Makholm - Jazz tonic for piano

Jazz tonic by Joseph Makholm for piano (with accompanying CD)

CD included in the first volume, involving the registration of three volumes

Book 1 :

Fourteen pieces, with CD

Grade : easy (3) - intermediate (4)

Titles :

• Stridin"n' Glidin'
• Out west
• Low road
• I'm cool, you're cool
• Banlieue boogie
• Au revoir
• Blue sphere
• Tant mieux !
• Not today
• Chanson des Iles
• Planète bleue
• Jeu des quartes
• Zebop

The modern jazz pianist - the professional - is a versatile musician. He knows and can improvise variations on dozens, or hundreds, of tunes, and he's familiar with a wide range of styles, classical music included.

The beginning jazz pianist - still a few years away from improvising on his own - has to be versatile as well, and this collection of 14 pieces includes many of the styles that make up the jazz piano repertoire at the beginnig of the 21st century - swing tunes and ballads, "latin" music and the blues, modal tunes, boogie, etc.

There is no improvisation, but each of the pieces contains melodic, harmonic and rhythmic elements - technical elements as well - that are part of the style of modern jazz piano. So as you work through this music you're preparing yourself to learn to improvise sometime in the future.

Listen to the recording, and listen to other jazz recordings. The more you listen, the better you'll understand what swing is and know to play it.

Above all, have fun with this music.

Book 2 :

Twelve pieces, without CD

Grade : intermediate (4-6)

Titles :

• Couleur foncées
• Not too fast, not too slow
• Valse asymétrique
• Old man in an old hat
• D-minor samba
• Mixolysme
• Blue tuesday
• Discours d'un trombone
• Remembering
• Los compadres
• Juste avant l'entracte
• Chain gang

Here in volume II, as in volume I, you'll find pieces representing many of the styles that make up the modern jazz piano repertoire - the jazz waltz, the samba, the "standard", the modal tune, and the blues.

The music is more demanding than the music of volume I, as you's expect. The pieces are composed in such a way as to allow you to feel the keyboard like a professional jazz pianist. A few of the pieces give you the choice between variants that are simpler or more complicated harmonically and technically, and several can be played with or without pedal.

Listen to the recording of these pieces that you can find with volume I, and listen to any other jazz recordings. The more you listen, the more you'll know the real meaning of swing.

CD included in the first volume, involving the registration of three volumes

Book 3 :

Ten pieces without CD

Grade : difficult (7-8)

Titles :

• Watch your step !
• Horizons lointains
• Jackhammer boogie
• Rive gauche
• Noches calientes
• Rondo azzurro
• Passing glances
• The count
• Turquoise
• Anatole et moi

The music in volume III demonstrates many of the styles and techniques that are part of modern solo jazz piano - bebop and the "stride" left hand, the jazz waltz and the walking bass line, salsa and open voicings - and evokes contributions to the jazz piano literature of masters such as Count Basie, Bud Powell, Dave Brubeck, Bobby Timmons, Bill Evans and Kenny Barron.

All of this is very easy to hear on the recording available with volume 1. In fact, swing is something that is much easier to understand by listening and imitating than by reading a wordy description. Whenever you listen to jazz, in concert or on recording, you reinforce and confirm your own understanding of swing. Itwill be easier to play the pieces in this volume, as well as any of the music in your future as a jazz - or jazz-inspired - musician.