pianist vs. piano player

[Laurence Horn]

At 12:08 PM -0500 2/7/02, Grant Barrett wrote:
>On 2/7/02 12:03, "Michal Lisecki" <magura at GIGA.PL> wrote:
>
>>  Dear all,
>>  perhaps the resources I've looked up were too poor or is it just that as a
>>  non-native I am just not able to judge it by myself but what (if any) the
>>  difference is between the two notions from the subject: "pianist" and
>>  "piano player".
>>  To the best of my knowledge, or perhaps rather to my "senses", I guess that
>>  "pianist" refers mostly to the field of classical/chamber music or to those
>>  artists who either play the piano solo or whose performance is central to
>>  the rest of the group/band (in jazz?). Whereas "piano player" would then
>>  perform as only one of the many members of a group/band.
>
>I'd kind of agree with this and suggest it's like "fiddler" vs. "violinist."

I'm not sure both of these can be right, since "fiddler" vs.
"violinist" (and indeed, "fiddle" vs. "violin") has more to do with
the kind of music played (what Michal Lisecki refers to in his first
disjunct rather than his second).  So whether the fiddler (for a
country or bluegrass group, say) is still a fiddler whether s/he's
the lead or central member of the group or just one of many
musicians.   Notice it's "jazz violin(ist)" and not "jazz fiddle(r)",
as well as classical.  "Pianist" vs. "piano player" may well involve
the soloist vs. ensemble player parameter as well as the genre.  On
the latter, I was always struck by the fact that the old Truffaut
film noir and Charles Aznavour vehicle, Tirez sur le Pianiste, was
rendered into English as Shoot the Piano Player, not Shoot the
Pianist.  He played a kind of improv jazz piano in a cafe.  It was
one of my favorite films when I was of the appropriate age.  I note
that google has thousands of hits for "Don't Shoot the Piano Player",
which I guess is an old dictum; however, "Don't Shoot the Pianist"
also has a large number (although only half as many), so perhaps this
doesn't prove anything.

larry