Improvisation - Back Home

I haven't seen for long any improvisation submitted on PS. This one was recently recorded in the greatest concert hall in Lyon (l'Auditorium de Lyon) where I had the chance to partipate to a jazz piano concert, with several other pianists. The first half of the piece is a purely improvised introduction (with no predetermined structure) then comes the tune which gives its name to the piece. It is a song that I play usually with my quartet, with an A-A-B structure. Here I am improvising keeping the harmonic series of the original piece, as usual in jazz.

Thank you for listening and commenting !

Francois de Larrard - Back Home

 

Hello again, Francois. Very nice performance! I liked the swingy and jazzy parts, but I also liked the interesting tones and harmonies in your improvised parts.
I put this up on the site.

 

Thanks Monica ! I have been quite inspired by the response of the piano, a beautifull D Steinway, with incredible bass and treble ranges !

 

Thanks Chris ! Yes, improvising on such a beautifull piano, when you are in a good mood, is a great pleasure...

 

That´s a great improvisation, full of interesting and spontaneous ideas. And it´s a very good idea to post it here. I wished there would be more improvisations on this site (may be one nice day I also will post one, but I have to say in former times I have much more improvised than nowadays.)
I really appreciate you as a musician, because of your musicality and versatility in different styles and epoques.

 

Thanks Andreas ! But I feel very lonely in this Improvisation section. Come along ! If you are not sure about your talents as improviser, just record many short improvisations (a good moment is when you start playing in the morning, at least for me: you rediscover your keyboard, and you have the freshness of music desire which normally grows when you don't play). Then you put them in the cave (like wine), and you listen them weeks or months after. You'll be surprised by what you produced. You then have just to choose the best one(s) and post it to your favourite piano Internet site !

 

Hi Francois,
that´s a very good idea! Thanks for that inspiration!
I think, I will try that, since now I have holidays until 11th of january 2016 and I´m a lover of good wine :wink: . But I will just record with my Zoom H4 then, not with my full equipment, because the installation and dismounting of my recording equipment always takes half an hour or so. Would that be o.k.? And my improvisation will be more in classical and romantic style or so, at least not jazzy, would that also be o.k.?
My favorite piano internet site, what could that be? :?: :lol: :wink:

 

There's no style pre-requisite to improvise ! At least to me. You should first look for pleasure. If you feel happy, you have some chance to communicate this hapiness. However, I think it is also important to keep a certain degree of self-criticism. Otherwise you may fall in the trapp where some otherwise great improvisers like Keith Jarrett fall quite often: lengthy pieces with little musical content. A good technique is to play while looking at a watch, and limiting your pieces to 2 minutes. Well, it is not what I did in the last one I have posted, but here the request was to play 10 minutes with a large public... As for the equipment, I think many recordings available on this site are produced with such a light equipment. You might also install your full system and let it in place several days, but this may be not compatible with the other uses of the room where your Gotrian is located ?

 

Hi Francois,
yes, so it is, since I have two cats, who like to play with the cables and so on very much. ;D I will consider your advices and thank you for them. It may take a while, but I have all time it will need.

 

Good ! I am then looking forward to hear your improvisations ! Happy New Year for you and your family,

 

I wish you a happy New Year, too, and a musically productive one! Thank you!

Btw, I have made a first trial right now and I think, it's not too bad. But from the degree of virtuosity it's nothing compared with your great jazz improvisation here.
Should I post it in AR?

 

Sure ! We are leaving Lyon for three days, so I might be able to listen it only next week-end, but I will. And virtuosity is not necessary for doing good music. Sometimes it is sometimes an excuse not to show ideas and not telling a story...

 

Commendably fluid, and a very nice sound as well.

 

Thanks ! The quality of sound comes from the piano (a Steinway D), the concert room and the professional sound engineer. Unfortunately not common conditions for me...