So much color is added to this video purely from Charles' almost child-like energy and joy when analyzing this piece. Love the content as always, keep it up.
Taylor Eigsti is truly one of the most technical keyboardist, it's especially incredible when he leads anything with his left hand. The changes are classically precise yet unexpected.
If one is nerdy enough about something, one can still viscerally react to it nearly as much after the 100th listen as the first listen. I know because that is how I am, if the thing is cool enough (for me). I’ll still freak out in a good way at something I have heard dozens of times. Part of it is the thing being complex enough to not fully comprehend it on the first few listens; the rest is sheer RESPECT and ADMIRATION after you DO more or less understand (the technical part of) it.
Here's the thing Charles... You don't give yourself enough credit!!! It's many people out there listening to YOUR OWN CHOPS, and saying to themselves... "Why do I bother!!!" Lol.... You're AWESOME in your own right my man, and that's coming from someone who's been in the music realm on trumpet since 1980!!!! 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
💯 He basically picked this out by ear and said “ah forget it”. If he really sunk into that solo, Charles would be able to turn it inside out! He better than he thinks.
I love the way how everything really exciting about music is virtually impossible to explain in words, and the amount of emotional hand waving and jazz chord faces in this video is just about right to convey it perfectly 😀
I could (and have) listen to you being super hype about music for hours. Thank you for your hard work on your content. Your editing shows that you (or who ever edits these) put a lot of extra work not only with the original sources but your silly reactions. I love your videos.
I was lucky enough to attend the Stanford Jazz Workshop when Taylor and Julian Lage were instructors. I learned more there in one week as a bass a player than I felt like I had in years of playing before that. Taylor is such a nice and down to earth guy as well which makes it all the better. Joshua Crumbly was a student there at the same time. It’s been awesome to see his development too, he had only just started playing upright bass!
Watching this reminds me of when I saw Hiromi Uehara live in new york city a couple months ago- it's a whole different world of music watching the give-and-take between a really skilled jazz pianist and their band
Taylor is amazing! I got to play with him (in the backup orchestra) back in 2010. He also played Rhapsody in Blue in the same show. That guy is a BEAST!
Wow, I am blown away. Incredible video. I have to say, I enjoy videos like this much more than the reactions to movie scores and show themes. While that music does have cool chords, they aren’t so mind blowing. This video is the pinnacle of something you used to talk quite extensively on. Feel. Eigsti's feel is incredible, which is part of why it is so incredible. I would love to see more videos like this.
Love geeking out with you on all the dynamics and techniques … I stand in awe of you both! Great stuff! Going to the Jazz Corner tonight with new listening skills!
It's been 15 years since I've played my trumpet with a group, but nailing those rhythmic hits as a group is some of the most satisftying moments on stage.
I was introduced to Taylor by his work with Gretchen Parlato. His accompaniment on "Me and You" as well as SWV's "Weak" is literally breathtaking. Thanks for highlighting such a gentle giant like Taylor. He's not often on people's radar but he should be.
thanks for introducing Taylor Eigsti to me (: I like the way he respects the melody within all that complexity. That's exactly the kind of piano playing I love to hear and analye as a musician.
There is a lot to be said for your ability to listen to that and break it down to digestible appreciation for plebs like me. I'm a trained classical musician, but I wouldn't have been able to appreciate Taylor's performance nearly on the level this guy deserves without your help, Charles. Thank you!
Dear Charles, thank you for putting Taylor on my radar, since I had never heard of him. Just checked the songs Tree Fall and Sparky and was literally blown away! The musicianship and quality of writing is of the highest order 👏🏾 I now have to delve into as much of his stuff as possible. Thank you so much, big love from England buddy 😊
this is insane, thanks for introducing us to such an amazing band! this may be a little of a genre break but could you do a video about rai thistlethwayte? i'm still so blown away by his overtime solo everytime i listen to the knower live sesh :D
Good stuff. I don't play myself but I love jazz, and I love hearing how players hear and understand this music on a more nuanced level than myself. This Taylor's playing reminded me of Bill Evans's harmonic language (that influence from the French Impressionist composers) and Keith Jarrett's more energetic drive. Good stuff. Will have to check him/this band out.
