This is the first published book of transcriptions of the legendary Billy Taylor's recorded solos. The compositions have been transcribed from his CD "Solo". According to Dr. Taylor:
"I have lived through and participated in the development of many of the melodic, harmonic and rhythmic devices which have become a permanent part of the jazz vocabulary. In solo playing I frequently use tenths, so the stretches may be difficult for some pianists but that is the sound I often use for accompaniment. I also like to use many variations of altered chords. I try to make my contrapuntal lines and my chordal passages swing because the African-American tradition of layers of rhythm is an essential element in my music."
Details
128 pages Includes Forward, Biography and the following piano transcriptions:
1. All The Things You Are
2. A Bientot
3. I Didn't Know What Time It Was
4. I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to be Free
5. Make a Joyful Noise (Suite)
6. For Undine
7. Gone With The Wind
8. A Tune for Howard to Improvise Upon
9. Uncle Bob
About the Author
Billy Taylor (July 24, 1921 – December 28, 2010) was an American jazz pianist, composer, broadcaster and educator. He was the artistic director for jazz at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.
A jazz activist, Taylor sat on the Honorary Founders Board of The The Jazz Foundation of America, an organization he started in 1989, with Ann Ruckert, Herb Storfer and Phoebe Jacobs, to save the homes and the lives of America's elderly jazz and blues musicians, later including musicians who survived Hurricane Katrina
Taylor was also a jazz educator, who lectured in colleges, served on panels and travelled worldwide as a jazz ambassador. Critic Leonard Feather once said, "It is almost indisputable that Dr. Billy Taylor is the world's foremost spokesman for jazz."
