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Bill Evans Rootless

Dom7 Rootless A — jazz piano voicing

Dominant 7 rootless A - LH 3–13–b7–9. Written in C. Below it, 14 transcribed voicings from the pianists it defines, both hands, note by note.

The shape

Dominant 7 rootless A - LH 3–13–b7–9

Bill Evans Rootless

Stored in C so it moves to any key; each note carries its role and its name.

Same family: Maj7 Rootless A, Maj7 Rootless B and Dom7 Rootless B.

The hands, in full

14 transcriptions across 3 players, oldest first.

Bebop era still life for Thelonious Monk: a felt fedora resting crown-down on a piano bench.

Thelonious Monk

1917–1982

Angular Genius · Whole-Tone + Seconds

Minor 2nd clashes, whole-tone runs, bare tritones, sparse root+7th voicings, angular displacements

C13#11

Lydian dominant: LH guide-tone tritone E–Bb | RH a D major triad = 9, #11, 13

Upper-structure triad a whole step above the root, over the bare tritone

Upper Structure + Tritone

C7 crunch

Signature Monk 'bite': minor 2nd (C-Db) at bottom, the 3-5-b7 diminished triad on top

Attack the minor 2nd sharply, then release Db to let C sustain

Dissonant Seconds

Cmaj7 sparse

Just root and major 7th - quintessential Monk space and openness

Maximum space between notes, let overtones fill the gap

Sparse

C7b5 tritone hit

Bare root–b5 tritone in LH (C-Gb), guide tones 3 and b7 in RH - angular Monk harmony

Sharp attack on the low tritone, sustain the guide tones above it

Tritone

C7 stride crunch

Stride-derived: LH 10th, RH has b7-nat7 minor 2nd clash plus 3rd

Attack-sustain: hit all RH notes, immediately release B3

Stride + Dissonance

Also reaches for Dm11 'So What' Voicing.

Swing era still life for Oscar Peterson: a piano bench pushed square to the keys, the seat leather cracked.

Oscar Peterson

1925–2007

Locked-Hands Master · Locked-Hands + Stride

Locked-hands block chords, stride shells, chromatic approach with inner 3rds/6ths

C6 drop-2 lock

Locked-hands: LH shell (E–A), RH octave melody with inner 3rds/6ths

Locked-Hands

ii–V–I stride

LH stride shells; RH block chords chromatic approach

RH block chords chromatic approach

Stride Shells

C7 block chord

Full block chord: melody doubled at octave, inner voices locked

Melody note doubled octave below, all voices move in parallel

Locked-Hands

C7 blues comping

Blues comping voicing - punchy and rhythmic

Blues Comping

C7 swing drop-2

Swing comping drop-2 in LH, RH free for melody

Drop-2 Comping

Also reaches for Maj7 Rootless A.

Cool Jazz era still life for Ahmad Jamal: an empty music desk with nothing on it at all, the rest of the frame black.

Ahmad Jamal

1930–2023

Space & Minimalism · Sparse + Ostinato

Master of space and silence - sparse voicings, ostinato patterns, rhythmic sophistication

Cmaj9 sparse

Signature Jamal space: just root in LH, 3rd-7th-9th wide in RH. Let the piano ring.

Use sustain pedal generously, let overtones fill the space between notes

Sparse Space

C ostinato

LH repeating 5th ostinato (C-G) while RH punctuates with 3rd and 6th

LH maintains steady rhythmic pulse, RH enters and exits freely

Ostinato

Cmaj9 Poinciana

'Poinciana' signature spacing: deep bass root, RH cluster floats two octaves above

Deep LH bass note, wide gap to RH - let the piano's overtones connect them

Poinciana Spacing

C7 two-note comp

Minimalist comping: just root, 3rd, and b7th. Maximum space, maximum swing.

Rhythmic placement matters more than note density - behind the beat

Two-Note Comping

Also reaches for Maj7 Rootless A.

Also in their vocabulary

5 more reach for it. Their notes are printed on the rarer grip each one plays.

Take it to the key you are working in

Everything above is in C, and nothing is held back — the notes are the notes. What a page cannot do is move the shape into the key of the tune on your stand, or run your own progression through it and play the result. That is what the Reharmonization Engine in the app is for.

Built from the app's own data: the grip from masterVoicingGrips, who plays it from pianistVoicingStyles, and every transcription frompianistExactVoicings. Nothing on this page was written about these pianists for the website.