Hi -

I have not really touched the piano for 4 years or so (my college years). Would someone be able to give me recommendations on where to concentrate? i.e. theory, chords, specific pieces, books, etc. I'm really without direction as in the past I always had a teacher telling me where to go..

Current ability:

1) 9-10 years of classical piano training
2) Decent sight-reading ability
3) Literally no music theory (I somehow don't even know chord progressions besides major/minor)
4) A screwed up bent left pinky (hard to do stretch to octaves these days)

What I'd like to do:
1) Get into jazz piano
2) Hear a cool tune on the radio and be able to put together a decent piano arrangement fairly quickly

Concentrate on theory, no question. You say it's your weakness, and you want to get into jazz. You'll not be able to get by in jazz without theory, whereas to a fair degree you can get by in classical. But jazz theory is approached a little differently than the usual common practice theory. I don't have an opinion as to which one to approach first, other than speculate that if you want to do jazz, it's probably best and most straightforward to study theory from a jazz perspective.

I don't know how screwed up your finger is, but I believe jazz would be much more forgiving in this regard than would be classical.

Tomasino