CHARLES BANACOS
I didn’t want to waste any more time on teachers who thought you couldn’t make an interesting re-harmonization of a Motown tune. So, for two months I asked a lot of music students and musicians,” who is the best jazz piano teacher in Boston?” And I soon found out that the almost universal favorite was Charley Banacos. He was teaching now at a famous music school, but was soon going to leave to teach in his own independent studio. People said Charley knew he was the attraction, and that he didn’t need to share his fees with anyone else. (Later he told me, “They need me a lot more than I need them.’)
So, that afternoon I walked out of my subterranean basement home and took the trolley to the music school, and walked up to the cedar wood door of Charlie’s room at the school. I could hear a lesson was going on, but I was so determined to get Charlie as a teacher that I just banged away on the door.
That morning Charlie had an unusual experience. He was making breakfast when a bird flew into his kitchen. The bird could barely make it, it was a cripple with damaged wings.Charlie, a very spiritual guy (Interesting that ALL my teachers were spiritually inclined) thought “This is a sign. The Lord is going to send me a crippled soul, and it will be my job to cure him.”
SO – when I knocked on the door, and Charlie opened it, he took one look at my disheveled and broke appearance and though “This is the guy!” Charlie then asked his current student to wait just a minute, and then gave me the address of his private studio and told me to show up that afternoon at 3 o’clock.
It was only after a year of teaching me that Charlie told me this story of why I was jumped over the waiting list. Charlie had a waiting list of 40 students, and had a teaching load of around the same. He gave non-stop half-hour lessons and piled on the homework. If a student didn’t do their homework two times, Charlie would drop them and replace them with the top name on the waiting list.
Putting two and two together, I had to thank that crippled bird, because without it I never would have made it into Charlie’s studio!
And I was still a psychological mess. Despite my working with two successful bands, I still had a big autism problem: and the grass I was smoking just made it worse. I could barely get up the nerve to order a submarine sandwich from a local pizza parlor. I was in my ”broke in the basement” phase, I had only raggedy clothes – in short, I was a mess! As I remember, Charlie didn’t even charge me until I had gotten back on my feet financially speaking: a little support from Mom and Dad at home, and then the Ben Petrucci gigs, enabled me to pay Charlie.
- “Play in 12 keys!” The student was expected to play everything he was given in all 12 keys, whether it was a song, a drill, a chord voicing, whatever.
- Charlie would always duet with the student. If the student was also a keyboard player, (Charlie taught students on any instrument), Charlie would play bass lines on the bottom of the piano while the student played chords and melody on top.
- Charlie would go deeply into theory excursions: he wrote a series of books, all in 1972
(” Tonal Paralepsis”, vols. 1 and 2; “Voicings in Clusters”, “Voicings in 5ths”, Voicings in 4ths”).
The intensity of theory learning and playing drills would be relieved by Charlie’s jokes and stories about famous jazz musicians, and his days performing in New York.
In my case – maybe in others – Charlie gave the top priority to composing. After a year he came to really like my composing ideas, and so I had carte blanche to not do any of my homework that week if I had written a new composition. Charlie never gave any advice or critique of what I had written. He would just say “Far out!” or “That’s nice”.
I did enough of the 12 key drills and songs to get my keyboard chops up enough to work well with the Petrucci band. But due to Charlie’s indulgence in my composing ideas, I never got as advanced in technique as his other piano students – but the composing I did with him gave me the training to write the 1970s-1990s pieces on my YouTube site (Lee Cronbach - YouTube). Charlie prepared me for the explosion in new compositions that resulted from meeting Mel in Los Angeles.
So even though I practiced less by far than most of his students, Charlie never dropped me or threatened to drop me, once he heard my first compositions. And even when I had to drop out of his studio when I went to Baltimore for three months, he instantly opened a place for me in his schedule when I returned to Boston. As I said, this was totally against his standard method of disposing of non-practicing students. So, thanks, little bird, you are another being that helped to bring me to my Pacific Shangri-La,
My son Jason likes to say ”Religious people don’t believe in coincidence.” And when I think how this went with me, what a blessing these ‘’coincidences’” were! Living in the sub-basement compelled me to practice, just to escape that horrible dwelling. Which led me to look for a great teacher, leading to Charlie. And Charlie’s “crippled bird” experience opened his studio door for me. Studying with Charlie got my chops up enough that I could work with Ben Petrucci. And working with Ben Petrucci gave me practical experience in styles of music other than rock and R&B (Sure, Ben played many songs in these styles, but he also played the standards (the Great American Songbook), Broadway show tunes, waltzes for weddings and anniversaries, even Latin melody based on, a two-chord montuno Javier Castillo had taught me back in Berkeley So, between Charlie and Ben, I was ready to play in any jazz or popular style, as well as in the rock and R&B training my other bands had taught me.
