|
 As
the author points out in his introduction, even veteran jazz musicians
often fall back on stock licks they've developed over years
of soloing, so a book like this, which returns to the basics of
melodic improvisation, can be helpful to seasoned pianists as well
as beginners. Agovino first presents some simple one-octave arpeggio
exercises, to be played against major, minor, augmented, and diminished
triads in all keys, ascending and descending. The purpose of these
drills seems to be to awaken the hand of the lazy performer, to
drum out the motorized clichés and get it in gear for the more interesting
stuff to come. What follows is some of the most clearly presented
breakdowns of jazz lines in many a moon. Rhythms are not explored
too deeply, and most of the musical examples adhere to a standard
II-V-I progression, but the notes do challenge the rusty chops,
especially when played quickly and transposed. By the time Agovino
begins sketching out longer progressions, we have started to develop
a feeling for how a solo line can smoothly slide through one chord
change after another. One tip the author didn't explicitly make:
If many of these lines are played as chords in the right hand against
the indicated left-hand chords, the structure and reason behind
some full jazz harmonies come into focus. Don't rely on this
59 page handbook for advice on fostering a killer technique; this
is definitely a guide for the thinking keyboardist.
Bob Doerschuk
Contemporary Keyboard
September 1980
|
|
 Larry
Agovino digs deeper into the subject in his 61 page “Scales &
Modes for the Jazz Pianist”, in which 20 different modes are laid
out in all 12 keys, complete with suggested fingerings, followed
by an investigation of their harmonic implications, homophonic applications,
relation to seventh chord resolutions, and flexibility in improvisation.
This nicely compliments Agovino's “Melodic Studies for the Jazz
Pianist” reviewed in September 1980.
Bob Doerschuk
Keyboard
March 1982
|
Affordable
