The Christopher Norton Jazz Preludes Collection: 14 Original Pieces for Solo Piano Based on Jazz Styles.(Book review)

[??] The Christopher Norton Jazz Preludes Collection: 14 Original Pieces for Solos Piano Based on Jazz Styles, w/CD, by Christopher Norton, Boosey & Hawkes Music Publishers Ltd.,/Hal Leonard Corp. (www.halleonard.com), 2006; 38 pp.; $18.95

Destined for commercial success, Christopher Norton's Jazz Preludes Collection will find an instant audience: the thousands--dare I say hundreds of thousands? millions?--of intermediate-level piano students who wish to dip their toes in that vast lake known as jazz. While the 14 pieces in this set are unlikely to stimulate seasoned jazzers, they can serve to bridge the gap between classical and pop styles. Indeed Norton and Boosey & Hawkes have trailblazed that path, having produced the Microjazz series, as close as some students (and their teachers) will ever get to the sounds of Bill Evans and Herbie Hancock.

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There is variety of a sort among these 14 compositions--jazz ballads with standard quartal voicings, like "Jazz Fantasy"; a couple of lively funk grooves, as in "Tough Love" and "Chicken Feed"; ...