Young Chang Piano: Jazz Improvisation: Swing and Early Progressive Piano Styles [Paperback] Review

This is the third in a series of four volumes created between 1959 and 1965 by jazz pianist and instructor John Mehegan. The complete set is of the utmost historical importance for anyone with a serious interest in jazz piano. Before Mehegan, no other author had succeeded in unlocking themysteries of jazz piano and then communicating them to a mass audience in aclear and cogent manner.
This volume considers three primary pianostyles--first is a stride architecture using open scale tone tenth chordsand modelled after pianist Teddy Wilson. The second, also stride, utilizestenths with other notes filled in. It is modelled after Art Tatum. Third isa bebop architecture modeled after Bud Powell, in which stride is abandonedaltogether and the only chord architecture is a series of comparativelynaked root-third and root-seventh intervals.
(Parenthetical note: SeriousBud Powell fans may chafe to see Powell's legacy reduced to something sovastly oversimplified. However, when one is trying to communicate therevolutionary paradigm shift embodied in Powell's groundbreaking bebopwork, it is difficult to incorporate his more elaborate solo pianowork.
To get the best grasp of what Mehegan is talking about,particularly in the two stride styles, you should have Mehegan's secondvolume, Jazz Rhythm And The Improvised Line, which includes solotranscriptions for Wilson's version of Thou Swell and Tatum's legendary"Aunt Hagar's Blues." These transcriptions make it easier to seeMehegan's theoretical concepts "in action."
Be forwarned thatboth stride styles are technically very demanding, perhaps impossible ifyour hands are too small. Mehegan does a good job of breaking all the 10thintervals into three levels of difficulty and proposes viable root-sevenalternatives for the most difficult ones.
The book's primary flaw -- onewhich persists throughout the series -- is its unfortunate allegiance tothe concept of "figured bass" used within traditional musictheory instruction. Indeed, there is a conspicuous overall effortthroughout the series to "suck up" to academia, but this is aforgivable byproduct of an age when traditional academia persisted inviewing jazz as something too vulgar and intellectually impovershed tomerit acceptance within hallowed academic environs. -- CortlandKirkeby
Click Here to see more reviews about: Jazz Improvisation: Swing and Early Progressive Piano Styles [Paperback]

Product Description:
This book examines the structure of over 50 major performances from the great age of the jazz piano, 1936 to 1950, when ragtime gave way to bop. It includes improvisations by Wilson, Tatum, Powell, Shearing, and Silver.