How High The Moon: Journey Through The Real Book

Jazz piano solo and musical/historical discussion of the 1940 song “How High The Moon,” which is one of the most popular jazz jam session tunes of all time. Enjoy!

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Finding a fresh approach to playing “How High The Moon” 0:00
An 8-year jazz piano project 0:12
Creating an immersive musical environment in which you can learn jazz piano 0:28
The value of hearing different version of jazz standards and studying various genres of jazz 0:46
Getting over the “jazz learning curve” and improvising fluently 1:10
The “sameness” that results when jazz pianists learn the same scales, rhythms, and chord voicings 1:26
Discovering your own way of playing jazz tunes 1:37
Nurturing your musical individuality, right from the beginning 1:47
Billy Taylor’s anecdote about Art Tatum as a jazz piano teacher 2:01
As you learn each new jazz piano concept, “make it your own” 2:32
The usual way of playing “How High The Moon” 2:47
Looking at the historical and musical contexts of “How High The Moon” 3:02
“Ornithology” as based on the chords to “How High The Moon” 3:25
Benny Harris and Charlie Parker as co-composers of “Ornithology” 3:27
Jimi Hendrix’ views on jazz 4:18
Bill Taylor’s experiences while playing piano for jam sessions at Birdland 5:25
The musical form of “How High The Moon” 6:01
“How High The Moon” in a 2-beat Broadway style 6:22
The jazz innovation of “jazzing up” popular ballads of the 1920s-50s 6:52
Playing “How High The Moon” with jazz vocalists in the key of Eb 7:17
Modal playing and cluster voicings 7:55
A straight-8th note version of “How High The Moon” 8:07
How to use “text painting” in your jazz piano interpretations 8:30
Beginning with Impressionist pianistic textures 9:43
Gradually bringing in the melody 10:18
The “How High The Moon” melody with Impressionistic fills 10:38
An E chord with F in the bass (instead of Fm7) 10:54
Chromatically-descending inner voice motion 10:59
Easing into a medium swing tempo 11:02
Extending the turnaround with shifting harmonies over a pedal point 11:02
Playing “How High The Moon” in a “straight-ahead” jazz style 11:21
Harmonizing the melody with block chords in the style Milt Buckner and George Shearing 12:00
Bringing back the opening Impressionist motifs, in a jazzier context 12:08
Improvising on the tune’s melody 12:25
Quoting the turnaround from “Ornithology” 12:32
Rhythmic displacement 12:37
Left hand rootless chord voicings 12:51
Shell voicings in the left hand13:02
Pseudo-stride 13:20
Improvising with the Lydian Mode 13:44
Soloing over a walking bass line 14:30
Polytonality 14:46
Extending the turnaround and modulating to the key of Eb major 15:18
Playing “How High The Moon” in Eb 15:20
Modulating back to the key of G major 16:05
Bringing in quarter-note triplets 16:28
“Metric Modulation” to a jazz waltz feel 16:33
Returning to the 4/4 swing groove 16:45
Repeating and varying the turnaround into a “tag” 16:40
Slowing down 16:57
Evoking the “text painting” from the introduction 17:02
Discussing the musical concepts and techniques used in the performance 17:21
Learning from great jazz musicians such as Charlie Parker, John Lewis, Bill Evans, and Lester Young, and then “making it your own” 18:32


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Enjoy the journey, and "let the music flow!"
Ron