Charlie had been a dedicated musician from a very early age. As a child he practiced for hours daily. As a teenager he studied with one of the greatest pianists of this century, Jaki Byard (see photo and link below). He went to New York in the mid-60s, and played with some great jazz bands (Roy Haynes, Charles Mariano, Teddy Kotick, and others), but within a year decided that what he loved best was teaching. So, Charlie returned to Boston and became a full-time teacher and author of jazz theory.
Charlie passed away in 2009 – cigarettes were his only vice, but they were enough to kill him. Now he is even more famous than he was when alive. After the mid-70s he taught at numerous music schools in New England and New York. He has a Wikipedia page (Charlie Banacos - Wikipedia), numerous references from grateful students (including such current jazz musicians as Mike Stern, Michael Brecker, and Jerry Bergonzi), and a site which gives many of his music theory and how to practice ideas (“in 12 keys and as fast as possible”). You can still get theory lessons as well as his books from a site run by his widow and a former student, Charlie Banacos Online Jazz Correspondence Lessons) https://www.charliebanacos.net/
This site includes a quote from Charlie that gives his teaching method in a nutshell:
Charlie: “Sometimes I get asked "Who's your best student?" or "Who's your favorite student?" and I always answer that it's the student I'm teaching at the moment. I love to teach and I'm not one of those people who teach because they can't get a gig. I've always taught.
In my work with students all around the world I've found it doesn't matter if they're well known or not, it comes down to this: Find out what to practice and then do the work. It never fails (my emphasis). Students who are motivated to do a lot of tough disciplined work will do great with these lessons. It is a lot of fun to get better and better at music but I'm serious and I expect the student to be just as serious about learning.”
I didn’t want to waste any more time on teachers who thought you couldn’t make an interesting re-harmonization of a Motown tune. So, for two months I asked a lot of music students and musicians,” who is the best jazz piano teacher in Boston?” And I soon found out that the almost universal favorite was Charley Banacos. He was teaching now at a famous music school, but was soon going to leave to teach in his own independent studio. People said Charley knew he was the attraction, and that he didn’t need to share his fees with anyone else. (Later he told me, “They need me a lot more than I need them.’)
So, that afternoon I walked out of my subterranean basement home and took the trolley to the music school, and walked up to the cedar wood door of Charlie’s room at the school. I could hear a lesson was going on, but I was so determined to get Charlie as a teacher that I just banged away on the door.
That morning Charlie had an unusual experience. He was making breakfast when a bird flew into his kitchen. The bird could barely make it, it was a cripple with damaged wings.Charlie, a very spiritual guy (Interesting that ALL my teachers were spiritually inclined) thought “This is a sign. The Lord is going to send me a crippled soul, and it will be my job to cure him.”
SO – when I knocked on the door, and Charlie opened it, he took one look at my disheveled and broke appearance and though “This is the guy!” Charlie then asked his current student to wait just a minute, and then gave me the address of his private studio and told me to show up that afternoon at 3 o’clock.
It was only after a year of teaching me that Charlie told me this story of why I was jumped over the waiting list. Charlie had a waiting list of 40 students, and had a teaching load of around the same. He gave non-stop half-hour lessons and piled on the homework. If a student didn’t do their homework two times, Charlie would drop them and replace them with the top name on the waiting list.
Putting two and two together, I had to thank that crippled bird, because without it I never would have made it into Charlie’s studio!
And I was still a psychological mess. Despite my working with two successful bands, I still had a big autism problem: and the grass I was smoking just made it worse. I could barely get up the nerve to order a submarine sandwich from a local pizza parlor. I was in my ”broke in the basement” phase, I had only raggedy clothes – in short, I was a mess! As I remember, Charlie didn’t even charge me until I had gotten back on my feet financially speaking: a little support from Mom and Dad at home, and then the Ben Petrucci gigs, enabled me to pay Charlie.
- “Play in 12 keys!” The student was expected to play everything he was given in all 12 keys, whether it was a song, a drill, a chord voicing, whatever.
- Charlie would always duet with the student. If the student was also a keyboard player, (Charlie taught students on any instrument), Charlie would play bass lines on the bottom of the piano while the student played chords and melody on top.
- Charlie would go deeply into theory excursions: he wrote a series of books, all in 1972
(” Tonal Paralepsis”, vols. 1 and 2; “Voicings in Clusters”, “Voicings in 5ths”, Voicings in 4ths”).
The intensity of theory learning and playing drills would be relieved by Charlie’s jokes and stories about famous jazz musicians, and his days performing in New York.
In my case – maybe in others – Charlie gave the top priority to composing. After a year he came to really like my composing ideas, and so I had carte blanche to not do any of my homework that week if I had written a new composition. Charlie never gave any advice or critique of what I had written. He would just say “Far out!” or “That’s nice”.
