I Could Write A Book: Journey Through The Real Book

Jazz piano solo and musical/historical discussion of the Richard Rodgers/Lorenz Hart jazz song “I Could Write A Book,” inspired by the Miles Davis recording on the 1956 album Relaxin’ With The Miles Davis Quintet .

Journey Through The Real Book #159: I Could Write a Book
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The prevalence of Rodgers/Hart tunes in The Real Book 0:00
Playing “I Could Write A Book” in a “Broadway piano” style 0:42
The cross-influence between popular music and jazz during the 1930s-50s 1:21
How “I Could Write A Book” became a jazz standard 1:42
The Miles Davis Quintet’s marathon recording session for Riverside 1:53
The personnel of the great 1950s Miles Davis Quintet 2:05
“Hearing” the bass and drums in your head while playing solo jazz piano 2:19
The Miles Davis recording of “I Could Write A Book” in Eb 2:44
Playing “I Could Write A Book” as a medium tempo to bring out the charm of the song 2:52
Jazz musicians being influenced by a song’s lyrics 3:06
The “charm” in Miles Davis’ 1950s playing vs. Coltrane’s “warmth” 3:15
The popular music influence on Miles Davis 3:30
A mainstream solo jazz piano rendition of “I Could Write A Book” 4:13
Melody over rootless left hand chord voicings 4:15
Melodic embellishment 4:27
Improvising a fill between phrases of the tune’s melody 4:39
Developing the motif at the end of the melody 5:05
Block chords, a la Ahmad Jamal and Red Garland 5:12
Single-note melodic improv 5:20
Rhythmic repetition in the improvised melodic line 5:23
Hinting at the tune’s melody during the jazz piano solo 5:57
Improvising with RH octaves 6:06
Developing a motif from the original melody 6:12
Using longer bebop lines 6:18
An altered dominant chord voicing 6:31
A bluesy riff 6:55
Continuing with the RH octaves, with more exciting rhythms 7:00
Another blues lick 7:15
Quoting “Surrey With The Fringe On Top” 7:50
Including more roots in the LH texture 7:57
Using a LH pedal point for the turnaround 8:46
Returning to the song’s melody 8:49
Extending the arrangement with a tag 9:40
A chromatically-descending series of chords 9:43
Playing the opening melodic phrase for the ending; rubato 9:43


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