by jeremysiskind.com | Feb 15, 2018 | News
There was a very nice review of my book, “First Lessons in Piano Improv” in the February/March issue of “American Music Teacher” magazine! The reviewer writes that “the book provides teachers with thoughtful lesson plans for students or give the older student clear...
by jeremysiskind.com | Feb 15, 2018 | at_Home/at_Play
“Kneel” is a song inspired by Caribbean poet Derek Walcott’s autobiography, Another Life. In one passage, Walcott describes having a pseudo-religious experience – he takes in the colorful richness of his island of St. Lucia and is moved by its beauty, but in the same...
by jeremysiskind.com | Feb 10, 2018 | at_Home/at_Play
“What is that Feeling” takes its title from a passage by Jack Kerouac in On the Road. On the Road is one of those books that it seems every teenager or college student has a passionate infatuation with, and I was determined to be “cooler than” liking it myself, but –...
by jeremysiskind.com | Feb 9, 2018 | at_Home/at_Play
The genesis of the song “One Art” comes from reading Elizabeth Bishop’s beautiful poem of the same name. I’ve read it in a few different classes, but I remember it most recently from a poetry seminar I took at Columbia with Michael Golston. The poem stands out to me...
by jeremysiskind.com | Jan 31, 2018 | at_Home/at_Play
This one is personal. Linda Martinez was my first jazz piano teacher and an important mentor to me. She was a freelance composer and jazz pianist in the LA area, who tragically committed suicide when she was 29. She was an incredibly gifted musician and generous...
