Sunday, June 1, 2008

Red Garland vs. Wynton Kelly

Here's a quick comparison of the styles of Red Garland vs. Wynton Kelly:

Red Garland
Wynton Kelly
more legato touch
more staccato touch ("pop")
block chords with root-fifth-octave in right hand common
block chords not as common and many times they just have an octave in the right hand
uses more blues devices sometimes repeated over several choruses (see "Soul Junction" for example)

favors b5 more frequently
long phrases a la Bud Powell
uses triad arpeggios frequently sometimes with b5; sometimes with tremolo "fanfare"
eighth notes are a tiny bit straighter than Kelly's
eighth notes have a triplet feel (try playing transcriptions with boogie woogie triplet left hand to get rhythmic feel)
Left hand chords are frequently played on the upbeat of 2 and 4 or with a "Charleston" rhythm
Left hand chords frequently consist only of 3rds and 7ths

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1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

good analysis of the two styles. Wynton's feel is definately more triplet oriented. He swings so hard. One of my favorite blues pianists. He died to soon.

October 31, 2008 at 9:04 PM  

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