Last week, vocalist Gio Escueta and I performed at the Fairmont Waterfront Hotel in downtown Vancouver BC Canada.

We made a video of one of the songs, My Foolish Heart by Ned Washington and Victor Young. It’s available on Youtube or by using the player below. Hope you enjoy!

Last night I made a video recording of myself performing an original jazz bebop tune on the piano. It’s called Ocean Apart and I wrote it last summer while taking a composition class with New York jazz pianist Misha Piatigorsky.

You can view the video on Youtube, Blip.tv, or use the player below.

The MP3 recording of this performance is available for free here.

I played piano at a wedding with my friend Julian N., a saxophonist and composer. Julian is a student at Humber College in Toronto. You can view his myspace page by clicking here.

Here is a track listing with links to the individual videos:

• Stella by Starlight (Victor Young)
• Blue Bossa (Kenny Dorham)
• Out of Nowhere (Johnny Green)
• Recordame by Joe Henderson
• Donna Lee (Charlie Parker)
• Blues in Bb
• Summertime (George Gershwin)
• It Could Happen To You (Jimmy Van Heusen)
• Footprints (Wayne Shorter)

If you’d like to download MP3’s of the concert (free) you can get them from here.

With Julian’s permission I used my minidisc unit to record the audio from our performance. There is quite a bit of background noise from the wedding guests’ conversation, but in the recordings you can hear both of us quite clearly.

I also set up my Sony Camcorder in the corner and video-taped our performance too. There was very low light, so you can barely make us out in the video, but it gives more context to the audio to be able to see us perform too.

At this wedding, we performed a selection of mainstream jazz standards in a duo style. Probably my biggest inspiration for the saxophone-piano duo format is the legendary combination of Stan Getz (saxophone) and Kenny Barron (piano). Another inspiration for rhythmic ideas has been the mighty pianist Chick Corea and his duets with the one and only voice artist Bobby Mcferrin (such as their killer performance of Autumn Leaves).

So without further ado, here’s our complete performance (except for the last song we played, Confirmation by Charlie Parker, where we got interrupted by some DJ music).

Hope you enjoy! I hope that these performances will give you some ideas or inspiration for your own journeys in jazz and music in general.

Further listening: I performed one of Julian’s original compositions with the college band at the Phil Dwyer Academy of Music and Culinary Arts (PDAMCA) last August.

Today I wrote a new song: it’s called “Wild Thing” and is inspired by the movie Where the Wild Things Are. Click here to download the song or feel free to use the player above to listen.

To watch me perform the song, check out this Ear Training Video we made, where I explain how to play the Minor 7th interval (a key part of this song!). The performance of Wild Thing is at the end of the video.

The ear training video on intervals is part of EarPractice.com, a website that I created with my friend Marcus Emmanuel Barnes.

My friend Marcus was over for a visit today and he encouraged me to write a song dedicated to the new “love” in my life, my Petrof acoustic piano.

So I wrote a simple folk ballad which I call “Me N Petrof“. It is similar to a Brad Mehldau song I vaguely remember listening to, as well as the American folk song Shenandoah which I played in high school band, quite a few years ago!

I made a rather hasty recording of it, just to get the idea cemented in my mind, and I wrote out a lead sheet on a piece of music notation paper.

Feel free to use the player above to listen to the song, or you can download the MP3 here.

My new Petrof Piano

The Petrof piano brand is from the Czech Republic. Petrof pianos have been admired and enjoyed by many amazing musicians throughout the years, including jazz greats Keith Jarrett and Count Basie and classical pianists such as Sviatoslav Richter.

I purchased my piano from Yonatan Torn in Vancouver. Yonatan is a master Steinway piano tuner and technician in the Vancouver area who also imports, rebuilds, and sells pianos (mostly European pianos). You can find out more about his piano tuning and restoration services, and view the pianos currently for sale at his website.

pegEsus Quintet Live at Hermann's Jazz Club (poster by Oliver Brooks)

Back in August I performed a show with the pegEsus Quintet at Hermann’s Jazz Club in Victoria.

pegEsus is led by vocalist Peggy Hogan, who is currently studying music and literature at Concordia University.

The pegEsus Quintet is: Peggy Hogan voice, Geoff Peters piano, Ben Fast bass, Nick Houghton drums, and Amanda Paterson saxophone.

I recorded the show using my Minidisc recorder and camcorder, and put together the whole thing online as a series of Youtube videos.

