Here’s a link to part 6.

Quick recap: When it comes to playing solo piano, I’m always wrestling with physical issues, aesthetical issues with audiences and subsequently, issues getting gigs.

In July 2008 I participated in the Nottingham National Jazz (Solo) Piano Competition. Twenty minutes before we performed in the final round, we were each notified that we had to alter our predetermined programs to include a blues. The judges were sending a message: Solo jazz pianists should be adaptable and spontaneous. I was very disappointed; their aesthetic undoubtedly contradicted my own.

Solo pianists have the freedom and luxury to access a vastly wide spectrum of musical vocabulary and repertoire. I consider adaptability and spontaneity a means to an end. More ironically, I consider them limitations, both physically and aesthetically. Besides, what use is adaptability when you have no ensemble to adapt to? What use is spontaneity when it would spoil a perfect score?

Of course to a certain degree, adaptability and spontaneity are important skills for solo pianists. I always need to adapt to the piano, the room, the audience and their energy. But judges requiring a last minute substitution of a blues to test adaptability assume a very shallow view of adaptability, especially in a solo piano setting.

Side note: The Nottingham judges also criticized me for sounding “too Classical.” Their aesthetic undoubtedly and severely contradicted my own!

Stay tuned for Part 8!