click here for free samples of our jazz piano lessons with George Whitty!

OK, y'all!  Here we go!  Got the whole school rocking at this point, and have to say I am LOVING this platform as a way of teaching jazz piano!  I'd like to say "THANKS" to ArtistWorks for doing such a great job with the filming and production, and I am really excited about the way the curriculum turned out.  A big part of what we're doing here at ArtistWorks is creating a real community of jazz piano players, so jump right in and see this school as your home!

Duke Ellington:

Here’s the pianist who I most credit, through his writing and playing (and the brilliant writing and arranging of Billy Strayhorn) with really putting “jazz” music on the harmonic footing it’s been on ever since.  A lot of what Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn did utilized tools that had been used before, some all the way back to Bach (a II-V progression, for example), but in their hands it reached its ultimate expression as a very particular sound, an instantly recognizable jazz sound.

And to hear Duke play piano is a true study in orchestration. 

Herbie Hancock 

Here we have somebody who I would say is probably the most influential pianist of the last 50 years, and one of our all-time most extraordinary musicians.

I was recently presented with a list of “12 Influential Jazz Piano Players” and asked to write some thoughts on each of them. This is by no means any sort of “comprehensive list of the 12 most important people…” or any such thing, but it’s a good topic for a blog post, so here we go.  I HEARTILY ENCOURAGE YOU to grab some music by these pianists (there’s a recommended CD or two next to each of them) and immerse yourself in the genius of the history of our fine art!