The Jazz Piano Suite is based on a pentatonic theme (in fact, it is a Chinese folk song) and consists of 15 variations in the style of some of the greatest Jazz piano masters of all times.

The piece(s) can be played by jazz students who might gain some in-depht-insight into the many piano styles and techniques of these masters.

Since these variations require no improvisation skills – and due to the fact that there are only few Swing-phrased pieces – they are addressed to classical piano students as well.

The selection of the chosen masters is a very personal one, but it should be mentioned that this suite is a kind of a successor of the Jazz on!Classics series which has been published in German and English but which has also appeared in three Chinese editions (at People’s Music Publishing).

In fact, just before my China tour in 2009, when I presented these pieces, I wanted to bring a musical present to the Chinese people. My main idea was to show that you can take any musical idea and turn it into anything else you like.

To demonstrate this thought, I took a Chinese folk song and turned it into the different styles of some jazz pianists.

I eventually ended up with this suite (and had to stop myself – I could have continued forever).

Each variation attempts to capture one or several musical characteristics of the individual jazz giant. In a separate, second part of the book an analysis will explain these characteristic musical passages and/or quotes. Many of these almost 50 musical examples were specially transcribed from the original recordings.

A short biography, a selected discography and some web links complement this analysis.

The suite can be performed either as a whole or as indivi-dually selected single pieces: as there is a connecting theme, «Anything Goes».

Michael Publig