September 10, 2006

Yesterday I met Al Lerner because he happened to be visiting his granddaughter whom I was teaching a piano lesson for the first time. This guy knew Art Tatum very well and toured as a jazz pianist his whole life, much of it with Harry James. Hal Leonard publishes a couple jazz books of his and he gave me a CD on my way out. Fantastic playing.

I went to SC last night and heard Dennis Thurmond perform a recital entitled "400 years of Improvisation" in which he improvised on themes by Gesualdo, Bach, CPE Bach, Liszt, Ravel and Debussy, Monk, and others.



I also taught an amazing student. He started in November (age 4) and now is playing Bach Minuets and Bartok early piano works.




A cool tree (Banyan?) at USC.