Hi Lynn,
You may remember me, I studied with Prof. Bradetich for a long time at UNT. I was in your class my last semester, but I was going through some hard times and did not have my head totally in the game so to speak. I am seriously considering coming back to Denton to finish my degree. I would be awesome to hear you play again and hopefully go to or take more of your classes.
Well, here is my question. I've started to play jazz again after working on technique and classical music for a long time. I feel I have definitely have some room for inprovement in my harmonic concept and really want to learn more about tunes harmonically and really understand how they're put together so I can learn more of them without depending on Fakebooks at gigs. What are the best ways to do this? Are there any piano books you recommend? I know playing jazz is about having a good ear, not staring at a Mel Bay fakebook, and being able to pick up on chord progressions quickly by ear. What are the best ways to develop a great ear?
Thank you,
Jake

Jake,
It is important to develop a good ear. Try learning tunes from a recording instead of a fakebook. If you are not sure what the quality of the chords are, but can tell what the root is, try the following: 1) Listen to some recordings of tunes you know and focus on hearing what the chordal comper is doing. Learn to recognize a chord progression you know. Do this with any recording. 2) If you can loop a chord with A-B function on a CD player it helps to isolate one chord. You can do this without it, but you have to wait longer to get to the same spot and the voicing might be different. In thumb position (in the piano's range) play a note and test it with the chord. For example, if you know it is a G chord, play a Bb and see if it is OK with the recording. Do this with the 3rd, 5th, 7th and upper partials. 3) Analyze tunes for chord/scale relationships. 4) Ask a piano and guitar friend to play chords for you. Record them playing comping on a tune you know and learn to recognize the chords by ear. 5) Put on a CD of tunes you don't know and just play along with it. Keep a walking line going (even if you are wrong) and let your ears guide you to notes that are good. 6) Sing roots along with a recording. Sing other chord tones and arpeggios with a recording.
Playing some piano helps. Dan Haerle has some good piano voicing books. His and other people's voicing books are available from Aebersold. www.jazzbooks.com