Hey Kristeta,
Good to see you back. Thanks for sharing your version of āGeorgiaāāsounds great! Youāve made a lot of progress since you first shared your playing some time ago.
1 Like
Hi Greg. I just returned after some months offline attending to other things. I loved your āwithout a songā. It was brilliant! And the āAscension.ā You have a fluent and lyrical style of improvisation that is a pleasure to listen to. And your comments and contributions are always so helpful. Great playing!
3 Likes
@George_Miller, great to hear from you and glad youāre back online!
Look forward to hearing (and seeing!) some of your musical contributions. Check out the community challenge; Iām trying to figure out how to come up with a novel approach to Misty (itās hard).
3 Likes
Nice playing Kristeta. I enjoyed your āGeorgiaā. Youāve developed a nice fluency to your playing. People sometimes forget that the piano is also a rhythm instrument and you paid a lot of attention to the rhythmic aspect of the piece. It flowed very nicely because of that.
1 Like
Hi @John_A Thanks very much! Glad you enjoyed it. Yes I really like the embellishments too. All credits to Haydenās beautiful arrangement 
and up to this day, I am working on how to achieve the āfeelsā in the piece 
Hope you are well. Cheers!
btw @John_A - I just listened to your version of Autumn Leaves - another of my favourites! Yay. I was all smiles - Great touch btw! You played it so well. ! What was the piano you used when playing this song? I love the sound of your piano. 
Hello @scott1 Thank you, Means a lot! I always found myself staring at this piece the whole year haha wondering when I would be able to at least play it in full - and finally somehow, getting there - am still listening to various versions so I can slowly work on the improv or my additions to itā¦ Thank you again and hope you are well.
Hey how are you @George_Miller Thank you! Itās very interesting you mentioned that,ā¦ It is a great reminder. Honestly I probably was first hooked into the melodies, yet during the time I was learning it - you were right - I somehow focused on the various rhythms that went with the melodies ā¦ which btw did not fail to get my fingers tangled up (several times and still do) especially on the embellishments whew! I was probably practicing each embellishment way more than a 100x It was worth it . Hope you and your family are well. Regards.
@George_Miller *btw Your video for When I fall in love - was so āemotiveā. Fully enjoyed it. Also one of my favourite pieces to play. Your fills and transitions I like how you fill the spaces / in betweens, then - the ending blew me away. Will definitely take me - - years to play like that haha. Tastefully played!
2 Likes
hi Paul. ā¦ very sorry to hear about the surgery. Wow itās great to hear you are slowly playing again, 
Take care . Hope you keep us posted. Praying for your full recovery. Regards.
Wow @gregb - these are really fun to listen to. I am in awe of your beautiful improvisations. That was SO good!!!
1 Like
Hello Piano Groovers!
I wanted to share an arrangement Iāve been working on for the song Some Other Time from the musical On The Town, made popular in the jazz community by the great Bill Evans.
The arrangement itself took inspiration from Bills versions of the song (partly due because the lead sheet from the Fake Book is also based on his versions). l, however omitted his intro and decided to go with the first verse of the original score as I thought was much more interesting to play over. I also took inspiration from some of the solo piano arrangements created by @Tuomo in the advanced lesson module of the same name but also did a lot of experimentation with voicings and went with my gut with what I believe sounded good and not necessarily use only voicings Iāve learned in theory.
Although initially I was at a block as to to how I would even begin to approach the tune, I garnered a lot of confidence after working on it for a few months and I could say that Iām pretty content with how this turned out considering Itās the first song I arrange that hasnāt been covered here in PG (at least as far as I know).
Feedback is welcome and I appreciate everything Iāve learned from @Hayden, @Tuomo, @Jovino and the rest of the PG teachers and members as well. Thanks again and Happy Holidays!
1 Like
Nice interpretation, Jose! I would suggest expanding the time even more, because this is a very introspective, melancholic tune. You can even add some more sustain pedal to glue the phrases together.
Thanks for sharing. Happy holidays!
Jovino
1 Like
Thank you @Jovino. Your lesson on being non redundant with voicings played a huge factor on how I arranged this tune. I still need to work on efficiently using the pedal without sounding too muddy, especially on those Barry Harris voicings 
Thanks again!
That was terrific, @jose2!
Itās one of my favorite Bill Evans tunes, and I think you did a great job coming up with some Evanesque voicings. I also liked the section midway through where you switched into a slow but steady ballad rhythm using the Peace piece style of comping.
Happy holidays!
1 Like
Thanks for the feedback @gregb! Funny enough, the Peace Piece-ish part was a last minute addition I added since I was watching @Hayden Cocktail improv video on stride and thought I could apply it somewhere in this arrangement Happy Holidays as well!
Sounding great! I really like the verse, your voicings, as well as the overall mood. Have you given any thought on improvising over the changes? Or you can also take the first chords of the A section and do improv over that.
-Tuomo
1 Like
Thanks @Tuomo ! I sure have. However, I do admit I have trouble trying to improvise on tunes with this sort of mood but I can definitely work on it and post an updated recording. It will take me a few months though lol. Thanks again!
Hey PGers, I would appreciate any advice/feedback you might have on an āaudition/placementā recording I made for the Stanford Jazz Workshop this summer. They provided a backing track and leadsheet for Cedar Waltonās āFantasy in Dā. Iāve sort of reached the point of diminishing returns but if your feedback suggests I need to spend more time in the shed I will do so!
Thanks,
Greg
2 Likes
Excellent job greg! Really complemented that backing track super well!
1 Like
Sounding awesome @gregb and Iām sure soloing in the key of D Major has its challenges!
Your improv sounds great and works nicely with the backing track as Jose mentioned.
Thanks for sharing and good luck with the workshop!
1 Like
Great job as always !! 
only on the improvisation I feel and hear your stress, less move of dynamics and to my taste a bit too āscalarā sounding , maybe a good idea to play more around some triads to avoid this, and to give you more freedom, so we find again your own great style and sound ā¦only says that because we know your talent as pianist player Your all prestation is great and cool, and so much above my playing capacity
thanks for sharing
ps Standford jazzworkshop for adults , is selective because limited place i imagine. good luck Greg but im pretty sure you will be choosen.
ps2 i finally come back to music and find a quartet with a singer . My first quartet with myself as pianist . so i hope soon sharing some of our stuff too ā¦pretty exciting
1 Like
@jose2 @Hayden @Pierrot
Thanks so much, Pierre, Hayden, and Jose! Very much appreciated, especially the constructive criticism from Pierre (we need more of that). Pierre Iāll look forward to hearing your quartetāIām jealous, because where I live itās hard to find people to play with.
P.S. The Stanford workshop canāt be too selective because they accepted me earlier today. Hayden and Tuomo deserve all the credit!
2 Likes