Jazz Lab

Paul Cornish received the Los Angeles Jazz Society’s 2020 New Note Commission and recently was awarded First Place in the Jacksonville Jazz Piano Competition and the 18th Street Arts Center’s 2021 Make Jazz Fellowship. Cornish was also awarded the Grand Prize in the 2018 American Jazz Piano Competition. Currently residing in Los Angeles, Cornish has performed extensively across the globe with such notable artists as Joshua Redman, Louis Cole, Theo Croker, Snoh Aalegra, Terrace Martin, Thumpasaurus and HAIM.

In this episode, host Noah Kellman sits down with modern jazz piano master Aaron Parks,  a forward-thinking  musician who first came to the public's attention during his time with trumpeter Terence Blanchard. In this episode, Aaron & Noah discuss two-handed solo piano techniques, modern improvisation concepts, advanced rhythm exercises, and more. You can also hear performances by Aaron solo, as well as the two playing duo.

Born in Seattle, Washington, Parks began playing piano at a young age and by the time he was 14 had enrolled in an early entrance degree program at the University of Washington. Parks has released several albums under his own name, including his 2008 Blue Note debut, Invisible Cinema. Parks, who has also recorded with Christian Scott, Kendrick Scott, Ambrose Akinmusire, and Kurt Rosenwinkel, was an integral part of the James Farm Quartet with Joshua Redman, Matt Penman, and Eric Harland. 

ButtonMasher (aka Jake Silverman) is a GRAMMY award-winning composer, arranger, pianist and producer who specializes in fusing modern harmony, rhythm and reharmonization techniques with 8-bit Chiptune. In this episode, he explains many of his mind-opening techniques about reharmonization based on rhythm, as well as his fascinating and unique composition methods and processes. 

Rob Araujo is a shining example of a successful musician in today's music industry— with millions of streams on Spotify and other platforms, he uses various social media to share a large quantity of content while also having mastered the art of modern music production to create pristine music all on his own. In this episode, we discuss what it takes to be a pianist in today's world— including Rob's approach to the aforementioned skills, as well as how he views harmony, dissonance in improvisation, and more.

In this episode, we discuss modern piano techniques that blend Gospel and Modern Jazz piano. Jahari shares some of his jaw-dropping practice methods which you can use to take your playing to the next level, developing inner motion and counterpoint in combination with syncopated rhythms.

Chicago-born pianist Jahari Stampley began playing the piano at the age of 14 and has been recognized and followed by many world-renowned musicians, including Yebba Smith, Robert Glasper, Cory Henry, Jacob Collier, Stanley Clarke, Derrick Hodge, Isaiah Sharkey, among others. Jahari has recently been called to tour with Stanley Clarke and is featured on Derrick Hodge’s "Color of Noise" album. He has now worked with many world renowned artists including Jill Scott and Yebba Smith. Jahari was also the winner of the $6000 Bösendorfer prize for the international 2019 American Jazz Pianists Association Competition (for ages 18-25). Alongside all of this, Jahari released his first music mobile app, "Piano Chronicles" for which he did all of the art, music and animation. It is now released for all mobile devices on the Google Play and the Apple store. 

Kenny Werner is a prolific pianist and educator, well-known for his unique methodology designed to help you stop getting stuck in your head and instead make pure, honest music to your highest potential. In this episode, we discuss his Effortless Mastery  methodology and dive into the first steps to removing your musical insecurities. We also dive into his new book Becoming the Instrument and how his methodology extends even beyond music to have a positive impact on daily life.

Kenny's New Book - 'Becoming The Instrument' (I receive a small commission when you purchase using this link): https://amzn.to/3LB9Va9

Kenny's Original Book - 'Effortless Mastery'  (I receive a small commission when you purchase using this link): https://amzn.to/3wH0Kj5