Early Jazz Piano
In the early years of Jazz (from around the 1900’s), until the the Swing Era (about 1945), the piano was still firmly rooted in the rhythm section of the band. This meant it had two primary roles:
- Play the chords
- Keep the beat going
So generally, the pianist played very rhythmically and simply helped keep the beat.
- The pianist’s left hand generally just kept the rhythm going by playing chords or notes on the beat;
- While his right hand built rhythmic patterns around chords and chord tones, and especially guide tones – often just playing arpeggios or simple licks built around the chord progression.
Some techniques are listed in the table below.
Modern Jazz Piano
During the Swing Era, Jazz was generally played by Big Bands which had a full rhythm section consisting of drums, bass, guitar and piano. So eventually, pianists realised that if the drummer is keeping the beat, and the bass is playing a walking bass-line (thus covering the bottom part of the register and also playing on the beat), then there’s no need for the piano to duplicate the effort.
So around the 1940’s, pianists developed the technique of ‘comping. This technique moved away from playing four-to-the-bar rhythmic patterns (as found in Early Jazz) and instead required to pianist to vary his rhythm and occasionally punctuate or stab each chord, often in between the phrases in his right hand. This technique was pioneered by the pianist Earl Hines, who is considered the Father of Modern Jazz Piano, but it was also used by Big Band leaders like Count Basie.
Early Jazz vs Modern Jazz Piano Techniques
| Early Jazz Piano | Modern Jazz Piano |
|---|---|
| Left Hand = steady on-the-beat rhythm (Pumping) - Stride - Tenths & Tenth - Walking basslines - Walking 10ths - Three handed effect - Strumming - Rolling Bass - Broken Tenths - Ostinato (Boogie-woogie) | Left Hand = punctuates chords (‘Comping) |
| Right Hand = Chordal (Chords, Arpeggio) - Rhythmic chord based patterns - Embellished arpeggios - Embellished melody - Simple riffs - Outlining chord progression | Right Hand = individual linear lines (Horn-like) - Single melody lines |
| Voicings = ‘standard’ chords - Triads - 7th chords (often preferring Maj6 to Maj7) - Some extensions - Shell chords | Voicings = 'modern' voicings - Rootless chord voicings - Quartal chord voicings - Upper Structures - More dissonant chord voicings |
And that is a very short and binary history of Jazz Piano.
Have a Listen to
- Early Jazz Piano
- James P. Johnson
- Fats Waller
- Art Tatum
- Teddy Wilson
- Erroll Garner
- Willie ‘The Lion’ Smith
- Luckey Roberts
- Eubie Blake
- Cliff Jackson
- Modern Jazz Piano
- Earl Hines (Father of Modern Jazz Piano)
- Bud Powell
- Herbie Hancock
- McCoy Tyner
- Bill Evans
- Oscar Peterson
- Keith Jarrett
- Ahmad Jamal