you could play a beautiful tune like "Over The Rainbow", and then the next ballad can be something pretty that you enjoy but maybe the audience doesn't know too well, such as "In A Sentimental Mood." And if you have a mic, you could announce it as "A beautiful song by Duke Ellington." This will draw in some of the audience. Even if they've never heard of Duke Ellington, they like nice songs and will appreciate the fact that you're playing something beautiful and want to share it with them. Every situation is different, but I'll often follow an obscure song with something they'll recognize. Once I was playing "Human Nature" ( a la Miles Davis) on solo piano in Madison Square Garden, just as fans entered on their way to Knicks' games. I was playing it because I liked it and thought some Michael Jackson fans might recognize it. I was surprised when a guy ran up to me, told me I was the "hip" and ran off, saying he was on tour with Quincy Jones. I never found out who he was!!! (My point being that you never know who is listening!)
2. As for your LH accompaniments, I suggest you try them all: stride, walking bass, rootless voicings. You'll get a nice variety of sounds like that and you'll discover what the sax player likes and what gives a nice 'vibe' to the room. Maybe a lively walking bass will work well in the early evening, and a slow. relaxed stride will provide an appropriate atmosphere as the night is winding down.
I hope this helps a little, and enjoy your gig!

Thanks for the tips Ron!

Its funny that you mentioned "Over the Rainbow". We performed it and it was very well recieved. I have never play it (in a jazz setting) before, and I was surprised at how enjoyable it was to solo over its changes. It makes an excellent jazz tune for musicians and listeners alike.

We then followed that with one of my favorites, "Emily" ,which of course no one knew. But I think you are right, the audience excepted it because we had connected with them on "Over the Rainbow".

Your point about "never knowing who is in the audience" is well taken.
One of my teachers would tell me "play well your next gig is in the audience". Meaning the person who wants to hire you for a future gig may be listening to the performance now. I've never forgotten his little motto.

It sounds like you're doing just fine, Kevin. A funny story about Over The Rainbow: I once played background music at a fundraiser with my jazz trio. It was sax, bass, and myself on piano. The sax player, who I had hired for the 1st time, kept suggesting alternatives every time I called a tune. It was driving me crazy, but he'd say "Over the Rainbow" isn't hip to solo on, or he'd want to play bebop heads instead of the standards. Near the end of the night, I called C Jam Blues. When he objected, I explained that I thought a particular group of people there were at an age that they may have heard Ellington on the radio. The sax player looked astonished and said "Oh, you're playing for the AUDIENCE!" Duh! Needless to say, I never hired him again.
Have a great time with your playing!