Hello group.

I'm new the board, jazz, and fairly new to piano also.

For the last year I've been doodling around at the piano in my spare time. And during the holidays I bought a couple CDs to see what jazz was all about. One was by this guy named Monk and another by someone named Ellington( it wasn't until recently that I would have seen the sarcasm in this).

Anyway, I really love this stuff. And I'd liked to take piano practicing and playing a little more seriously.

I planned on getting a book by Mehegan, and it seems Abersold is recommended by a few of you, but how do I find a good jazz/blues instructor(what instruction qualities should I expect)?

By the way, I'm in Houston, Texas if anyone has a recommendation.

This leads to a second question,
Any tips on where to hear live Jazz played in Houston?

-Thanks
Sturm

That would be Thelonious Monk and Duke Ellington.

As far as finding a teacher, I'd advice to find someone who is an active musician -- have a jazz trio/quartet, plays lots of gigs, plays solo piano gigs, etc. He should be able to play jazz standards without sheet music, and in different keys.

Just a little advice, hope that helps!

Mehegan's stuff is pretty theoretical, so be ready for that. I have all four of his series. Not to say don't get it, but there may be a few books more accessable than his if you're new to jazz. There is a book by Mark Levine that's pretty good, but I can't remember the name off the top. Maybe do a search...

Since you live in Houston, you should not have problems finding a good teacher. I live in the Middle-of-Nowhere, Maryland and there are some great jazz and classical teachers here. Some good places to start looking are music stores and universities.

But what gregjazz says is pretty much what I've fouund out. A working musician is going to be more in touch with what you need to know.

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Thanks, for the input.

Levine has "The Jazz Theory Book" and "The Jazz Piano Book", I assume you are talking about the latter.

Again, Thanks.

Yeah, those books are really great!

Oh and don't forget to pick up copies of all the New Real Books -- especially volume one and two.

"The Real Book Sicxth edition" trumps the Sher "New Real Books (Vol. 1, 2, 3, 4)"

"Hal Leonard has just released a clone of the original old bootleg Real Book and now calls it "The Real Book" Sixth Edition. It comes close to cloning the the original "old" Real Book.
The complete song list will be available online at www.halleonard.com.

Volume One of The Real Book is thought to have been created in the early 1970s by students at an Berklee college, who loaded the song list with cream-of-the-crop gems, but completely disregarded copyright law, paying no royalties to writers.

Many features of their fake book appealed to working musicians: songs with no page turns; the large, handwritten type easy to see on dark stages; the evenly spaced four-to-a-line measures; and the straightforward, sight-readable notation. Although illegal, the songbook flourished, with photocopies sold worldwide from car trunks, basements and beneath the counters of music stores. Since then, the various editions of The Real Book, Volume One – now numbering five – have become arguably the bestselling songbooks of all time; they are a mandatory purchase for first-year jazz students, and the lingua franca for gigging musicians.

Hal Leonard has been working on The Real Book, Sixth Edition for two years. The Business Affairs department has successfully licensed the majority of songs in the original edition. The few omissions of more obscure tunes are due in most part to the inability to locate the copyright holders. Dropped tunes have been replaced with exceptional standards that belonged in the book in the first place.

Editorially, project leader Jeff Arnold has painstaking reviewed all of the music in the new book, correcting errors from the original, and ensuring the most accurate, Real Book-style arrangement of every song. Hal Leonard has gone to great lengths to retain all of the stylistic elements of the previous editions, duplicating the handwritten notation, cover design, paper stock and binding.
Comments Hal Leonard Chairman and CEO Keith Mardak, “Music dealers have been clamoring for a legit version of this book for decades, because it is simply what musicians want. Although we’ve published many jazz fake books through the years, none of ours, or other publishers’, has been able to supplant The Real Book. We are very proud to be the company to bring this book to market, and the song writers and owners we work with are elated to be finally getting paid for the use of their compositions.”

Hal Leonard will bargain-price The Real Book, Sixth Edition at a musician-friendly $25, which is less expensive than the error-ridden, illegal version. The fake book will include a preface from the editors, a table of contents alphabetical by song title, and the finest 400 jazz songs ever assembled.

Sturm,

I'm in Houston and I study jazz piano with Gary Norian. He teaches his lessons out of The Piano Store at Westheimer and Kirby. His number is 281-240-1284. I recommend him without hesitation.

There are bunches of places to listen to jazz in Houston. Cezanne's on Montrose...The Magnolia Hotel downtown, Tommy's Steak and Seafood on Westheimer; Perry's on Bay Area Blvd. Bunches of places. There used to be a website called "JazzHouston" that listed all the venues. I can't find it now. You might Google it and see what you find.

Sorry about the slow response...haven't checked this forum for a while. TGG

Eh, I'm a Sher New Real Book fan myself. I have a few of Hal Leonard's fake books, but they are ridden with mistakes. (not to say that their "The Real Book Sixth Edition" has any errors in it, though)

I dunno. I prefer using fake books only as reference. In the end, you're going to memorize the songs anyways. Ideally you shouldn't be bringing any fake books to gigs and just have all the tunes memorized.

I appreciate the info TGG.

As you can see, I'm not on that frequently either.

Thanks