(Music Minus One). After graduating from Queens College in New York, Jim
auditioned for and joined the prestigious "Airmen of Note" at Bolling
Air Force Base in Washington, DC for a 4-year enlistment period as
pianist/arranger. The depth of experience gained here could not have
been realized so quickly anywhere else. It was a veritable laboratory
for perfecting both playing and arranging skills. Opportunities for
creative experimentation were plentiful. Where else could one write
arrangements and have them immediately played by some of the best
players in the country? Members of the band included stellar performers
who later achieved great success on the professional music scene. Sammy
Nestico, Tommy Newsom and first-call New York saxophonist Walt Levinsky
were just a few among these. At the end of this four-year hitch, Jim
returned to New York. In the ensuing years, he earned a masters degree
and doctorate at Columbia University while continuing to write music for
commercials and recordings, study with top composers and perform as
pianist for recordings and live performances. It was a time when money
was no object in setting budgets for national radio/TV commercials and
industrial films. To cite just one example among many others, Jim had
forty players in the studio for a national spot that he wrote for
Chevrolet featuring the Fifth Dimension. There were also recording
sessions in Los Angeles. Notable among these was a two and one half
minute Canada Dry TV spectacular featuring Ann Margret with a cast of
thirty dancers, for which he composed and conducted his own original
music. Most recently, he has served as Director of Music Technology at
Five Towns College in Dix Hills, NY. FTC, noted for its excellence as a
music education institution, has awarded honorary doctorates to Elmer
Bernstein, Clive Davis, and many other notables in the music industry.
While there as Professor of Music, Jim conducted music workshops for
students and wrote original scripts complete with vocal and instrumental
arrangements for shows attended by the public. He also hosted a series
of fifteen TV interviews with composers of the twentieth century and/or
their heirs. Among others, these included Charles Strouse, George David
Weiss, Ervin Drake, the sons of Hoagy Carmichael and Edward Eliscu, and
wives of Frank Loesser and Jule Stein. Jim has also produced a number of
piano recordings for Music Minus One, complete with accurate
transcriptions for pianists to study. The inspiration to write this book
came from the realization that there was no current method that
presented the essential piano improvisor's tool kit in an integrated,
carefully planned step by step building-block sequence from beginning to
end. The Complete Improviser sequentially presents, chapter by chapter,
the authentic tool kit of musical devices used by top professional
pianists. Each time a new devi
