Regardless, there’s something brilliantly festive about these collections, and I find myself returning to them every year at around this time!īringing a more British spin to a similar concept, and attached to another landmark publishing phenomenon, Pam Wedgwood’s Christmas Jazzin’ About is an equally sure-fire triumph. Nothing wrong with that, of course, but some carols have different tunes to those British readers will be expecting, and some titles here are less known on this side of the pond. It’s worth noting that several tunes recur from one book to another, with more complex arrangements to suit the developing player.Īlso, UK readers will again want to know that the books have a US-centric choice of music.
Here, interestingly, she eschews the jazzy Christmas songs of the crooners in favour of traditional carol melodies, which she then turns on their heads to produce some fabulous re-workings that players and listeners alike will surely fall in love with. Mier has a canny knack for both nailing a musical style and throwing down a catchy tune. The fifth and final book is suitable for early advanced players. The intermediate player will be able to whizz through the first book, aimed at elementary players, before exploring the second, third and fourth, which provide a wealth of progressive material that the student can look at year by year. It’s really great, and my students love it too! To summarise, I’ve not found any drawbacks in this publication at all, and there’s nothing to stop me giving this collection “full marks”. Keveren includes ample but not excessive articulation and phrasing in his pieces, some pedalling suggestions, and there are modest fingering recommendations throughout. The notation is cleanly presented and easy to read. There is a brilliance of musical ingenuity throughout, from the simplicity of his Holly and the Ivy arrangement to the twinkling beauty of his Silent Night, in which only a careful attention to voicing will allow the melody to emerge from within the broader piano figuration with clarity (making this a wonderful learning tool as well as a gorgeous piece to just sit and play). While the music has the Christmas stamp on it throughout, I am happy to report that the piano writing and style of arrangement is in a similar vein to the previous Piano Calm book ( reviewed here), making this a perfect fusion of seasonal cheer and relaxed piano vibe. Piano Calm dresses traditional carols with a contemporary reflective vibe. The collection joyously traverses the seasonal scene, covering established hits such as Do You Hear What I Hear? and White Christmas, jazz favourites It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and the more contemporary All I Want for Christmas is you.
#Christmas jazz piano duo series
As a whole, however, the presentation in Hal Leonard house style is superb, and I suspect this series as a whole will fly off the shelves. That said, the chords shown are often more complex than the ‘elementary’ level suggests, with chord extensions and inversions enriching the simple harmony delivered by the piano solo.įingering is included but minimal, and as a fresh publication for 2021 I am slightly surprised by the lack of backing tracks and demo recordings. Helpfully the presentation again includes the lyrics, verses and all, written between the LH and RH staves.Īlso included, simple chord symbols are presented above the solo piano arrangements, making the book well-suited for a family sing-song including guitars, electronic keyboards and so on. That isn’t to say the pieces themselves are all that easy with syncopated rhythms, frequent accidentals, hand position changes and chord playing, this collection is best suited to those at early intermediate level, around UK Grade 3.
The USP of the series is that each collection contains accessible piano arrangements of contemporary favourites, none including more than one sharp or flat in the key signature.
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