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The players

Jazz Piano Legends

Thirty-six pianists, and one question running under all of them: what do you do with your hands when the chord symbol says Dm7. Ten have a full profile. The rest are here through their hands, on the shapes they share, or through their place in the line.

Every pianist below leads somewhere real. A name with a written profile goes to it. A pianist whose voicings the app has transcribed goes to the shape that most distinguishes them, where the notes of both hands are printed. The rest go to the family tree, where their position is the truest thing we can tell you.The whole tree is here.

Ragtime

a parlour upright in a pool of oil-lamp light, the rest of the room gone to black.

the torn edge of sheet paper, dark mahogany, tarnished brass

Stride

a Harlem rent-party room after everyone has gone home.

brass, a blade of spilled light under a closed door, worn floorboards

Swing

an empty bandstand with the house lights down.

heavy velvet curtain, chrome music-stand tubing, amber

Bebop

a 52nd-street basement under a single hanging bulb.

cigarette smoke, painted brick, condensation on glass

Cool Jazz

a west-coast studio in the first hour of morning, light through plate glass.

cool ivory, plate glass, pale wood

Hard Bop

a Blue-Note-era studio with the tape machine idle.

a tape reel, a ribbon-microphone grille, warm amber

Free Jazz

fractured light across broken planes.

shattered reflections, hard shadow, angular geometry

Fusion

an electric-piano action in raking light, chrome hardware around it.

electric amber, brushed metal, coiled cable

Contemporary

a modern grand's lacquer reflecting a city night.

black gloss, distant amber bokeh, glass

Free download

The Jazz Voicing Cheat Sheet

One page. The rootless voicings working pianists actually use, in every key, with the fingerings. Free.

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