Structural components of the modern

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STRUCTURAL COMPONENTS OF THE MODERN JAZZ PIANO PLAYER’S PERFORMING STYLE
151
https://doi.org/10.29013/EJA-20-3-151-154
Pokaz Andrey Vladimirovich,
Senior Lecturer of the Department of Special Piano,
Odessa National A. V. Nezhdanova Academy of Music
E-mail: [e-mail]
STRUCTURAL COMPONENTS OF THE MODERN 
JAZZ PIANO PLAYER’S PERFORMING STYLE
Abstract. The article examines the performing style of a modern jazz piano player in the systemic 
and structural aspect. As the structural components of the jazz piano player’s performing style, the 
individual characteristics of a musician (musical thinking and performing abilities), “intonational 
vocabulary”, the principle of imitation, sound ideal, etc. are highlighted. These components have a 
decisive influence on the formation of the individual style of the jazz piano player and his style spe-
cifics. The manner of playing is considered as a universal concept that contains a very broad sense: 
those different aspects of the manifestation of the musician’s creative individuality, which affect the 
features of its sound manifestation.
Keywords: jazz; jazz performing; style; jazz piano player; jazz improvisation; sound image.
In the course of its historical evolution, jazz piano 
performance has developed as an independent and 
specific area of musical performance, which in many 
aspects differs from academic traditions and classical 
canons. From its very origins, the performing prac-
tice of jazz pianists has been based on the principle of 
“verbal” existence of musical material among musi-
cians. And this principle determined the exceptional 
importance of the performing individuality, which, 
through its creative activity, carries out the evolu-
tion of musical vocabulary, creatively realizes itself 
through a characteristic performing style and acts 
as the main criterion for evaluating (historical, per-
forming or musicological) of phenomenon of jazz 
music. Particularly this concerns the modern state 
of development of jazz piano performance, which 
is developing under the sign of active interaction of 
various styles, directions and trends of musical art.
The purpose of the article is to identify those fac-
tors of the professional skill of a jazz piano player that 
form the individual image of his performing style.
An individual performing style is an essential 
factor in the development of piano art in general, as 
it is associated with the development of the piano 
repertoire, and the evolution of the organological 
characteristics of the instrument, and the transfor-
mation of the fundamental principles and traditions 
of pedagogical and concert practice. In the history of 
jazz, the category of performing style is even more 
important, since in this area of musical art the figure 
of the performer is a kind of absolute embodiment 
of musical creativity, uniting both the composer and 
the performer in his personality. It is with this posi-
tion that the interpretation of the category of style 
in the works of the largest theorists of jazz is con-
nected: style in jazz is understood not only as a his-
torical direction and a system of musical expressive 
means, but also as a specific manner of performance, 
as a complex of techniques inherent in a particular 
musician (studies by J. Collier, M. Sterns, J. Panasier, 
E. Barban and others). At the same time, the “style of 
trend” is often identified with the “style of the per-
former”, or rather, the “articulatory manifestation” 
of creative individuality forms the style image of a 
separate direction or trend in jazz music. The per-
sonality of a musician in this case plays a central role 

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Section 3. Music
152
in determining the normative musical and linguistic 
qualities of both a separate stylistic direction and the 
era as a whole. Accordingly, in jazz performance, the 
issue of identifying those components of performing 
skills that create an organic complex of individual 
expressive means, which today in musicology and 
performing environments is understood as a phe-
nomenon of an individual performing style, is of