Miles Davis / jazz pianists

I am not really going to discuss the evolution of the music after the era of Bebop. But if there is one figure who links the ensuing styles together then that would be the trumpet player Miles Davis. Miles was involved in Bebop and then, following that, Cool Jazz, Hard Bop, Orchestral Jazz, Modal Jazz, Jazz-Rock, Fusion and Disco, not that everybody agrees on these labels. In this course we are mostly going to be concerned with, what is known in the United Kingdom at least, as “modern” jazz and that’s jazz that dates from the 1950s and 1960s, although it underpins much of the developments in jazz today.

We are going to be concerned with jazz piano, but I urge you to listen to other great jazz instrumentalists for inspiration. But if you are new to the music and you want some advice as to who to listen to then the easiest advice I can give you is to listen to the jazz pianists Bill Evans and then Keith Jarrett – at least Keith Jarrett playing standards with his trio.

There are many other jazz pianists I could recommend.

To mention a few: in this country John Taylor, on the continent Michel Petrucciani. I have already mentioned the American jazz pianists Theolonius Monk and Bud Powell. I’d add to that early McCoy Tyner, Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock … the list of American jazz pianists goes on and on.