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Denny Zeitlin
Denny Zeitlin has recorded over forty critically acclaimed albums; twice won first place in the Down Beat International Jazz Critics Poll; written original music for Sesame Street; and appeared on network TV, including repeats on the Tonight Show, and CBS Sunday Morning. Zeitlin's lecture-demonstration "Unlocking the Creative Impulse: The Psychology of Improvisation" has been presented across the U.S. and in Europe.
He has concertized throughout the U.S., Canada, Japan, and Europe, at colleges, jazz clubs, and major festivals; appearing with jazz greats such as Joe Henderson, Herbie Hancock, Pat Metheny, Tony Williams, Bobby Hutcherson, John Patitucci, John Abercrombie, Marian McPartland, Charlie Haden, David Grisman, Kronos Quartet, Paul Winter, David Friesen, Matt Wilson, Buster Williams, George Marsh, and many others.
Zeitlin was born in Chicago in 1938. His parents were both involved in medicine and music. He began playing the piano at age two, studied classical music throughout his elementary school years, and fell in love with jazz in high school — a made-to-order medium for his primary interest in improvisation and composition. He played professionally in and around Chicago while still in high school. In college and medical school, he combined jazz with formal study of music theory and composition with Alexander Tcherepnin, Robert Muczynski, and George Russell. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Illinois in 1960 and received his M.D. from Johns Hopkins in 1964.
He is currently a psychiatrist in private practice in San Francisco and Marin County and an award-winning Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco.
His first series of records appeared on Columbia in the mid and late 60's, and were received with critical acclaim and international exposure. Zeitlin then withdrew from public appearance for several years in order to develop a pioneering integration of jazz, electronics, classical, and rock. This music emerged in the early 70's with multiple recordings, culminating in the 1978 electronic-acoustic symphonic score for "Invasion of the Body Snatchers". Subsequently he returned for several decades to a primary focus on acoustic music in a multitude of settings, with continued composing, recording, and international touring.
With the arrival of the millennium and vastly more powerful electronic music technology, Zeitlin embarked on a major upgrade of his home studio and re-immersed himself in electro-acoustic music. He was soon joined by his close colleague from the seventies, drummer George Marsh. As a duo they have released several albums of spontaneous compositions on Sunnyside records.
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Denny Zeitlin: Odyssey
by Dan McClenaghan
Pianist Denny Zeitlin takes a trip into his archival book on the first half of Odyssey. He has always mixed eloquence and beauty with adventurousness. That is up front here. A close comparison to his style of playing can be found in the artistry of Bill Evans. And it should be noted that Evans adopted one of Zeitlin's most touching, gorgeously placid compositions, “Quiet Now," into his concert and recording songbook. Odyssey is not a deep archival dive--Zeitlin ...
Continue ReadingDenny Zeitlin: Odyssey
by Pierre Giroux
Listening to Denny Zeitlin has often felt like accepting an invitation to the unknown. Zeitlin has never been content to simply play a tune. He probes it, turns it inside out, and often uncovers possibilities most musicians overlook. Odyssey reinforces that reputation. Although much of the material spans different periods of his career, the album never feels like a nostalgic exercise. Instead, it captures an artist whose curiosity remains remarkably intact. The trio's 2003 concert performances, featuring the ...
Continue ReadingDenny Zeitlin: With a Song In My Heart: Exploring The Music of Richard Rodgers
by Dan McClenaghan
Musical memories from childhood have a way of sticking. For some, it might be an encounter with Beethoven from a dusty stack of old albums packed away in the parental record collection. For others, it might be the (then, 1954) modern surge of Bill Haley and the Comets shaking, rattling and rolling into the kitchen to make some noise with the pots and pans. Or maybe a chance discovery of 78 RPM records in the garage containing Al Dexter's 1942 ...
Continue ReadingDenny Zeitlin: With a Song In My Heart: Exploring The Music of Richard Rodgers
by Pierre Giroux
Richard Rodgers' melodic genius has long been a favoured playground for jazz musicians, but few reimagine his work with the intellectual depth and intuitive poetry of pianist Denny Zeitlin. On With A Song In My Heart, Zeitlin offers a riveting solo piano exploration of eleven Rodgers classics, combining architectural reharmonization, rhythmic invention and unflinching emotional insight. This is not mere homage; it is a deeply personal conversation with one of the 20th century's great composers. The ...
Continue ReadingDenny Zeitlin: Panoply
by Dan McClenaghan
There was a Steinway in the Zeitlin household in the outskirts of Chicago in the early 1940s. During this time Denny Zeitlin would find his way to the piano playing parental laps and sit at the keyboard, where he, he says: “I would put my little hands on their hands and go along for the ride...and I was just very intrigued by the entire panoply of sounds that were possible with that instrument." (from the 2010 AAJ interview with the ...
Continue ReadingDenny Zeitlin: Panoply
by Pierre Giroux
Denny Zeitlin's Panoply is a diverse array collection of unreleased performances comprising solo piano recordings at the Piedmont Piano Company in Oakland, California, trio sessions with bassist Buster Williams and drummer Matt Wilson captured at Mezzrow Jazz Club in New York City, and duo pieces with drummer/percussionist George Marsh collected over a decade of home recordings at Zeitlin's Double Helix Studio. The album opens with a trio performance of George Gershwin's “I Was Doing All Right." ...