• Watch entire show on Youtube
• Download the MP3’s of the concert (free)
• Check out Peggy’s myspace page.
• See my article on how use Minidiscs to record live music.

Here is a set list and links to the individual videos:

Set 1:

• Song For My Father by Horace Silver

• Your Mind is On Vacation by Mose Allison

• Close Enough for Love by Johnny Mandel, Paul Williams

• Bye Bye Blackbird by Ray Henderson

• Straight No Chaser by Thelonious Monk

• Georgia on My Mind by Hoagy Carmichael

• West Coast Blues by Wes Montgomery

Set 2:

• Softly as In A Morning Sunrise by Sigmund Romberg and Oscar Hammerstein II

• A Timeless Place (The Peacocks) by Norma Winstone / Jimmy Rowles

• It Ain’t Necessarily So by George and Ira Gershwin

• Twisted by Lambert, Hendricks & Ross

• God Bless the Child by Billie Holiday and Arthur Herzog Jr.

Kate Mcgarry. Photo credit: Matteo Trisolini

I just discovered the music of jazz vocalist Kate McGarry (view her page on All About Jazz, her website, or her myspace).

She has a really contemporary and modern sound, a bit similar to Bjork but with the passion and intensity of some of the classic “old school” vocalists like Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday.

For the Jazz Piano Cafe “Song of the Week”, I’ve picked Kate McGarry’s track Stars off her 2005 album, Mercy Streets. Stars was composed by pianist Fred Hersch who also performs on this track. The track also features Steve Cardenas (electric and acoustic guitars), Keith Ganz (myspace, acoustic guitar), Sean Smith (bass), and Kenny Wollesen (drums).

You can listen to Stars at Imeem (streaming only, provided you register for a free account). It’s also on iTunes (full song for 99 cents), and available directly from the record label, Palmetto Records, or by using the player below.

Stars – Kate McGarry

Stars is a wistful and beautiful song. The impressionistic glittering of Fred Hersch’s gentle yet insistent piano explorations makes me imagine looking at a sky full of stars. Wollesen’s drums and Smith’s bass eventually reveal the hints of a sophisticated and pulsing bossa nova, that underlies McGarry’s clear, sensitive, and nuanced vocal lines. The track progresses at a meandering walking pace through many harmonic directions into a thoughtful and motion-filled piano solo, and returns again to the original groove. My favorite part of the track is the line ending in “skies are friendless” at 2:15.

Here is an excerpt from the lyrics:

It’s so much harder
I find
without the light
of endless stars.
Clear the wondrous winter sky
that casts its spell.
Warm your hand in mine.
Do you recall
who can tell
I wish I knew what I could do
to forget your face. What to do when nights are endless
and skies are friendless.
Not a star, bring back the stars, the endless stars.

I hope you enjoy this track! Stay tuned for more great songs of the week.

- Geoff Peters at Jazz Piano Cafe.com

My talented globetrotting singer-songwriter friend, Angela Molineux, dropped by my place today for a visit, and we wrote and recorded a new song, called All I Want To Do.

We originally started working on this song 3 years ago when we were both living in Vancouver. Since then Angela has performed and lived in Italy, New York, and London, has studied opera at Julliard, and has had many other interesting musical adventures.

All I Want To Do is a seductive pop ballad that is full of emotion and desire. The simple, repetitive harmonic structures envelop the listener in a thick intoxicating cloud that can become almost trance-like. Most of the song is made up of the chord progression Ebm Gb Fm, and the second half of the chorus alternates between Ab and Gb.

Check back on this page for updates on when the song will go live on iTunes (expected date is the end of Feb. 2010).

Last week I attended the Phil Dwyer Academy of Music and Culinary Arts (PDAMCA) in Qualicum Beach, BC, Canada. Check out Phil Dwyer’s web site for more info about the camp. It was an amazing experience, with world class faculty and very talented students.

Here are some videos from our final concert. I was playing in a combo ensemble directed by Ingrid Jensen. Feel free to use the players or the links below.

“Tristan Paxton” – a composition by James Colwell
Watch: Youtube
Listen: Mp3

“Pass The Baton” – a composition by Julian Nalli
Watch: Youtube
Listen: Mp3

Mark Adam Drum – by Joel Miller
Watch – Youtube
Listen – Mp3

I have been practicing a bit on Bye Bye Blackbird by Ray Henderson. I decided to make a little recording of a solo piano version of the song, on my new acoustic piano. Hope you enjoy it!

Bye Bye Blackbird
watch: Youtube (or use the player below)
listen: MP3

Please watch in HD for better sound!