Haha! There is something special about watching professional musicians swooning over other musicians but you take it to a whole new dimension! This was fun! And of course interesting content 😊
Really nice indeed. There's a video of Taylor Eigsti Trio playing 'Caravan' live at Stanford that is absolutely killin, an amazing intro flowed by equally band performance, including a stellar solo. TE is definitely a rather underrated pianist, despite chops and technique he is always a musical player. 7:35 -quasi 'the lick', maybe closer to the motif to 'Mellow Mood'.
YES YES YEW YES!!!!! Ahhhhhhhh TAYLOR!! Got to see him live and it was incredible! Him and Joey Alexander (for different reasons) just annihilated my life!! love it!!!!!!!
Charles, the ascending figure he plays at 3:14 is a novelty piano figuration from the 1920s. It’s a couple of consecutive fourth intervals in the right hand, with each pair of sequential fourths in the right hand preceded by a note or chord in the left, so a 3/8 over 4/4 hemiola. This shit was up to date in 1923. It still sounds cool today because while the musical modernism of the 1920s fed eventually into bebop, a lot of people forgot about novelty piano. That shit was unfortunately uncool for about 50 years, until it started getting revived in the 1970s (in a small way, although still dissed by some “scholars”) and now is generally a fully accepted part of the current day “ragtime scene” although most of the pianists tend to play the solo piano rags of that time rather than play any of the pop song arrangements by the era pianists like I try to do. For some clear examples, check out not only Zez Confrey (for example: “Greenwich Witch”) but there’s a great jazz piano solo by Boston bandleader Sid Reinherz he did in 1923 called “The Boston Trot”. He uses some of these novelty riffs in it as well, although it’s a real jazz solo with an improvising horn right hand and a swinging 4/4 beat. Finally, the great Frank Banta uses all these different tricks in a highly technical way in his brilliant piano solos done for Victor and Banner/ARC. For example, at the end of his phenomenal 1925 solo “My Sugar” (his arrangement of a pop song), he plays a stupendous upwards break that includes some fourths but is so fast as to be nearly incomprehensible, yet amazingly clean. All in ONE TAKE! Banta was Victor’s #1 studio pop pianist in the 20s. He’s on probably over 1,000 records. That should tell you something.
Glad to find someone who shares my enthusiasm for this live recording! I’ve been geeking out about this for at least 7 years. I’d love to hear your take on Taylor’s solo on January by Ben Wendel and/or Still Play.
Taylor’s awesome. Took a class from him on chord construction, truly eye opening. Edit - also, if you’re new to Taylor’s music, I highly recommend checking out Let It Come To You with Eric Harland on drums, absolutely killer album. Caravan will blow your mind.
I HIGHLY recommend you check out Masashi Hamauzu's music. The harmonic structure of his music is sooooo good. Taylor's part reminds me so much of that.
What's mind blowing is the improvisation (i assume) of this. This man literally hears stuff like this in his head and he's translating it with his hands. Sure people can improvise but at this level and others at this level it just blows my mind
Had his first few albums. but seems to have gone quiet on the recording front for some time. Glad you reminded me of him, as I see his latests album is relatively recent...2021. Seems there was an 11 year gap!
Funny! To see you of all people , blown away!! I actually admire your playing and still recall the first video I saw of yours where you were comically playing a rhythmic harmony along with some odd character who was complaining, and I´ve been a follower since! My only assumption is: When you get out and play a lot of gigs, that´s where the "magic" is born out of all the home practice and study. Likewise, having a solid band of great player that gels and thinks together is ....well..need I say more? But yeah.....THIS GUY!! 👉🤯
Hey Charles! I was wondering if your improv course is designed specifically for piano, or could I take it for trumpet too? If not, do you know any that would work for trumpet? Thanks!
You NEED to look at the Xenoblade 3 music specifically the Moebius theme and ‘the weight of life’ especially the way they use a choir in the Moebius theme is amazing
Some of his approach reminded me of Gonzalo Rubalcaba’s piano solo before he launched into Giant Steps at the Mt. Fuji Jazz Festival in 1992. If you haven’t seen that video, you HAVE TO WATCH IT! It’s insanity!!!
A saying I’ve heard from a jazz guitarist once was that you can recognize talented technicians even if you know nothing about the music they are playing, just by observing the ease with which they seem to do so - “an insane bass player almost doesnt move their fingers, he just seems to go up and down from time to time”
*I am HOOKED on this stuff* you're like a drug! just remember 'the artist is improvising technique for an interpretative end result; thus analyzing the actual technique is being in the 'just make it work' territory and THAT if definitely *Trippy*
