Berklee Jazz Piano

Play jazz piano with tremendous facility and expression. Ray Santisi, one of Berklee's most revered educators—mentor to Keith Jarret, Diana Krall, Joe Zawinul, Makoto Ozone, and thousands of others—reveals the pedagogy that has become core to Berklee's jazz piano curriculum. This unique blend of theory and application gives you a deep, practical understanding of how to play jazz, applying its concepts to jazz standards and Ray's own compositions. The accompanying practice CD illustrates the concepts and shows how they are used by one of the great jazz pianists and educators of our time. It maps to Berklee College curriculum, supporting beginning through advanced levels.

You will learn:

• Jazz chords and their characteristic tension substitutions, in many voicings and configurations
• Modes and scales common in jazz
• Techniques for comping, developing bass lines, harmonizing melodies, melodizing harmonies, and improvisation
• Practice techniques for committing these concepts to your muscle memory
• Variations for solo and ensemble playing
• Advanced concepts, such as rhythmic displacement, approach-chord harmonization, and jazz counterpoint

"This is the best piano book I ever encountered! It contains so much information for any musician at any level to become a great improviser. I am so impressed and moved by the fact that Ray Santisi has been saving these important ideas and methods over decades. Only Ray could come up with a book like this, because he is not only a great educator, but he also is one of the best musicians in the world. This is a true treasure for so many musicians! And I am so honored to be one of Ray's students."

—Makoto Ozone, Pianist/Composer

"I have known Ray Santisi since I was a teenager in Boston. He would invite me to sit in with the Herb Pomeroy Sextet. He has taught many aspiring jazz musicians for many years at Berklee. This all-encompassing book will be invaluable to musicians and teachers alike who pursue jazz improvisation."

—Steven Kuhn, Pianist/Composer/Teacher

"I have been aware of Mr. Santisi's virtuosity as a pianist for many decades. Now he has applied his formidable knowledge and experience to a carefully presented analytical approach to aid in developing the readers technical facility, while encouraging and preserving the unique musical essence and imagination of the individual."

—George Russell, composer, author of George Russell's Lydian Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organization

Ray Santisi has been a professor of piano at Berklee College of Music since 1957. He has taught thousands of students, including Diana Krall, Joe Zawinul, Keith Jarrett, and Jane Ira Bloom. An internationally known jazz pianist, Santisi has performed alongside legends Charlie Parker, Stan Getz, Mel Torme, Irene Kral, Natalie Cole, and others, and appeared on many major-label recordings. He recently received a nomination as a 2008 inductee to the IAJE Jazz Education Hall of Fame. Among other honors, he has received grants and awards from the National Endowment for the Arts for both performance and composition. He currently plays in the New England-based piano trio, the Real Thing, with acclaimed musicians Bob Moses and Marshall Wood.