I did enough of the 12 key drills and songs to get my keyboard chops up enough to work well with the Petrucci band. But due to Charlie’s indulgence in my composing ideas, I never got as advanced in technique as his other piano students – but the composing I did with him gave me the training to write the 1970s-1990s pieces on my YouTube site (Lee Cronbach - YouTube). Charlie prepared me for the explosion in new compositions that resulted from meeting Mel in Los Angeles.
So even though I practiced less by far than most of his students, Charlie never dropped me or threatened to drop me, once he heard my first compositions. And even when I had to drop out of his studio when I went to Baltimore for three months, he instantly opened a place for me in his schedule when I returned to Boston. As I said, this was totally against his standard method of disposing of non-practicing students. So, thanks, little bird, you are another being that helped to bring me to my Pacific Shangri-La,
My son Jason likes to say ”Religious people don’t believe in coincidence.” And when I think how this went with me, what a blessing these ‘’coincidences’” were! Living in the sub-basement compelled me to practice, just to escape that horrible dwelling. Which led me to look for a great teacher, leading to Charlie. And Charlie’s “crippled bird” experience opened his studio door for me. Studying with Charlie got my chops up enough that I could work with Ben Petrucci. And working with Ben Petrucci gave me practical experience in styles of music other than rock and R&B (Sure, Ben played many songs in these styles, but he also played the standards (the Great American Songbook), Broadway show tunes, waltzes for weddings and anniversaries, even Latin melody based on, a two-chord montuno Javier Castillo had taught me back in Berkeley So, between Charlie and Ben, I was ready to play in any jazz or popular style, as well as in the rock and R&B training my other bands had taught me.
Charlie had been a dedicated musician from a very early age. As a child he practiced for hours daily. As a teenager he studied with one of the greatest pianists of this century, Jaki Byard (see photo and link below). He went to New York in the mid-60s, and played with some great jazz bands (Roy Haynes, Charles Mariano, Teddy Kotick, and others), but within a year decided that what he loved best was teaching. So, Charlie returned to Boston and became a full-time teacher and author of jazz theory.
Charlie passed away in 2009 – cigarettes were his only vice, but they were enough to kill him. Now he is even more famous than he was when alive. After the mid-70s he taught at numerous music schools in New England and New York. He has a Wikipedia page (Charlie Banacos - Wikipedia), numerous references from grateful students (including such current jazz musicians as Mike Stern, Michael Brecker, and Jerry Bergonzi), and a site which gives many of his music theory and how to practice ideas (“in 12 keys and as fast as possible”). You can still get theory lessons as well as his books from a site run by his widow and a former student, Charlie Banacos Online Jazz Correspondence Lessons) https://www.charliebanacos.net/
This site includes a quote from Charlie that gives his teaching method in a nutshell:
Charlie: “Sometimes I get asked "Who's your best student?" or "Who's your favorite student?" and I always answer that it's the student I'm teaching at the moment. I love to teach and I'm not one of those people who teach because they can't get a gig. I've always taught.
In my work with students all around the world I've found it doesn't matter if they're well known or not, it comes down to this: Find out what to practice and then do the work. It never fails (my emphasis). Students who are motivated to do a lot of tough disciplined work will do great with these lessons. It is a lot of fun to get better and better at music but I'm serious and I expect the student to be just as serious about learning.”
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| Charlie Banacos with his teacher Jake Byard |
Some Links:
1) Lefteris Kordis, a student of Charlie’s, wrote a dissertation in which many former students describe Charlie’s teaching theory and methods:
2) Jaki Byard, Charlie’s main teacher, playing a solo with the Charles Mingus Sextet live In Norway (1964). Jaki’s solo is from 3:18 to 6:50
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ix8P7zOrEJU .
Jaki also can be heard on the brilliant orchestral piano he played on Mingus’ classic Music at Monterey and the several recordings made in Europe with Mingus’s “favorite quintet’ in the early 1970s.
3) Scratch My Back – composed by me c. 1974 for a Banacos class; recorded in
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcjhJjz5ZPU
Wah-Wah-Ko – composed and recorded in 1977 in Los Angeles, with Mel Wiggins; I sent tapes of some of my compositions to Charlie, and this was his favorite. He kept asking, ‘when areYou going to send me another ‘Wah-Wah-Ko?’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJF3v3fnHSU
Sample of Charlie’s exercises:
A – Two chord melodic patterns (to be played in 12 keys) based on Coltrane’s Giant Steps
A – Two chord melodic patterns (to be played in 12 keys) based on Coltrane’s Giant Steps
B – An ear-training exercise (to be sung in 12 keys)
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