Ultra Smooth Jazz Grooves for Piano/Keyboards

Book excerpt: Ultra Smooth Jazz Grooves for Piano/Keyboards by internationally renowned authors, musicians and recording artists, Frank Villafranca and Andrew D. Gordon of The Super Groovers is a collection of grooves and melodies in the Smooth Jazz Genre creating an exciting supplemental jazz study series for beginner, intermediate and advanced jazz students and musicians. After releasing their first CD “Supergroovin”, which received world wide airplay, they recognized a need in the music publishing business for a series of books on contemporary improvising within the “Smooth Jazz” genre. Andrew composed and recorded all the rhythm tracks used in this book. In their opinion, the melodies were so catchy they couldn’t resist developing them into completed songs. “Mainline Connection”, “Villefranche–sur-Mer” and “You’re The Only One In My Life”, are a few featured on their second CD, “Mainline Connection”. Their CD's or mp3 downloads are available from iTunes, Amazon.com, CD Baby or from The Super Groovers web site. The smooth jazz grooves in this 50 page book feature a variety of contemporary rhythm section styles including R&B, Jazz, Funk, Top 40, Rock, Gospel, Hip Hop and Latin. These stylistic influences are frequently associated with smooth jazz. Popular artists in this genre include, The Super Groovers, David Sanborn, Eric Marienthal, Kenny G, David Benoit, Dave Koz, Tom Scott, Gerald Albright, Candy Dulfer, Wilton Felder, Boney James, Chris Botti, Chuck Mangione, Sade, George Benson, Peter White, Lee Ritenour, Earl Klugh, Larry Carlton, Jeff Lorber, Brian Culbertson, George Duke, Paul Hardcastle, Joe Sample, Spyro Gyra, Pat Metheny, Four Play, The Yellow Jackets and The Rippingtons. We suggest that you become acquainted with as many of these artists as possible by purchasing their CD's or mp3's via retailers such as itunes or Amazon.com. On each of the 20 tracks, the groove is separated into 3 melodic ideas. Each melodic idea (example or riff) is played first, by the piano with the groove, followed by just the rhythm section groove, without the piano. The 1st example is usually the easiest, the 2nd slightly harder and the 3rd the most difficult.