Time: 36:17
Size: 83.1 MB
Styles: Piano jazz
Year: 2015
Art: Front
[3:44] 1. Donna Lee
[4:41] 2. Just Friends
[3:45] 3. Billie's Bounce
[5:11] 4. Well You Nedn't
[5:25] 5. Jazz Dancing
[4:43] 6. Woody N' You
[3:59] 7. Yardbird Suite
[4:45] 8. Half Nelson
There have been moments in every concert and club date of Don Friedman’s I’ve attended when I found it hard to credit my ears. It’s not just the technical virtuosity. That’s to be expected of performers at his level. Rather, it’s a combination of emotional depth and harmonic complexity that come together with all those notes. For me, they result in the kind of beauty that takes my breath away. Most pianists we hear perform on this afternoon’s Steinway offer us programs of meticulously composed, arduously rehearsed and beautifully played works. The difference today is that Don will be making up all the important stuff as he goes.
The music we call jazz has come a long way since Civil War surplus band instruments began to turn up in the street markets of New Orleans. From marching bands to dance hall frolics; from blues improvisations based on an elemental twelve-bar pattern to more sophisticated versions of popular songs; from jitterbug dance bands to night club acts; from self-taught sufficiency to conservatory trained prodigies, jazz has evolved from what the critic Clement Greenberg once called classical folk art to what musicians throughout the world today endorse as one of the highest fine arts.
Among the greatest challenges to purveyors of this art form is solo performance; that is, without supporting players. Because of the unique melodic, percussive and harmonic potential of their instrument, by far the largest number of solo performers in jazz are pianists. The solo pianist must perform the percussive function of a drummer and the harmonic function of a bass player while at the same time focusing on a melodic line. But solo piano performance has developed at the same pace as jazz itself, from ragtime to stride, from stride to swing, from swing to bebop, from bebop to free form. And with each stylistic transformation, new harmonic possibilities revealed themselves. You will hear echoes of all these styles in Don’s music since they are all incorporated, if only unconsciously. His playing can be voluptuously romantic. But whatever its content, its emotions are palpable.
One of Don’s greatest strengths is his mastery of jazz harmonics. It isn’t necessary to know the technical details. Just feel the waves of exquisite, always understandable sound propelling a piece forward as he develops the inexhaustible harmonic potential of one of his originals – or of a standard, a song we will all recognize when he finally presents it to us, simply and discreetly, as his gift. ~Warren Obluck
The music we call jazz has come a long way since Civil War surplus band instruments began to turn up in the street markets of New Orleans. From marching bands to dance hall frolics; from blues improvisations based on an elemental twelve-bar pattern to more sophisticated versions of popular songs; from jitterbug dance bands to night club acts; from self-taught sufficiency to conservatory trained prodigies, jazz has evolved from what the critic Clement Greenberg once called classical folk art to what musicians throughout the world today endorse as one of the highest fine arts.
Among the greatest challenges to purveyors of this art form is solo performance; that is, without supporting players. Because of the unique melodic, percussive and harmonic potential of their instrument, by far the largest number of solo performers in jazz are pianists. The solo pianist must perform the percussive function of a drummer and the harmonic function of a bass player while at the same time focusing on a melodic line. But solo piano performance has developed at the same pace as jazz itself, from ragtime to stride, from stride to swing, from swing to bebop, from bebop to free form. And with each stylistic transformation, new harmonic possibilities revealed themselves. You will hear echoes of all these styles in Don’s music since they are all incorporated, if only unconsciously. His playing can be voluptuously romantic. But whatever its content, its emotions are palpable.
One of Don’s greatest strengths is his mastery of jazz harmonics. It isn’t necessary to know the technical details. Just feel the waves of exquisite, always understandable sound propelling a piece forward as he develops the inexhaustible harmonic potential of one of his originals – or of a standard, a song we will all recognize when he finally presents it to us, simply and discreetly, as his gift. ~Warren Obluck
Jazz Dancing
please re-up. Thank you in advance
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