Rootless Voicings on Solo Piano

[markmorgan]

Im currently working my way through Levine's Jazz Piano book, and have come to the section of altering notes within voices (I think its chapter , Im also looking at Tim Richards' 'Exploring Jazz Piano' at the same kind of thing.
Basically, left hand voicings follow the 3-5-7-9 or the 7-9-3-5.
So Im working through ii-V-I progressions using these voicings, I'd like to hear from any SOLO piano players as to how effective they find these voicings to be.
I've no doubt that with a bass player - they are a great way to sound different and make chord progressions sound fresh - but do they work in a solo piano context.
I was also thinking of making more of the root note in my right hand runs and this works - but only to a limited degree.
But then I read that players like McCoy Tyner use these rootless voicings even in a solo piano setting.
So far, to make these work I often need to resort to bringing my right hand over to hit the bass note to put the rootless voicing into context.
But any other ideas are welcome. How popular are these rootless voices with other jazz solo pianists. Feel free to speak of those you know as well as your own personal experiences.
thanks
Mark.
p.s. How many of you work from the Jazz Piano Book ? Do let me know if you do. It would be an idea to get an informal message list regarding this book - if not its own section..I've pretty much gone through 90% of the music there and s-l-o-w-l-y transcribed it so would like to hear from others who have done the same thing and are working on the concepts.

[Tracktiongeek]

Try 3-6-7-9 or just 7-3-6. The Tyner thing often had to do with hammering a root-fifth down low and following it up with 4th stacks (7-3-6, 4-7-3, 5-1-4 etc.)When I was a kid I practiced striking 4th stacks up and down all the diatonic scales and modes. There's also some stuff on the axis of the minor third that sounds kinda cool with 4th stacks. Tyner isn't at all traditional sounding in his solo work. I don't think he did too much solo stuff (he sure made those Coltrane changes sound fluid though). You'll find different kinds of forth stack stuff all over the place. Art Tatum, Bill Evans, Lyle Mays, Bruce Hornsby, Ahmad Jamal, Herbie, Chick, Frederic Chopin, pretty much everywhere. Good luck.

[chardin]

You're probably way past this markmorgan, but it sure helped me. Here is a good introduction into rootless piano voicings.

http://www.chrisfitzgeraldmusic.com/les ... andout.pdf

[gnu23]

You're probably way past this markmorgan, but it sure helped me. Here is a good introduction into rootless piano voicings.

http://www.chrisfitzgeraldmusic.com/les ... andout.pdf

Thank you for the PDF link. I'm only an amateur (meaning no training) keyboardist, which means more than half the time I am programming keyboard runs rather than playing them - point being I have done rootless voicing without knowing there was a term for it or a theory behind it. I did it to give space to other instruments. Nice to know that what I did based on feel has a name.

Thanks again, chardin, and all the posters in the thread. I really learned something good here.

[markmorgan]

I second that and thanks Tracktiongeek for the McCoy Tyner tip, and chardin for the chord chart - sounds like a great thing to look into - I'll give it a try.


Mark