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My Favorite Things - Kitchen Sink Arrangement


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Just got hip to the genius of Jacob Koller aka. The Mad Arranger. That"s an understatement. Amazing ideas abound in the recording, but his playing is also superb, moments of virtuosity, and the micing/recording of this instrument sounds excellent on top of it all.

 

[video:youtube]

 

Too much? Just right? Too good? Too square? Everyone"s tastes are different. I really enjoyed it, hope a few of you do too!

Yamaha CP88, Casio PX-560

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Excellent!

 Find 660 of my jazz piano arrangements of standards for educational purposes and tutorials at www.Patreon.com/HarryLikas Harry was the Technical Editor of Mark Levine's "The Jazz Theory Book" and helped develop "The Jazz Piano Book."

 

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definitely worth a listen , even while he is using a 'classic ' cover.

 

His right hand chord voicing is really nice.

 

His command of tempo , moving in and out rhythmically is impressive

 

I feel like I am in 1st grade for LH when I see/hear what he does.

 

does he show off original material ?

Why fit in, when you were born to stand out ?

My Soundcloud with many originals:

[70's Songwriter]

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Excellent re-harm, top notch playing, and yes, a good recording. Although when you put that particular piano under a microscope like that, many of its deficiencies are more pronounced.

 

His improvising while very fluid, sounds more classical/European influenced then coming from the Afro-American /Blues rooted Jazz. But again quite excellent. He has great technical facility with his LH and incorporates it nicely, in places it sounds very Chopin Etudish like.

 

Extremely well played, and produced. Very much enjoyed it.

 

I thought exactly the same as you - definitely Euro, but well played and some very imaginative reharms. I'd be curious to know if the performance actually had improvisation in it â kinda hard to tell. He has sheets of his arrangements online but it looks like you can only get the first one or two pages before having to pay, which I opted to not do. I also got curious about that piano â if you look at the video you see it's a Yam "A1" - a rare bird apparently. Since I have plenty of time on my hands these days I did some googling and found out it was Yam's version of a very small "C" level piano (i.e., Japan-made and higher quality than the lower-line Gs) â how small? 4' 11". These were for the Japanese market where living spaces are often tiny. It does sound bright, as Yams can, but overall I like that sound for jazz.

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I"m getting old. My tastes changed years ago, and by now I"m far less willing to listen to performances that are contrary to those aesthetics.

 

So what"s the deal? I don"t give a s#$t about a player"s musical prowess above a certain level of professional competence.

 

Unless that prowess is used to show me the player as a human being who has something to communicate to me about being human, via the song and his or her instrument.

 

If a Coltrane wants to sing me his song of being, I"m a grateful listener.

 

Hell, play Fur Elise and make each note count like there"s no tomorrow, then I"m a grateful listener.

 

If a player wants to sing me a song of their cleverness on their instrument, not so much.

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The great French pianist of whom I'm a big fan of, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, recorded a record of Bill Evans tunes some years back. While the voicings and the style are there, the playing, you can easily hear doesn't swing and isn't coming from the same place as Bill, or other jazz pianists that are highly influenced by him. Basically the improv sections don't sound spur of the moment like in Jazz.

 

What's the saying â "great minds think alike"?! I knew about a French pianist that transcribed and played Bill's stuff, and remembered hearing a CD of his in a store a while back. I thought of him as soon as I heard the youtube above, but had forgotten his name. Jean-Yves Thibaudet, thanks!

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I"m getting old. My tastes changed years ago, and by now I"m far less willing to listen to performances that are contrary to those aesthetics.

 

So what"s the deal? I don"t give a s#$t about a player"s musical prowess above a certain level of professional competence.

 

Unless that prowess is used to show me the player as a human being who has something to communicate to me about being human, via the song and his or her instrument.

 

If a Coltrane wants to sing me his song of being, I"m a grateful listener.

 

Hell, play Fur Elise and make each note count like there"s no tomorrow, then I"m a grateful listener.

 

If a player wants to sing me a song of their cleverness on their instrument, not so much.

 

I appreciate that, it"s an elaborate arrangement, and very clever. The fact his playing is so precise (note wise, rhythmically and dynamically) is like icing on the cake to me, not everyone agrees though that virtuosity is equal to meaning or expression (even if all the pieces are there). I find Coltrane extremely clever, and we all know he practiced his ass off to play so freely. Plus his own sound developed through study of theory and tireless exploration. I"m not saying JK here is a Coltrane, just that they share something in common - practice and knowledge gets results at least as far as the tools a player needs to execute their master plan. Coltrane lived a life and at some point transcended into something more than a sax player, or arranger, composer or improviser. I don"t know this fellow and have looked him up - but he calls himself, 'the mad arranger'. And, yeah. I can see that. This guy has some great arranging chops and can play! Definitely see the Chopin there, all over the left hand.

