Recording in My Teacher's Style

I gave a try of 'Body and Soul' -- another difficult jazz standard
http://www.box.net/shared/st2kadn7833h8h0m0z7l

I made this in the style of my teacher, to show his influence. I did this in one take and my time was a little off as I tried to adjust to the backing track. As my friend Chris Bell advised me, I need to lay back just a little.

The advanced goal my teacher has set was to not be playing scales and develop better melodic concepts while I play. I have no idea if I achieved that but that at least was what I tried to do.

I suppose I should post an update to my progress in jazz. Over the last year, I've gone from practicing at home to regular jam sessions. I have a regular professional gig with my own band and as the recordings show, there's a large audience and plenty of regular fans that return each time.

Wow -- I've come a long way. It's been seven years since I started playing piano and jazz. I remember chatting with my teacher (5 years now with the same teacher) and I asked him why he took me since 5 years ago, I had all the theory but I could hardly play. He said he sensed it was all in me and I just didn't have the confidence to let it out.

Jazz is a very difficult genre to learn because progress is slow and improvisation is something that has to come from inside you.  Add to that the difficult of learning piano and it seemed an impossible goal at the beginning.

Now I'm setting a new goal. This is more aggressive. I actually want to be good at this. I realize that I've succeeded in reaching some level of mediocrity in jazz playing. It would take quite a bit of effort to sound like a 'better' player. We'll see how long that takes.