History of Jazz Piano

Jazz piano has been a part of jazz since itsplayers in the early 1920s) where they showed of their
beginnings. Piano is one of the rare instruments in askills.
jazz combo which can play chords, unlike saxophoneIt continued to develop specially during the 50s and 60s
or trumpet which can only play single notes. The earlywith pianists like Red Garland and McCoy Tyner. In
jazz piano was mainly stride. Stride is also known asthat time one of the most widely spread types of jazz
New York ragtime is a pioneering jazz piano style. Itcalled Free Jazz was becoming more and more
was developed in Harlem during the World war one.popular. Some great works of art still reminds us of
As you can see from the name (New York ragtime) itthat time which surely was a gold age of jazz
was influenced by ragtime but it featuredexistence. The beginnings of free jazz can be set with
improvisations, blue notes and swing rhythms whichrecordings of Ornette Coleman for Contemporary and
were new in this type of music.with the Jazz Advance and Looking Ahead, two great
The great performers of that time were Earl Hines,albums by Cecil Taylor.
James P. Johnson, Jelly Roll Morton, Willie "The Lion"Today jazz piano is still popular among many pianists
Smith , Art Tatum, Thomas "Fats" Waller, Mary Loujust to mention few Michael Weiss, Bill Charlap,
Williams, Teddy Wilson and many others who oftenGeoffrey Keezer, Brad Mehldau, Mulgrew Miller, Danilo
attended cutting contests (battles between stride pianoPerez and many others.