A jazz piano lesson to help you learn Billy Strayhorn’s jazz standard “Lush Life.”
Take your LH playing to the next level with my free ebook: Jazz Piano Left Hand Techniques: https://keyboardimprov.com/jazz-left-hand-techniques-ebook/
You'll find my book, The Inner World of Piano Improvisation, on Amazon.
Understanding the tune 0:12
Who was Billy Strayhorn? 0:38
How Strayhorn worked under the Ellington “umbrella” 1:27
Strayhorn’s musical style 1:47
Strayhorn’s most personal composition 2:20
Strayhorn’s original harmonies 3:03
A few aspects of Duke Ellington’s style 7:13
Unusual introductions to Ellington and Strayhorn tunes 7:51
To improvise or not to improvise? (that is the question) 9:17
An Ellington-like intro 10:11
The Verse 10:30
Rolling the ascending chords 10:42
A descending chromatic bass fill 10:45
A Chopin-like LH figuration 10:48
Evoking the intro again 10:53
Taking the melody up an octave 10:57
D13(#11) 11:13
Rapidly-changing textures 11:16
Using Billy Strayhorn’s original chords 11:24
Doubling the melody with the left hand 11:31
Using the F harmonic minor scale over C7 11:41
Duke Ellington-style 11:37
A melodically-active left hand part 11:45
More Ellingtonia! 11:50
Chromatic inner-voice motion 11:56
The whole tone scale 12:00
A reflective ending to the verse section 12:03
An Ellington-like diminished voicing 12:07
The song’s chorus 12:11
Adding an upper melodic line 12:15
A slightly fuller pianistic texture 12:24
More in tempo, embellishing the melody 12:30
Tatum/Strayhorn 12:42
Fuller voicings on the bridge 12:49
LH arpeggios for the last ‘A’ section 13:08
Building up to a high point 13:15
More tenderly 13:23
A simpler texture 13:45
Strayhorn’s original harmonies 13:53
Bell-like voicings for the ending 14:08
Open 5ths in the left hand for a full, resonant sound 14:18
The show must go on! (despite a ringing phone) 14:25
Learning “Lush Life” yourself 14:39
Good luck with your jazz piano playing! 15:29
Here are some more Free Jazz Piano Lessons for you at the KeyboardImprov website: https://keyboardimprov.com/free-beginning-jazz-piano-lessons/
Thanks for joining me on this musical adventure, and please LIKE, COMMENT and SHARE this video with your musical friends.
If you'd like to start my full video course, you'll find it here: https://keyboardimprov.com/get-started/videocourse/
For Zoom and Skype lessons, please email me at rondrotos@keyboardimprov.com.
Enjoy the journey, and "let the music flow!"
Ron