Both students of jazz piano and jazz enthusiasts will get a kick out Dick Hyman’s Century of Jazz Piano CD-ROM. Available as a one disc “home version” or a two disc “pro version,” the tutorial is a phenomenal collection of jazz history and piano instruction compiled and created by pianist extraordinaire Dick Hyman and music educator and journalist Joel Simpson (who also plays jazz piano).
Hyman has been a master of jazz piano for over fifty years now, having played in the NBC Orchestra in the 1950s and later working with Woody Allen as a composer and arranger and countless others over the decades. As is apparent after even spending only a few minutes with the CD-ROM, Hyman is able to play piano with great skill in a range of jazz styles and is infinitely knowledgeable about this topic. He demonstrates improvs on the styles of some of jazz’s best-known pianist, from Duke Ellington and Cole Porter to James P. Johnson and Art Tatum to Wynton Kelly and Keith Jarrett. All of these references to the great jazz pianists are both entertaining and useful to anyone interested in learning more about this versatile and highly influential instrument.
The first disc is the most interactive, containing a virtual tour of jazz history and geography. Click on your favorite jazz site, whether it be New Orleans, Kansas City, Chicago or Harlem, and you will find a list of that city’s most famous jazz venues and a list of all the greats who played there. You will also find very thorough and well-written biographies of musicians, some containing rare video or historic photographs.
Having dabbled in piano for a few years myself, my favorite feature of the CD-ROM was the user-controlled MIDI Studio. MIDI is the computer language used for musical notation. Red dots highlight a digitized keyboard as Hyman plays a variety of jazz piano styles, allowing an ambitious or skillful user to learn these various styles. Several Quicktime video lessons are also included, with Hyman taking on the role of a patient and knowledgeable piano teacher. One of these tutorials extensively highlights and analyzes the style of Art Tatum (and includes an extensive biography, including an interview, with Tatum). Each lesson also contributes to the user’s understanding of the progression of jazz piano, demonstrating how new styles built upon or developed from older styles.
Also featured is a fun, yet educational, jazz quiz. However, beware: the quizzes are quite difficult. My advice: spare your ego and start with the novice level, unless you are one of those jazz enthusiasts who knows as much about Thelonius Monk’s mother as you do about the late great pianist himself. You are certain to impress (or annoy the heck out of) friends with the information you learn from these quizzes. There is also a “name that tune” type quiz and a one-to-four player music game.
Disc two contains sheet music for over a dozen Hyman compositions in the styles of the masters. Clearly, this CD-ROM is packed with information and Hyman and Simpson expertly weave beautiful music throughout. Whether you are die-hard fan of Jelly Roll Morton, Bud Powell or Dave Brubeck, you are certain to find great utility and wonderful entertainment in Hyman’s formidable guide to jazz piano.
