This exciting new CD-ROM is the piano lover's dream come true. Players and listeners alike will thrill to the full sweep of jazz piano history in a single CD-ROM, from Scott Joplin to Cecil Taylor, all represented in faithful stylistic recreations through the amazing genius of master jazz pianist Dick Hyman. Besides being one of the most profound and versatile jazz artists of our time, Hyman has made a sub-career of capturing the styles of the great succession of jazz pianists-Jelly Roll Morton, James P. Johnson, Fats Waller, Art Tatum, Bud Powell, Erroll Garner, Thelonious Monk, Bill Evans, Dave Brubeck...the list goes on and on, 62 different artists and over 100 pieces-more than five hours of music in all. The music was recorded on a Yamaha Disklavier to capture every nuance of Dick Hyman's performance. It plays as QuickTime(R) files from the user's computer.
Pro Version with MIDI
For players and students of jazz piano there's a special Pro Version with MIDI Studio. Here all of Hyman's performances play as MIDI files, so the user can hear them through his/her own electronic piano or sound module and learn to play any style in the program, while watching the on-screen piano keys move as they are “played." The user can slow the music down, play it note for note, return repeatedly to any point, in order to capture every phrase, chord and nuance of touch. This is the way jazz pianists learn the craft, but now made much easier than ever before. As an added bonus, the Pro Version MIDI Studio also contains a Jazz Quiz of over 500 multiple-choice questions.
VR Night on the Town
But there's much more. Award-winning computer graphics artist Bob Coleman has designed an exciting interface which takes the user on an excursion through time and space in a virtual reality jazz piano theme park. He or she can club-hop through 52nd streets, or with the click of a mouse slip into a fashionable party on the upper West Side where Gershwin is entertaining friends; or to a rent party where Willie “the Lion" Smith holds forth; to the fabulous Cotton Club for Duke Ellington; then fast forward twenty-five years and downtown to hear Bill Evans at the Village Vanguard. Users will also visit Chicago's Grand Terrace where Earl Hines is playing, catch Pinetop Smith at the Masonic Hall, and drop in on Mary Lou Williams in Kansas City.
The Music, the Visuals, the History
You choose the city and era to visit, enter a music venue and choose the artist to hear. You immediately have access to Dick Hyman's selection in the style of the artist, or click to see the photographs of the players and clubs; generous documentation (including comments on tunes by Dick Hyman himself and 200,000 words of biographies, stylistic analyses and discographies by producer, jazz historian and pianist, Joel Simpson), and on-screen rare historical videos of many of the artists. Each time you enter the program is a new and exciting experience. So besides the fun of the music this CD-ROM is truly a one-stop interactive reference work on jazz piano-complete with discographies and bibliography.
Welcome to Dick Hyman's Studio
There's still more: you can enter Dick Hyman's own studio where he will treat you to his own richly imaginative arrangements and to the series of twelve tributes to the pianists he has collaborated with, each one a miniature gem which captures the style of an exciting contemporary. And for Pro Version users, Dick Hyman also offers 90 minutes of explicit video lessons on eight of the classic styles, including Art Tatum, Earl Hines, Erroll Garner, Jelly Roll Morton and boogie-woogie. In addition to inviting the user on a musical adventure, we will include a complete indexing engine, to give the student of jazz piano instant access to anything in the program, making it an ideal research tool. This aspect of the CD-ROM is also designed to be friendly to the print-handicapped.
More to Come...
Dick Hyman's Century of Jazz Piano is the first in a series of projected CD-ROMs featuring the best pianists of our time, captured in MIDI files. Watch for future releases in the series of Contemporary Keyboard Masters from JSS Music.
Prices: Pro Version (includes Dick Hyman Lesson videos and MIDI Studio): $99.95
Home Version: (everything but the lessons and the MIDI Studio): $49.95
JSS MUSIC
6111 Park Ave. Suite 3B
West New York, NJ 07093
phone/fax: 201.868.6383; order line: 1.800.557.7894;
email: [email protected]; Visit our
interactive website: www.jssmusic.com
For more information contact All About Jazz.
