Hi

Hope someone can help.

I would like to get some jazz piano music for a friend of mine of about Grade 5-7 standard. He has said he particularly liked the Grade 5 List C jazz piece in the ABRSM book - this will be from the previous syllabus which ended in 2006, I think. And he has said he does NOT especially like the List C jazz piece (in the ABRSM book) for the current Grade 7 "because it doesn't have such good chords"!

Can anyone please tell me the name and composer of the Grade 5 List C jazz piece in the book from the previous syllabus (or point me at a source) (or is this too vague a description)? And it would be really great to have recommendations for anything else (by the same composer perhaps) that is of a similar style.

Thanks for any help

Nick

Chris Norton has written some really nice tunes, I have his Latin preludes, and his jazz preludes, and the books published by Boosey and Hawkes also include a CD. Both worth getting. another book which i keep going on about is Piano Bar Volume one, which has both jazz classics and pop songs .... all arranged in a jazzy style, possibly my favourite book of popular music for piano....also comes with a CD...Piano Bar Vol 2 is not as good. For some reason Vol 1 is in the ''Jazz collections'' section in Chappells and Vol 2 in the Pop music section. I have quite a collection of books like these, and these i would recommend. There are other books called Jazz On! by Michael Publig, which have classical pieces and and then jazz interpretations of them, which do sound very different from the original, the Schumann, Bach, and Classics are all very good. All the books mentioned include pieces ranging from around Grade 5 to 7.

You can look at the old syllabi online on elswhere on the ABRSM site.
I think your friend probably means New Orleans Nightfall from William Gillock which was indeed brilliant.
It can be purchased in the gook New Orleans Jazz Styles available from music dealers.

Thanks both for your advice.

Reading about it online, New Orleans Jazz Styles looks to be exactly what should suit him, so I've just ordered the book from Musicroom!

Thanks again

Nick

I bought the New Orleans Jazz Styles book because I liked the Nightfall one on the grade 5 sylabus. It may be a bit late now for this to be helpful, but i found that, as with most pieces taken from collections for exams, this is by far the best piece in the book, so i was slightly disappointed. Having said that, i could just be biased against them because i've been forced to hear my brother playing through them over and over again, badly, and way too quickly.

Jackson Street Blues is a grade 5 piece at the moment. The other pieces in Jazz, Rags & Blues Book 4 by Martha Mier are all pretty good. A few pupils have gone on to buy this book after taking the Gr 5 exam.

Yes, I 'm a fan of the Martha Mier Jazz Rags and Blues books thanks to a previous recommendation on the forums.

Another composer who I've not seen mentioned recently is John Kember - some of his jazzy pieces are good fun. Levels vary - some are on the easy side for your friend, (the one I've got to hand is On the Lighter Side around grades 4-6) but in general might be worth a look. Published by Schott.

Yes, I like John Kember too. I've got The Jazz Piano Master (Faber Music). There are 19 pieces in it, with a mixture of well known songs (You've got a friend, Isn't she lovely, Your Song etc) and studies. One of of the pieces is on the syllabus for LLCM Jazz Piano. On the back cover the blurb suggests it's a good book for those of Grade 6 and above standard. They're nice to play!

Faber also publish a series of three Jazz Piano Studies books by John Kember, which might be worth exploring.