I Could Write A Book: Journey Through The Real Book #159 (Jazz Piano Lesson)

Jazz piano solo and musical/historical discussion of the Richard Rodgers/Lorenz Hart jazz song “I Could Write A Book,” inspired by the Miles Davis recording on the 1956 album Relaxin’ With The Miles Davis Quintet . Journey Through The Real Book #159: I Could Write a Book Learn the 5 Essential Left Hand Techniques with my free ebook: Jazz Piano Left Hand Techniques: https://keyboardimprov.com/jazz-left-... You'll find my book, The Inner World of Piano Improvisation, on Amazon. The prevalence of Rodgers/Hart tunes in The Real Book 0:00 Playing “I Could Write A Book” in a “Broadway piano” style 0:42 The cross-influence between popular music and jazz during the 1930s-50s 1:21 How “I Could Write A Book” became a jazz standard 1:42 The Miles Davis Quintet’s marathon recording session for Riverside 1:53 The personnel of the great 1950s Miles Davis Quintet 2:05 “Hearing” the bass and drums in your head while playing solo jazz piano 2:19 The Miles Davis recording of “I Could Write A Book” in Eb 2:44 Playing “I Could Write A Book” as a medium tempo to bring out the charm of the song 2:52 Jazz musicians being influenced by a song’s lyrics 3:06 The “charm” in Miles Davis’ 1950s playing vs. Coltrane’s “warmth” 3:15 The popular music influence on Miles Davis 3:30 A mainstream solo jazz piano rendition of “I Could Write A Book” 4:13 Melody over rootless left hand chord voicings 4:15 Melodic embellishment 4:27 Improvising a fill between phrases of the tune’s melody 4:39 Developing the motif at the end of the melody 5:05 Block chords, a la Ahmad Jamal and Red Garland 5:12 Single-note melodic improv 5:20 Rhythmic repetition in the improvised melodic line 5:23 Hinting at the tune’s melody during the jazz piano solo 5:57 Improvising with RH octaves 6:06 Developing a motif from the original melody 6:12 Using longer bebop lines 6:18 An altered dominant chord voicing 6:31 A bluesy riff 6:55 Continuing with the RH octaves, with more exciting rhythms 7:00 Another blues lick 7:15 Quoting “Surrey With The Fringe On Top” 7:50 Including more roots in the LH texture 7:57 Using a LH pedal point for the turnaround 8:46 Returning to the song’s melody 8:49 Extending the arrangement with a tag 9:40 A chromatically-descending series of chords 9:43 Playing the opening melodic phrase for the ending; rubato 9:43 Here are some more Free Jazz Piano Lessons for you at the KeyboardImprov website: https://keyboardimprov.com/free-begin... Thanks for joining me on this musical adventure, and please LIKE, COMMENT and SHARE this video with your musical friends. If you'd like to start my full video course, you'll find it here: https://keyboardimprov.com/get-starte... For Zoom and Skype lessons, please email me at [email protected]. Enjoy the journey, and "let the music flow!" Ron