# Michel Camilo plays Giant Steps



## Trespass (Dec 26, 2010)

The speeds at which he hits those guidetones are incredible. Not only is the technique incredibly fluid (no muscle tightening), he's improvising these lines without the fingering worked out beforehand. This, of course, in addition to the incredibly tonally balanced left hand work.

The fact that this is such a technical feat overshadows how musical the lines being played are, and the unity and explosive dynamic this group has.


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## theclap (Dec 26, 2010)

his improvisation at the beginning actually sounds like coltrane's solo just sped up to 300 from 210 bpm. i enjoyed this. have you ever heard jason moran? he takes old standards and fucks the shit out of them up down sideways and underneath.



also a personal favorite. Not quite related but it's piano and jazz and it relates to this in that it is super explosive playing and out there sounding.


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## NovaReaper (Jan 5, 2011)

Trespass said:


> Not only is the technique incredibly fluid (no muscle tightening), he's improvising these lines without the fingering worked out beforehand.




Thats...usually what jazz players do.

Pretty good player.


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## leftyguitarjoe (Jan 8, 2011)

Awesome vid man


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## bostjan (Jan 8, 2011)

He needs to slow down.


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## Trespass (Jan 12, 2011)

NovaReaper said:


> Thats...usually what jazz players do.
> 
> Pretty good player.



When you are a pianist, you have to deal with the physical difference of notes. Each key is different. Fingering is very important. Playing at high speeds with clarity is difficult - He's improvising musically valid lines without pre-worked out fingering. As a piano major, I can attest to how difficult this is.


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## Kairos (Jan 12, 2011)

Trespass said:


> When you are a pianist, you have to deal with the physical difference of notes. Each key is different. Fingering is very important. Playing at high speeds with clarity is difficult - He's improvising musically valid lines without pre-worked out fingering. As a piano major, I can attest to how difficult this is.



But there are "unique challenges" with every instrument. So I don't really think that's a valid argument.

Having said that, the video is insane, I have no idea how someone could comp and improvise with such speed and fluidity. Thanks for the vid


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## sonofabias (Mar 20, 2011)

Kairos said:


> But there are "unique challenges" with every instrument. So I don't really think that's a valid argument.
> 
> Having said that, the video is insane, I have no idea how someone could comp and improvise with such speed and fluidity. Thanks for the vid



In that case if you want to hear melodic invention at super human velocity check out recordings of pianists Art Tatum and of course Bud Powell, if possible then, fasten your safety belt !


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## Trespass (Mar 20, 2011)

sonofabias said:


> In that case if you want to hear melodic invention at super human velocity check out recordings of pianists Art Tatum and of course Bud Powell, if possible then, fasten your safety belt !



From a piano standpoint, I would say that Tatum, Powell and by extension Oscar Peterson are not playing deeply into the keys. They intentionally do not play with a heavy, Chopin-esque legato as Camilo or Hiromi Uehara does. Personal preference in tone, as well as the style of the time. From a technical perspective, doing legato while staying loose and not tightening up is much more difficult.



> But there are "unique challenges" with every instrument. So I don't really think that's a valid argument.



That's true, but the nature of training to hit these speeds on piano is much more difficult than on other instruments, say on guitar. It would be more valid to compare what he's doing here to doing the same on acoustic guitar sans amplification while hitting the strings as loud as you possibly can WHILE staying fluid and musical.


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## Jtizzle (Mar 26, 2011)

Trespass said:


> From a piano standpoint, I would say that Tatum, Powell and by extension Oscar Peterson are not playing deeply into the keys. They intentionally do not play with a heavy, Chopin-esque legato as Camilo or Hiromi Uehara does. Personal preference in tone, as well as the style of the time. From a technical perspective, doing legato while staying loose and not tightening up is much more difficult.
> 
> 
> 
> That's true, but the nature of training to hit these speeds on piano is much more difficult than on other instruments, say on guitar. It would be more valid to compare what he's doing here to doing the same on acoustic guitar sans amplification while hitting the strings as loud as you possibly can WHILE staying fluid and musical.



