Results for "Keyboard"

Merl Saunders

Born: February 14, 1934

Merl Saunders Hammond B3 player Merl Saunders has recorded with numerous renowned artists since the early '70s and has led many of his own dates in a variety of genres from jazz to blues to new age to rock. Born on Valentine's Day, 1934 in San Mateo, CA, Saunders began learning to play the piano at the age of 10. He was a classmate and bandmate of Johnny Mathis through junior high school. Saunders decided on music as a profession after seeing how much fun was had by audience and performers alike at concerts by such musicians as Cab Calloway. He apprenticed early on with Jimmy Smith for a time, and attended various music schools. Starting in the 1960s, Saunders collaborated on and off with Jerry Garcia, and the Grateful Dead

Philippe Saisse

Born: February 12, 1947

Surviving and succeeding in the tenuous and challenging world of contemporary jazz these days is no easy task, and there’s always an inherent pressure on artists to stay one step ahead of the trends. Songwriter, producer and keyboardist Philippe Saisse has thrived in this sink or swim environment by taking the kinds of creative risks that have kept him at the forefront over his illustrious 20 year career. In 2006, he hit the mark again with his The Body And Soul Sessions, his critically acclaimed #1 Billboard album of pop cover songs on Rendezvous Music. He particularly captured the imagination of contemporary jazz fans everywhere with his compelling piano and Fender Rhodes driven version of Steely Dan’s “Do It Again.” One of the most ubiquitous airplay hits of the year, the song featuring the French born keyboardist’s longtime trio of bassist David Finck and drummer Scooter Warner spent six weeks at #1 on the Radio & Records airplay chart and #1 for five consecutive weeks at www.smoothjazz.com, 20 weeks in R&R’s Top Ten and was the #6 most played track in the format for the year

Patrice Rushen

Born: September 30, 1954

Three time Grammy nominee, and NEA Jazz Master, Patrice Rushen has fashioned her career after the legacy of her longtime friend and mentor, the late Quincy Jones. Composer...Producer... International Recording Artist...Rushen has definitely earned the respect she has been awarded by her peers in the music industry. 

Admired by many for her groundbreaking achievements, Rushen has amassed an impressive list of “firsts”. She was the first woman t serve as Musical Director for the 46th, 47th & 48th Annual Grammy Awards, the first woman in 43 years to serve as Head Composer/Musical Director for television’s highest honor, the Emmy Awards and the first woman Musical Director of the NAACP Image Awards, an honor she held for 12 consecutive years. Rushen has also been the only woman Musical Director/Composer for the People’s Choice Awards and HBO’s Comic Relief. She was the only woman Musical Director/Conductor/Arranger for a late-night television talk show. The show was The Midnight Hour, which aired on CBS. Rushen was named the Musical Director/Composer for Newsweek’s first American Achievement Awards, broadcast from the Kennedy Center. In March 2008, she received the assignment as Music Director and host of the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s “LA Phil Presents: A Tribute to Ella”. The event that featured five outstanding vocalists paying tribute to the vocal talents of Ella Fitzgerald Patrice served as the Musical Director for Janet Jackson’s World Tour, “janet.” As the Musical Director for the award shows, she composed and performed special musical tributes to Michael Landon, Ted Turner, Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, The Temptations, James Garner and Leonard Bernstein to name a few. Rushen was named Composer in Residence during the August 2004 sessions at the Henry Mancini Institute. 

Eddie Baccus

Sean Wayland

Sean Wayland was born in Sydney, Australia, and resides in New York now. He is well known and respected for his prolific writing, and unique harmony and rhythm. Reviewers have said: “Music Pours easily from Sean Wayland”: limelight CD review “Superman plays for keeps”: Sydney Morning Herald CD review “Sean Wayland has long been something of a legend among Sydney jazz circles”: Jazzgroove “But if you took the names of Brad Mehldau, Larry Goldings or Joey Calderazzo, he (Sean) is a player of the same high caliber”-Mark F. Turner, AllAboutJazz His was a musical family, his father's love of jazz enabled Sean to hear the music of Keith Jarrett, Chick Corea and others as a young child

Walter Fischbacher

Born: October 23, 1966

Versatile pianist and keyboardist Walter Fischbacher can best be described as the groove master of keys. Having mastered both pianistic technique and the art of the backbeat he has set out to conquer the world with his trio. A native Austrian, he relocated to New York after intense studies of classical and jazz piano in Vienna. He refined his art at the renown Mannes College and the New School Jazz Department. In addition to some arduous and exhilarating years as a solo pianist to the left of the New York Empire Diner's toilet, Walter worked as a sideman with George Garzone, Tim Levebvre, Joel Rosenblatt, Ric Fierabracci, Chico Freeman, Billy Harper, Charles Tolliver, Frank Foster, Vienna Art Orchestra, Ingrid Jensen, Wolfgang Muthspiel, Gary Dial, Jamie Haddad, Peter Herbert, Corin Curschellas, Elisabeth Lohninger etc

Pance Bujukliev

The George Maurer Jazz Group

Born: November 5, 1965

George Maurer credits his parents’ act of rescuing an old upright piano from a barn as his earliest intimate experience with a piano. The instrument had been misused to seduce chickens and cows. Thus the attraction. That piano is now being restored by George Maurer, “Minnesota’s premiere jazz pianist” (KARE-11 TV, Minneapolis). “Maurer has a feel for his instrument that makes for an immediate emotional response...” (Minneapolis Star Tribune). George Maurer has performed across the USA as a solo performer with performances for the United Nations, Congress, and the Clinton White House to Orchestra Hall in Minneapolis, MN, his hometown

Tala Faral

Born: November 9, 1965

I was born in Madagascar. I play for more than 15 years keys and sax. My music is very open from jazz to anything groovy. I played all around the globe , in Africa , in Asia , in Europe. My first album with my Bombai India based band called Groove Suppa .

Fajah