The juggling jazz musician“A jazz musician is a juggler who uses harmonies instead of oranges.” – Benny Green, British saxophonist Benny Green (1975) A Reluctant Art: The Growth of Jazz. Books for Libraries Press, p. 16.
A Child is Born in BethlehemTitle: A Child is Born in Bethlehem. Five Christmastide arrangements for piano by Greg Smith Arranger: Greg Smith Instrumentation: Piano Product medium: PDF score Contents: A child is born in Bethlehem (Danish melody) High from the tree's green top (E. Horneman) In a basement black as coal (C. M. Bellman) Lovely is the blue sky […]
The limits of imaginationYou’re travelling to another dimension, a dimension not only of sight and sound… but of mind. A journey into a wondrous land, whose boundaries are only that of the imagination… you’re entering… the Twilight Zone… – Rod Serling, The Twilight Zone
Jan Lisiecki on interpretationMy approach is to sit with the score and make my decisions about what Andante means or what piano means in a certain context; often you go back to recordings and find that nobody’s ever really played it that way. You ask yourself ‘Why is that? Did I misread or misinterpret something? Or is this […]
Copland on the integration of jazz into art musicAmerican composer Aaron Copland discusses the influence of Jazz on his musical style: was a very important influence at one time. I wrote a Piano Concerto in 1927 which was largely based on jazz materials. Jazz, of course, is for us a very typical American musical expression, which we have not so successfully been able […]
Stravinsky and Charlie ParkerThere is a story that Igor Stravinsky went to the New York jazz club Birdland one evening in 1951. Whispers went round that the great composer was in the house. When Charlie Parker came on with his quintet, he didn’t acknowledge Stravinsky in person, but seamlessly quoted The Firebird in his first number, the furiously […]
What is an artist?“What is an artist? An artist is a tortured being who, when he opens his mouth to scream, only beautiful sounds emerge.” (Or something like that.)… Do I believe this at all? It was John Cage who first exposed us to this gorgeous phrase. In 1945? Cage the Romantic? Ned Rorem (2000) Lies: A Diary […]
The King’s EntranceTitle: The King’s Entrance Composer: Greg Smith Instrumentation: Piano duet Level: Piano I – 1 (five finger position) Product medium: PDF score and MP3 accompaniment track (Audio sample of accompaniment track only)
Harmony“You don’t get harmony when everybody sings the same note.” Doug Floyd, editorial editor of The Spokesman Review
