Piano Solo - Level 5 - Digital Download
SKU: A0.1253045
By Bruce Dudley. By Bruce Dudley. Arranged by Bruce Dudley. Jazz. Score. 7 pages. Bruce Dudley #846791. Published by Bruce Dudley (A0.1253045).
Thad and Finas (Etude #13) is based on the harmonic progression used by George Gershwin in his song, I Got Rhythm, widely known as rhythm changes. The form is AABA, divided into 8-measure phrases. The first chorus (mm. 1 -32) consists mostly of two-handed chordal textures with the melody on top in the right hand. This chorus includes harmonizations, chord voicings, and melodic shapes similar to those used by jazz composer and arranger Thad Jones. The second chorus (mm. 33 - 64) consists mainly of single solo melodic lines in the right hand with shell voicings in the left hand that lightly support the melodic lines harmonically and rhythmically. The third chorus (mm. 65 - 96) begins with melodic lines played in unison with both hands two octaves apart, a style of soloing that jazz pianist Phineas Newborn Jr. (Finas) perfected in the 1950s and 60s. In the fourth chorus, beginning in measure 97, the harmonic progression is altered in the A sections, borrowing a clever cycle of fifths progression that was first developed by jazz pianists Art Tatum and Thelonious Monk in the 1940s. Before the piece ends there is a brief moment of stride left hand accompaniment that propels the piece to an exciting conclusion.