Continue ReadingDenny Zeitlin: Crazy Rhythm: Exploring George Gershwin
by Dan McClenaghan
Denny Zeitlin's jazz career began when he sat in as the featured pianist on flutist Jeremy Steig's Flute Fever (Columbia Records, 1964). He followed this up with his debut as a leader on Columbia Records' 1964 album Cathexis. While maintaining another successful career as a psychiatrist and college professor, he released more than a dozen albums over the next quarter century, most of them acoustic piano sets, plus a few experimental electronic outings, along with a groundbreaking electro/orchestral soundtrack to ...
Continue ReadingThe Story Behind 'Quiet Now'
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JazzWax by Marc Myers
I have known and admired pianist-composer Denny Zeitlin for many years. My admiration dates back to the early 2000s, after I heard for the first time his four albums for Columbia recorded in the mid-1960s. I was blown away. Our friendship dates back to 2009, when I did a multipart JazzWax interview with him. We've been email penpals ever since. Last week, Denny sent along an email urging me to give a listen to vocalist Suzi Stern sing his composition ...
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Recent Listening: Zeitlin Remembers Davis
Source:
Rifftides by Doug Ramsey
Denny Zeitlin Solo Piano: Remembering Miles For the most recent of his annual solo concerts at the Piedmont Piano Company in Oakland, California, pianist Denny Zeitlin’s subject was Miles Davis. The recital before the Piedmont’s customary audience of close listeners covered several eras of the trumpeter’s career. Davis composed few major jazz standards, and he had collaborators for some of those. In the recording, Zeitlin’s repertoire begins with one of the most famous pieces attributed to Davis. “Solar” was in ...
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Electrifying Track: Cathexis
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JazzWax by Marc Myers
In February 1964, pianist Denny Zeitlin recorded Cathexis, his first leadership album for Columbia. Denny was joined by Ben Tucker on bass and Ben Riley on drums. The title track is a word found in psychoanalysis to mean an acute amount of psychic energy directed toward a person or thing. At the time of the album's recording, Denny was studying medicine at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, en route to becoming a psychiatrist. The song's spirit bears some resemblance ...
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Interview: Denny Zeitlin
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JazzWax by Marc Myers
This week, San Francisco pianist Denny Zeitlin will make one of his rare appearances in New York. Starting Wednesday, April 19, and running through Saturday, April 22, Denny will be at the Mezzrow Jazz Club at 163 W. 10th St. On the first two nights, he'll play solo. On the second two nights he'll be accompanied by Buster Williams (b) and Matt Wilson (d). Sets on all four nights start at 8 and 9:30 p.m. If you're out of town, ...
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Interview: Denny Zeitlin on Both/And
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
Pianist Denny Zeitlin's earliest recordings date back to the early and mid-1960s, when he recorded with Jeremy Steig (Flute Fever in 1963) and led his own trio (Cathexis, Carnival, Shining Hour and Zeitgeist). Denny's approach has always been a masterful synthesis of technique and “brain freedom"—the suspension of pragmatism so that his spirit and hands can run the creative show. In most cases, his recorded adventures have been staged on an acoustic grand piano. So imagine my surprise when I ...
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Jazz Musician of the Day: Denny Zeitlin
Source:
Michael Ricci
All About Jazz is celebrating Denny Zeitlin's birthday today!
Denny Zeitlin has recorded over thirty critically acclaimed albums; twice won first place in the Down Beat International Jazz Critics Poll; written original music for Sesame Street; and appeared on network TV, including repeats on the Tonight Show, and CBS Sunday Morning. Zeitlin’s lecture- demonstration “Unlocking the Creative Impulse: The Psychology of Improvisation” has been presented across the U.S. and in Europe... Read more.
Place our Musician of the Day widget ...
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Jazz Musician of the Day: Denny Zeitlin
Source:
All About Jazz is celebrating Denny Zeitlin's birthday today!
Denny Zeitlin has recorded over thirty critically acclaimed albums; twice won first place in the Down Beat International Jazz Critics Poll; written original music for Sesame Street; and appeared on network TV, including repeats on the Tonight Show, and CBS Sunday Morning. Zeitlin’s lecture-demonstration “Unlocking the Creative Impulse: The Psychology of Improvisation” has been presented across the U.S. and in Europe...Denny Zeitlin has recorded over thirty critically acclaimed albums; twice won ...
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Denny Zeitlin: Labyrinth
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
With pianist Denny Zeitlin, you sense that he isn't quite sure where he wants to end up on any given song. The truth is he isn't. Which is part of what makes him so special and engaging as an artist. Denny courageously rushes out on limbs. But instead of inching back to safety when he hears creaking, he simply hurls himself into space, confident that somewhere along the way he will find another limb and grab hold. And invariably he ...
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Recent Listening: Denny Zeitlin
Source:
Rifftides by Doug Ramsey
The siege of deadlines has lifted. The assignments were good for the sagging exchequer but put the blogging account in arrears. In the days remaining before the staff goes on vacation, we'll pay attention to a few recent CDs. Denny Zeitlin, Precipice (Sunnyside). Following Mosaic's release last year of a box of his Columbia recordings of the 1960s and a new trio album with Buster Williams and Matt Wilson, the protean pianist goes solo. He played this concert in a ...
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"...extraordinary in range, electrifying in depth and intensity, hypnotic in its flow and sweep, perfection itself..." Thomas Albright, SF Chronicle
"He is the jazz world's most visible Renaissance man, a full time practicing psychiatrist, a medical school teacher, and a world class jazz musician." Don Heckman, LA Times
"...there was a sense of play, creativity and boldness; one felt the power of improvisation as a skill and as an almost philosophical endeavor." Ben Ratliff, NY Times
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Denny Zeitlin
Location: San Francisco
Instrument: Piano
Born: April 10, 1938
Management: A-train Entertainment
