A couple weeks ago I made a video of myself performing the jazz standard An Afternoon in Paris by John Lewis.

I performed solo piano on my upright acoustic Petrof piano. It’s available below or on Youtube.

Hope you enjoy it!

other links:

• Listen to different versions of this song at Grooveshark. I especially like the renditions by Sonny Rollins and Cedar Walton.
• My jazz band in Vancouver, the Geoff Peters Trio, has a new CD which is available for free listening on our website.

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.

My friend, singer songwriter Gio Escueta, dropped by my place today and we recorded a performance of the jazz standard Moonlight in Vermont. It’s a really beautiful and romantic jazz ballad. Hope you enjoy it!

Watch: On Youtube, on Blip.tv
Listen: Mp3
or use the video player below.

Check out Gio’s youtube channel for more music.

I practiced the piano for about an hour today, in two different sessions. The first session was about 20 minutes. I am working on getting my technique flowing again and learning the jazz standard Joy Spring by Clifford Brown. I also did a bit of improvised accompaniment to myself singing Autumn Leaves.

Click here to listen to my piano practice in Midi format.

Here is a nice recording of Arturo Sandoval performing Joy Spring from his album I Remember Clifford:

Joy Spring – Arturo Sandoval

Here is a recording of Joy Spring by the late great jazz pianist Oscar Peterson and his trio:

Joy Spring – The Oscar Peterson Trio

I did about a 45 minute practice tonight, learning the tune “Tune Up” by Miles Davis. It is a deceptively simple tune that seems like it will be great to solo over once I really learn it. I finished the practice by playing some scales. Finally I am getting some of the strength back in my fingers – it is really encouraging!

Click here to download my practice of Miles Davis’s Tune Up and technique in Midi format.

Since it is in Midi format, the sound quality will depend on what kind of music synthesizer your computer has. The one that comes with Quicktime works, but isn’t the best. If you have a Yamaha DIsklavier piano or a Roland, try playing the midi file though your actual piano!

I did a short practice before going to bed on the tune Ceora by Lee Morgan. Feel free to cick below to listen in Midi format.

> Ceora practice (tune by Lee Morgan) – jazz piano practice by Geoff Peters Midi file

In this Youtube video, the late great Frank Sinatra sings the classic song Moonlight in Vermont. Simply beautiful.