This seems to be my time to do trifles—in the sense of short stuff. Here's another one, and once again, I'll leave it up to the judgement of others whether or not it's appropriate for this site. I do notice that there's a section for jazz.

Some of you will be pleased to learn that there wasn't a drop of editing involved with this one. Others will be dismayed to see that I'm still dancing around at the keyboard as much—or more—than ever.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESLjRhugtv8

But I challenge anyone to play the rhythm of this convincingly, without moving around!

What I'm playing is mostly written out in the arrangement by Frank Owens in The Joy of Jazz.

Hi Bruce. I know this piece well and also every piece in that book. One of my teachers when I was young had me playing out of it. There was one piece I remember playing all the time - I had it memorized and really loved it. Can't recall the name of it now - it was towards the end of the book and started with the letter A - Adirondack no, Anaconda eek no.... Oh well, if you find it, please let me know.

As to putting this up on our site - I'm sorry, but I don't really think it's appropriate. We do have a little jazz, but the pieces are either rags, or songs with a more advanced arrangement. We're not looking to host easy jazz pieces for students. But thanks for sharing this and bringing back nice memories of my first jazz piano playing days....

Was it Anthropology maybe?



Nice playing Bruce, You seem to have a natural and relaxed time feeling. Probably most jazz pianists should work on this type of thing. Do you do a lot of metronome practice? Most jazz pianists I know seem to live and breathe the metronome. Yeah I also don't know if pianosociety is the place for this type of thing or not (either way its not for me to say) but I think this is lots of fun.

That's it - thanks, Stan.
I can still remember how to play some of it even though it's been decades. Pieces I've recently memorized are already gone....

@ Monica. No problem—I understand.

@ Stan. Thanks! And you hit the nail on the head about the metronome—I was planning to record the piece with a click track (metronome generated by Pro Tools) in my ear, but after practicing it numerous times with the click track, I found that the tempo got locked into place in my head and body, and I didn't need to use it anymore. I don't think I could have strayed from the tempo if I had tried.

Totally off-topic: My day just got made. I just heard PS's Alfonso Bertazzi for the first time. Wow! What gorgeous, imaginative, expressive playing. (Brahms, Bach, Grieg.)

His instrument sounds nothing like a piano, and after a while, you just don't care. He does so much with it!

Inspires me to do more and play better.

Hi Bruce,

That's a neat little jazz number--sounded very good, and it obviously gave you much pleasure too in performing it. Well played!

David

Thanks, Dave. I was thinking of you when I finished it and how you'd be pleased that I didn't do a speck of editing!

Bruce

Hi Bruce,

I think getting the piece just right left you, well, speechless.

David