Salsa & Pepper: Ten Latin Jazz Solos for Piano - w/CD - Book Review

American Music Teacher, Oct-Nov, 2003 by Ann Collins

by Paul T. Smith. Creative Keyboard Publications/Mel Bay Publications, Inc. (P.O. Box 66, Pacific, MO 63069), 2003. 23 pp., $19.95. Intermediate.

Salsa & Pepper is a collection of ten original Latin jazz solos for piano by Paul T. Smith, a pianist, accompanist, arranger and conductor with an impressive and extensive background. Each solo covers one to two pages, and each presents a different Latin feel or groove such as bossa nova, salsa, Latin rock and Latin swing.

These solos provide the intermediate pianist interesting challenges when reading the syncopated rhythm patterns and playing chords with three and four voices in each hand. Although written in relatively easy keys, the pieces require careful reading with many accidentals throughout.

Alphabet chord symbols are included for all ten solos, which is excellent because they enable melodic improvisation over the mostly left-hand accompaniment patterns. However, improvisation is not mentioned or encouraged, and the chord changes would require an above average degree of improvisational skill for an intermediate student.

Following the table of contents, the composer provides notes about the music and includes this statement: "The enclosed CD with piano recordings of every song in this book is a good reference guide (in case the songs do not sound right to you when you play them)." The CD is a valuable "should-sound" model for those who are unfamiliar with the style, rather than "play-along" accompaniment tracks, which would have been especially helpful in establishing and maintaining a strong Latin feel. The solos are musically interesting and provide excellent examples of a variety of "montonos" the ostinato-like figures that pianists play in salsa music.

A number of issues would seem to make this worthwhile addition to the literature challenging for the average student. Several errors can be found in the notation, including incorrect rhythmic notation, and there are several discrepancies between the notation and the CD performance. It would have been helpful to include instructions for how the eighth-note patterns should be played (straight versus swing), especially for the Latin swing piece. Reviewed by Ann Collins, Macomb, Illinois.