Billy Taylor Solo Piano amzn.to/2PMOMh3 Billy Taylor and Gerry Mulligan Live amzn.to/2Rb3uid Billy Taylor Piano Transcriptions amzn.to/2q8KSEa A unique piano duo, featuring Billy Taylor and Dick Hyman
Two of the greatest and most virtuosic pianists and super "good guys" of jazz in a moment of purest joie de vivre in the stratosphere of musical thought. Too cool for school.
Great pairing of the two guys Tatum cited as the best young talent in the 50's, Bebops hay day. The tune is Tad Damerons 1945 composition "Hot House" but like so many great bebop tunes it owes its heritage to the cord changes of the great American Song Book - "Hot House" is based on the cord changes to Cole Porters "What is this thing called Love"
@@zivkovicable every jazz musician since 1947, and about 80 percent of jazz fans since 1948. Plus 76 percent of registered Democrats, 67 percent of American militia members, and all of the cast of Duck Dynasty.
Damn! Woo hooo! Smokin virtuosi! Nobody in contemporary pop or even European classics can do any of that! Bach & Liszt would have grooved on this playing.
this is just chaotic random key pressing of classical music that jazz copied...listen to chopin, debussy, scriabin and bach, these low muaicians was know to crying and ashamed, listening and studying classical musics and tried to copy harder but could not do it...
JVG: I'm thrilled that the good Dr's collection is getting digitized. I hope a DVD will also result. RE: any talk of what is "contemporary": Jazz may have time line but it no more defines what is deserving of attention than it would to Classical music- it ain't a thang but a calendar date. The best of anything is timeless. Thanks for more timeless beauty.
@jpckrd I think you make an excellent point. From the musicians' viewpoint, though, maybe it wasn't so much about eliminating the melody, as it was stating it and then improvising over the chord changes. Creativity morphed into what was seen as self indulgence and the rest was history - and so is jazz, largely. Although, it's hardly as if all kinds of memorable tunes are gushing out of Pop in recent history. Rap's the obvious example, but there's a dearth of melody in general. Thoughts?
@pyannaguy I'm more optimistic than you. I know that Jazz has a considerable global audience. Fewer live venues but more and more opportunities via the Internet on the horizon. Shortly, you'll be able to see an entire Jazz festival in surround sound on Internet TV, as well as other concerts and club gigs. I resist labels, so Golden Age doesn't fit. That Golden Age you referred, happened between 1930 and 1967. The music, and the world have changed so much since then.
@Kaalec I enjoy the accessible forms of Jazz perhaps more than the next man. The center of my music library is my extensive collection of Fats Waller tracks, case in point. However, I am not so quick to say that Dick Hyman or Billy Taylor in this recording are being "Jazz Dweebs". Their playing is of a very sophisticated form, and it is enjoyable to the last degree. Furthermore, music is music. It shouldn't matter if it is accessible or not, so long as it inspires even a single person.
@Kaalec So well put! Boredom and ego and competing for who's the greatest spewer of notes and bender and hider of melody just kept taking the music farther and farther from any chance of connection with most people. I respect the skill required and appreciate Jazz's complexity, but lots of players just plain carried it away, as you say. It has the audience it has, but in The States it's gone a long way toward almost complete marginalization.
I just find it interesting that Taylor says people think that Hyman is a specialist in the older styles when he played with Bird. Seems like Hyman can't be locked into one style if that's the case.
Are there more Billy and Dick duets (other than Fine and Dandy) in the archives? if so, are there plans to release them or other ways to watch them? Can I purchase a DVD of this episode? I am a huge fan of both men. Dick Hyman is playing here at Stanford in a few weeks. He's 91 and going strong!
@pyannaguy the resurgence you seek is right in front of your eyes, buddy. In the days of RU-vid and the internet, if you know how play even the damn Triangle well, you can get paid. Even better now is, you can capture a huge niche of fans without even having to travel to world. The world travels RIGHT to your youtube channel! Think about it. Hope only dies when you run out of it. You can only run out of hope if you lose it. You can only lose it if you choose to do so.
Dick Hyman is a beast... Watching these guys I learned something... piano technique is less about the fingers and more about the entire arm helping the fingers...
Dick is of course the technical giant and Billy the stylistic superior. However, because each player demands something of the other during this tete a tete, Dick will pull out something spontaneous sounding while Billy answers very nicely to Dick's technical gauntlet. Each player is growing is this piece.
@pyannaguy You are not aware of how big jazz , ragtime and classical music are out side the U.S. These genre's are like rock and country are in the U.S. The people in the U. S. still do not appreciate music as it should be. In Europe huge palaces are built just so opera's and orchestra's can be held. Too bad the greater population is so uneducated so they do not enjoy this music. You may be right about the resurgence. How ever, there are plenty of jazz and classics played in the big cities.
