Results for "piano"

Enrique Villegas

Born: August 3, 1913

Enrique Villegas - pianist (1913 - 1986) The playing of Argentinian pianist Enrique Villegas was unique, exciting and continuously interesting, with a special character of its own founded on his classical training and jazz inclinations. Born in Buenos Aires in 1913, and after classical studies which led to concert appearances, he began his professional career in 1930 in the band of Eduardo Armani playing at the Alvear Palace and by 1935 was on radio broadcasts called El Mundo. By 1941 he was well into jazz and did a series of jazz oriented performances in several venues in Buenos Aires as the Casino and the Bop Club Villegas moved to the United States in 1955, when he was already well-known in his country, with the intention of establishing himself in North America as a Jazz pianist

Vic Vogel

Born: August 3, 1935

Born Victor Stefan Vogel in 1935, this Montrealer of Hungarian decent is a Canadian institution. Vic started playing piano by ear at the age of 5. His favorite pastime was conducting the live jazz programs on radio in the early 1940's. By the age of 14, he was a feature soloist on the same stations across the country. He started performing in the Montreal area nightclubs at 16 years old and saved enough money to buy a second-hand Steinway Concert Grand piano. After several months of continuous exposure to his newly acquired instrument, Vic decided it was time for professional guidance. Mr. Vogel sought help from Paul de Marky who was at the time Oscar Peterson's teacher

Peter Cincotti

Born: July 11, 1983

Like a pilot in a cockpit, when Cincotti sits down at a piano it’s as if the world is at his fingertips. Whether he is soloing over a song that showcases his jazz roots, or playing a catchy hook from one of his popular originals, Peter blend genres while bringing active, rhythmic piano playing back into the landscape of modern music. 

​Peter learned how to play the instrument at the same age he learned how to walk and talk. It’s as integral to him as the bare essential elements of life. “It wasn’t something that I ever thought about doing, it was just something I did,” he recalls. “And as I got older, I consciously walked the line of learning more, and learning too much. The minute it gets too cerebral, it’s over.”

Andrea Vicari

Born: July 16, 1965

Pianist and composer Andrea Vicari was born in Miami (Florida) and grew up in Birmingham (England). Educated at Cardiff University she won a scholarship to study at The Guildhall School of Music in London. Andrea was soon in demand as a 'side-man" working with bass guitar legend, Dill Katz in a band that included the then unknown guitarist Phil Robson. Soon after she formed her first important group with Julian Argüelles on saxophone & Stuart Hall, then of Django Bates' "Human Chain", on bass. Other employers included GRP recording artist, Phil Bent; jazz warrior David-Jean Baptiste with whom she recorded her first commercially released CD; and the all-women band "Birds" led by Kathy Stobart. She played a successful season at London's sadly defunct jazz club "The Bass Clef" with the late great American saxophone innovator, Eddie Harris, broadcasting live on JazzFM radio; and gigged with the US trumpet legend Art Farmer. In 1994 Andrea was commissioned by The Arts Council and the Peter Whittingham Trust to write music for a new eleven piece jazz orchestra which became the Suburban Gorillas project

Tim Richards

Born: June 23, 1952

Tim Richards was born in London and was drawn to music at an early age, his first encounter with a piano being at the age of 8 in a dentist’s waiting room. He studied classical piano with the renowned Carola Grindea until the age of 14, when he began attempting to teach himself jazz and blues after seeing Thelonious Monk on TV. Tim’s seminal modern jazz group SPIRIT LEVEL was formed in Bristol in 1979, a quintet with saxophonist Paul Dunmall and trumpeter Dave Holdsworth, and released seven albums between 1979 and 1999. After appearing at the 1985 Vienne jazz festival on the same bill as Miles Davis, they teamed up with US trumpeter Jack Walrath (ex-Mingus) for a series of UK and European dates, recording the acclaimed 'Killer Bunnies' album (Spotlite)

Jeremy Monteiro

Born: June 20, 1960

Jeremy Monteiro (pianist, vocalist, composer, jazz educator) has won critical acclaim in many parts of the world. He has performed all over the World in addition to numerous occasions at home in Singapore, where he has been dubbed "Singapore's King Of Swing" by the local press. In November 2006, he became a Fellow of the London College of Music which is part of the Thames Valley University in the UK. On 12th October 2006, Jeremy Monteiro was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society for the encouragement of the Arts, Manufactures & Commerce in the UK (the RSA). Current Fellows of the RSA include Nelson Mandela and Stephen Hakwing

Bruce Barth

Born: September 7, 1958

Jazz pianist and composer Bruce Barth has been sharing his music with listeners the world over for more than twenty-five years. In addition to traveling widely performing his own music, he has also performed with revered jazz masters, as well as collaborated with leading musicians of his own generation. And in a recent review in the Newark Star-Ledger, Zan Stewart writes "No one sounds quite like Barth. His solos are characterized by robust swing, his ability to tell a story, and by his rich, beguiling sound." Bruce has performed on over 125 recordings and movie soundtracks, including fifteen as a leader

Toshiko Akiyoshi

Born: December 12, 1929

Toshiko Akiyoshi's unique contributions to the jazz world have evolved like falling dominoes through a series of events that started with a piano-loving little Japanese girl in Manchuria and brought her to prominence as an unparalleled pianist, composer and leader of the Toshiko Akiyoshi Jazz Orchestra. Manchurian-born Akiyoshi's interest in the piano started at age six, and by the time her family had moved back to Japan at the end of World War II. Toshiko had developed a real love for music. She soon began playing piano professionally, which eventually led to being discovered by pianist Oscar Peterson in 1952 during a Norman Granz Jazz at the Philharmonic tour of Japan

Wojciech Karolak

Born: May 28, 1939

Wojciech (Wojtek) Karolak (born on 28 May 1939 in Warsaw, Poland), is a notable Hammond B-3 organ player who refers to himself as "an United States jazz and rhythm and blues musician, born by mistake in Middle Europe." He has also played saxophone and piano professionally. In 1958, he started working with the band the Jazz Believers playing alto saxophone. The Jazz Believers consisted of the future top Polish jazz players, among them Andrzej Trzaskowski, Trafika Dzajant, Krzysztof Komeda (famed for writing music for Roman Polanski’s landmark film "Rosemary's Baby", and Jan Ptaszyn Wróblewski

Gene DiNovi

Born: May 26, 1928

Gene (Eugene Salvatore Patrick) Dinovi. Pianist, composer, singer, b Brooklyn, 26 May 1928. He began his career as a teenaged bebop pianist in jazz clubs along New York's fabled 52nd Street and played for several bandleaders (Henry Jerome, Joe Marsala, Boyd Raeburn, Stan Hasselgard, and others) in the late 1940s. He recorded as a sideman to Benny Goodman (for Capitol), Brew Moore (Savoy), Aaron Sachs (Manor), Artie Shaw (Columbia), and Lester Young (Alladin) in this period. A popular accompanist with singers, DiNovi played in the early 1950s for Peggy Lee and Tony Bennett, and 1955-63 for Lena Horne, latterly on an intermittent basis.