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Watch out Herbie... beeboss is on the loose! Very cool.

Tone starts within, I have to have a inner sound that I want to achieve (which has to do with what I want to convey musically), otherwise it's just banging. Playing the piano is all about context, counterpoint, voicing, thinking orchestral (compositionally).

Re: The Pedals; they are all of use to a jazz pianist whom wishes to play and use dynamics. Especially the Una Corda, it's great for building that intimate sound.

>> I have noticed that some really great players use the una corda quite a lot, although I am not sure that KJ does that much.
I shall see him 1st row in January at Carnegie Hall. I'll take a look.

front row, wow. did you have to queue up outside to get those? or maybe sell your soul?
(i am seriously jealous)

Like Chris would say:
"vee haf hour weys"

Supposed to have a nice view of the keyboard. Saw him last year, same room, 6th row. This time should be even better. Such a roller coaster that concert was.

Congrats Knotty! I guess in my case, KJ was the start of the "new" season at that venue (Royce Hall). So I guess the Season ticket holders have first dibs. They probably knew about it months before. By the time I found out, hardly any seats left at any price.

I already saw that he did not use the Una Corda. In fact, he's standing up most of the time so he would only sit down on the ballads. He adjusts his tone by touch rather than other means. To get that kind of tone consistently, you have to hit the keys at a particular velocity all the time, which is so hard in jazz because we often don't know where are fingers will end up...

The Una Corda evens up the tone so individual notes can sound like KJ at moments

hey knotty see if you can do some spy recording and then post it up! hehe, j/k, I think Jarrett would flip out if he caught you.

So do most of you guys gig now? I may look for some for the holiday season.

>> hey knotty see if you can do some spy recording and then post it up! hehe, j/k, I think Jarrett would flip out if he caught you.
Last time he got quite upset because of pictures. He said "Imagine a time when people actually knew how to take pictures"
I think he was just right. What's the point?
I'm telling you the solo concerts are really stressful, and NY has got to be the friendliest audience. Everyone there is nuts, so they all have patience for KJ, I think.

The quality of his recordings over the years has become exceptional. I'll just stick to the records. I remember him doing some impressive boogie woogie, playing over the rainbow, and one or 2 of his own tunes. The Carnegie Hall is such a beautiful room, and to fill it with un-amplified piano is quite a task. You can hear everything that's going on.

It's the kids that have the guts to do recordings...AND post it on youtube..I didn't have the guts.

I was unlucky too because I ended up sitting next to a guy who obviously needed a shower...It was distracting. I did have binoculars so I could see him pretty much closeup.

Hey Knots
What do you mean ? Do you think he enjoys and relaxes in the trio but looks stressed when he has to do it all himself ?

I want to thank everyone for furthering my education. All my life I'd called it the soft pedal and had never heard the phrase una corda.

Only on grands, and not all grands at that. On uprights the pedal brings the hammers closer to the strings rather than moving the action a few millimeters to the side to avoid strings (una corda--one string).

... and while were at it, are we all talking about the una corda pedal here, or the sostenuto? The sostenuto is used by very few people in the jazz realm at least unless for special effects (strumming strings). In other applications the need for a sustained chord or bass note while others are separated is uncommon, especially in a group setting.

That being said, I really love trying to use the sostenuto pedal in solo playing, but I'm at the stage that I'm mostly experimenting with it or throwing it in randomly rather than as a true musical element that is needed.

The una corda, on the other hand is pretty straight forward, and can be used much more easily in almost any setting to get a different sound from the piano not otherwise achieved by lowering volume of playing.

I have no sustenuto so I have no idea how to use on a grand.

So couldn't you use it to drone a bass line while soloing? I mean I'm trying to understand it's function from your description.

you could use it to create more overtones, different overtones

Well, maybe bass octaves or something, but since it is just a sustain pedal for the notes you assign, it would become pretty muddy to use for ostinatos. What kk said is probably more common use.

I'm starting from zero here. You're going too advanced. I've never even tried it on any piano.

I think it would depend on the room. In my living room, the music is overwhelming. Especially with the trio, people have to talk quite loud.
Same in the small club.
But as the venue gets larger, you start hearing people's conversation.
I was at a classical violin + piano at the Strathmore here in DC last week. Another beautiful room, absolutely gorgeous acoustic. Some guy opened a piece of candy all the way across the room and I could hear him perfectly. I thought man, if it was KJ playing, he would be furious. It's not as large as Carnegie Hall but easily 1000 people. Unamplified. Can you imagine?
The violin carried beautifully also.

So I would imagine the expectation to be different.

I tell you, as a listener, it was very stressful last year. On many occasions, our little gang looked at each other wondering if he'd keep playing or stop.

How do you enjoy that? That was the concert I missed. In a way, I don't feel I needed to be there. Fortunately, a Trio has a different vibe. Is he doing a Trio in Carnegie?

He'll play solo. I like his solo stuff the best.