Yamaha CP88, Casio PX-560

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I found myself agreeing with a lot of the commenters - the Steinway was a good "middle ground" between the bright Yamaha and darker Bosie. But if someone wants to gift me an acoustic piano, I think I'd be very happy with any of them! And of course Jacob is a hell of a player so it was fun to listen to. Unfortunately he couldn't do anything about the room - which looked to me like it was all hard surfaces, at least all the floor and wall I could see. Not the best environment for recording a piano.
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Did anyone say it was 'Jazz', Dave? It didn"t come from me. It makes use of Jazz harmony and rhythmic arranging styles. But hasn"t everyone agreed that it"s European classical rooted and there isn"t any real improv or soloing going on?

 

ââ I see it now. it"s in the piano demo video. Right, same deal, he"s doing arrangements, which is what he does. It sounds like piano rolls to me, broadway jazz, Michael Feinstein.

 

This guy Mendl plays beautifully and is very deeply steeped in his native (not that I really feel that matters, people love what they love) music.

Yamaha CP88, Casio PX-560

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Jazz ? JFC, are you serious ?! With the glissando and the Liberace/ Jerry Lee Lewis showmanship mannerisms at the end, I just lost all respect. Are you certain this is the same guy ? What happened ?! Anyone here that considers that Jazz...well we have nothing to discuss.

 

With the views and comments, he certainly found his calling as internet star. Glad not participate in that world thank you. And that's a butt ugly Steinway.

 

I'll take this fellow personally

 

Ha ha yea the "jazz" part was corny but for demoing a piano sound I got the idea. Your example above is definitely miles beyond â if only because of the acoustics of the room and the recording chain... but Stefan is the real deal for sure. Do you know any killer classical players that also play jazz? I don't â which means squat of course, but I'll guess that if there are folks that are in both worlds, the opposite is probably more often true.

 

And in case you have you noticed... it doesn't take much to be an "internet star" these days! :laugh:

 

PS - And can you trust someone playing a Bosendorfer that doesn't pronounce the name correctly? :)

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It's missing that element of jazz as an unexpected journey. But as a master class in reharm, it's amazing.

 

 

 

I felt the same way once My Favorite Things made it to solo section at which point I turned it off. Of course it's amazing, but give me Monk, Horace Silver, John Lewis.

AvantGrand N2 | ES520 | Gallien-Krueger MK & MP | https://soundcloud.com/pete36251

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Jazz ? JFC, are you serious ?! With the glissando and the Liberace/ Jerry Lee Lewis showmanship mannerisms at the end, I just lost all respect. Are you certain this is the same guy ? What happened ?! Anyone here that considers that Jazz...well we have nothing to discuss.

 

Lol!

 

You know how it is Dave... Cue the adapted Blues Brothers for pianists.

 

"What kind of music do you play?"

"Oh, I play both kinds, classical and jazz!"

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It is amazing how one"s musical journey is so summative of the musician one is right now. Your interests, likes and dislikes, exposure. What we valued, kept and internalized and what was thrown away, or drove past us without recognition. What was practiced and what wasn"t. What was found in pieces and put back together without directions. Who we played with and what we played, etc. etc.

Yamaha CP88, Casio PX-560

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.....but give me Monk, Horace Silver, John Lewis.

 

John Lewis on the Billy Taylor show playing his most famous composition "Django". While he has the chops to play what he needs to get across for his style, it's more about tasty chord voicings, voice leading, melodic development and feel. All used to serve the song. Playing starts around 1:50.

 

[video:youtube]

 

 

:like:

AvantGrand N2 | ES520 | Gallien-Krueger MK & MP | https://soundcloud.com/pete36251

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Jacob live performance. I enjoy his solo performances, arrangements and improvisations. I saw him in the early 2000's in piano trio and it was what you "jazz purists" consider the tradition. Lots of chops but, more interplay with the bassist and drummer. Kinda like "Bill Evans - style" for lack of a better description. He was in his early 20's, had shoulder length hair, beard and glasses. He recorded a CD with this trio and it's probably out-of-print.

Glad he's found his career success in Japan and beyond. And, btw maybe his piano showmanship ain't to your liking, but it's geared towards the Japanese market/culture.

 

[video:youtube]

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As I suspected, JK is a fan of all styles as any arranger would be, and is still on his piano journey, as we all are.

 

Stylistic preferences and tastes are ours to have. But the guy can play, has a creative musical imagination and has found his audience. Music is a tough business, we used to have to wait for some A&R guy to bless us with a record deal to ever be heard. YouTube has killed that notion. Not a bad thing.

Yamaha CP88, Casio PX-560

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Jacob live performance.

 

Given that this theme has evolved in this thread already, it's worth noting that from 50:12 (in response to a live question) he talks a little about "Jazz vs Classical". Not in any great depth, but he mentions that he started learning classical piano and then studied jazz, and loves both.

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