Pianists all know the benefits of playing the "Two-Part Inventions" of J.S. Bach. Now, world-respected jazz pianist and composer Bill Cunliffe has written his own "inventions" that will benefit every player's understanding and performance of jazz. These great-sounding etudes explore the specific harmonic, melodic, and technical challenges faced by jazz keyboardists, including the ii-V and ii-V-I progressions, outlining changes, chord-tone ornamentation, playing in octaves, tonic patterns, block chords, polytonality, stride piano, and left-hand walking bass.

Pieces feature chord symbols, explanatory notes, and preparatory exercises, and each invention is performed on the CD by Bill Cunliffe. 123 pages.