Just like any bop player, they are in fact within the key, but these guys especially (just as parker and coltrane used to do) would use a lot of chord substitutions which give you altered notes (such as b4, b9, #9, ect) which are within the key. When an instrumentalist practices, he practices to include these notes in his playing, probably not the individual notes, but I definitely know about practicing with tritone chord substitutions, diminished chord substitutions, parker and coltrane changes and substitutions, ect. Camilo is a great pianist, his Suite Sandrine pt 1 was the first jazz song I ever heard (apart from mainstream stuff like Sinatra). We're both Dominican so I've been exposed to him a lot.


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## Ryan-ZenGtr- (Mar 26, 2011)

Bostjan, this is for you...

wanted it slowed down?


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## xtrustisyoursx (Mar 26, 2011)

Jtizzle said:


> Just like any bop player, they are in fact within the key, but these guys especially (just as parker and coltrane used to do) would use a lot of chord substitutions which give you altered notes (such as b4, b9, #9, ect) which are within the key. When an instrumentalist practices, he practices to include these notes in his playing, probably not the individual notes, but I definitely know about practicing with tritone chord substitutions, diminished chord substitutions, parker and coltrane changes and substitutions, ect. Camilo is a great pianist, his Suite Sandrine pt 1 was the first jazz song I ever heard (apart from mainstream stuff like Sinatra). We're both Dominican so I've been exposed to him a lot.



He meant physically "in" the piano keys. In classical training, getting smooth rich tone involves loads of practice striking each key the correct way so the felt on the hammers strikes the strings in just the right way to produce the correct voicing. Though very skilled, many jazz piano players are much more concerned with the notes they are playing, rather than having a perfect rubinstein or hoffman legato. Camillo on the other hand, has that in spades, even in the midst of blazing improvisations.


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## Jtizzle (Mar 26, 2011)

Well, to a certain extent, legato is used in jazz but isn't as important. Part of the swing feel is having those accentuated notes on the upbeat that cut a bit short. It's part of the rhythmic syncopation which characterizes Jazz. The reason why Camilo has a great legato technique, though, was because he studied in the Dominican Conservatory of Music, which is still mainly a classically inclined institution to this day although it does has it's jazz areas, but back then when he was studying there it was even more classically inclined


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## TimothyLeary (Mar 27, 2011)

it sounds so boring this way.


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## Trespass (Mar 27, 2011)

xtrustisyoursx said:


> He meant physically "in" the piano keys. In classical training, getting smooth rich tone involves loads of practice striking each key the correct way so the felt on the hammers strikes the strings in just the right way to produce the correct voicing. Though very skilled, many jazz piano players are much more concerned with the notes they are playing, rather than having a perfect rubinstein or hoffman legato. Camillo on the other hand, has that in spades, even in the midst of blazing improvisations.



This.




Jtizzle said:


> Well, to a certain extent, legato is used in jazz but isn't as important. Part of the swing feel is having those accentuated notes on the upbeat that cut a bit short. It's part of the rhythmic syncopation which characterizes Jazz.



Legato is or isn't as important as I choose it to be in how I interpret the music. Jazz has evolved in certain directions that barely swings at all. (ie. Esbjorn Svensson Trio, Hiromi Uehara [Her new solo CD], Michel Camilo, Bossa Nova, Rabih Abou-Khalil etc.) 

Swing, both in how heavy it is and the quality of the swing defines different eras and styles of jazz, (Bebop swing is MUCH different than 30-40s big band swing) not just jazz itself. And I, coming from a classical conservatory background, love a singing Chopin-esque legato.


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## xmetalhead69 (Mar 27, 2011)

shit this is insane. I've been working on memorizing the transcribed sax solo on guitar and its challanging to say the least. I couldnt even begin to play it at this crazy tempo.


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