HT's worth a try ?

[A440A@AOL.COM]

 RMoody writes: 
<<  You mentioned Jazz.  Well I like ET for Jazz but I cannot call myself a 
Jazz

player.   I think though I would like to try Pythagorean.  >>

Greetings, 
     Somewhat germane to this is a recent experience with 1/4Comma meantone 
and some jazz.  I had this tuning on a house piano as part of our CD 
research.(Our Scarlatti selection goes just perfect in this tuning).  A 
neighbor, who also happens to play piano for the band Alabama,  came over and 
began playing.  He is a jazz player as well as a country player, and his 
Bach, Scarlatti, and Beethoven is pretty impressive, too.  A fully rounded, 
professional working pianist and keyboard player. 
   He immediately hit the wolves,  eyebrows raised, he began working around 
them, then started finding ways of using them.  He found diminished 7ths and 
aug9ths (and heaven knows what else!) that worked for him, and said later 
that he was feeling textures and harmonies in there that he had never heard 
before.  He is really interested in using it.  
    This was surprising to me, as I had had grave reservations about the use 
of a 5-limit tuning in a modern world.  The pure thirds, and their 
traditional use ( 1450-1700) had more or less shaped my impression of the 
meantone sound into pure thirds interspersed with some busy fifths.  There 
was none of that with the voicing and chording that was going on this time!  
Very complex chords can get so close to dissonant that the wolf is more 
cousin than stranger.  
    I know that Avery T.  had some interest expressed by a jazz pianist for 
meantone.  Anyone else ever try this?  If so, I would be really interested in 
what happened.
Regards, 
Ed Foote RPT
(PS, the enharmonic changes needed for this tuning are hard on string 
stability,  I would suggest trying on pianos that are heading for the 
stringing shed,  or maybe brand new strings that can be tried in meantone 
while still 20 cents flat before going on up for any of the milder tunings.)