The Great Jazz Pianists: Speaking Of Their Lives And Music

This comprehensive survey of jazz piano, beginning with a brief history of the instrument within the jazz tradition and concluding with interviews that present 27 pianists in their own words, is both wonderfully anecdotal and a serious piece jazz history. Lyons has assembled a giant concert of piano voices. The pianists are candid, intense, and always opinionated. Yet their responses are infused with a keen appreciation for fellow musicians, their contemporaries, and those who came before-Waller, Tatum, Ellington. For pianists everywhere, whatever their individual style, this book will speak to and for you as it expresses the thoughts of its many great artists.