Results for "piano"

Jeanne Newhall

Jeanne Newhall is a true contemporary artist. Not confined by genres, she’s a vocalist, composer, producer and pianist who celebrates a passion for jazz and an R&B heart. Classically trained, she grew up with Mozart, Bartok and Bach as well as rock ‘n’ roll, folk and pop. She confesses to a “fetish” for guitars, describes the piano as a percussive instrument and claims D-flat as her favorite note. Many streams run through Jeanne Newhall’s music. Live or on disc, her warm, richly nuanced vocals, the free flow of her sophisticated playing and arrangements, and her pure heart and soul draw the listener into a very special world. WILD BLUE is Jeanne Newhall’s debut on Blix Street Records

Peter Nero

Born: May 22, 1934

Peter Nero was trained as a classical musician, and became interested in jazz at the age of 19 after hearing the legendary Art Tatum. In the late 50s, he spent four years playing jazz clubs such as the Village Gate, Village Vanguard, the Blue Angel, and the Tropicana lounge in Las Vegas, before being discovered by RCA Records in 1960. They were looking for a ‘pop’ pianist, and auditioned more than 100 before choosing Nero. During the next eight years, he recorded some 24 albums, including the Grammy-winning “The Colorful Peter Nero,” in 1963. Two years previously, in 1961, Nero had won the Grammy for Best New Artist. Peter Nero is unrivaled as a pianist and Pops conductor

Marty Napoleon

Born: June 2, 1921

America's exciting piano personality Marty Napoleon is a native of Brooklyn. At the age of 15 Marty commenced his association with the keyboard. With just 2 years of piano knowledge, Marty organized his own large dance band at the age of seventeen. Prior to reaching his 20th birthday, Marty joined the Bob Astor band. As a pianist with that band, Marty associated with it's members-Neal Hefti, Shelly Manne, Les Elgart,atc. The year 1941 found Marty Napoleon a featured soloist with the Chico Marx band, By the time Marty had completed his stint with this then popular band he was asked to join the Joe Venuti organization

Mark Naftalin

Born: August 2, 1944

Mark Naftalin entered the musical scene in 1965 as the keyboardist with the popular and influential Paul Butterfield Blues Band. He is internationally renowned among blues fans for his contributions to the band's sound. Since leaving the Butterfield Band and settling in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1968 (and then in Connecticut in 2002), Naftalin has continued to work as a musician (soloist, accompanist, bandleader). Described by the San Francisco Chronicle as "a brilliant pianist who puts a touch of genius in his blues," he has been a highly sought sideman and recorded over the years with some of the best-known names in his field -- John Lee Hooker, Otis Rush, James Cotton, Michael Bloomfield, Big Joe Turner, Etta James, Charlie Musselwhite, Big Mama Thornton, Brownie McGhee, Buddy Guy & Junior Wells, to name a few. With the Mark Naftalin Rhythm & Blues Revue, Naftalin has presented an extraordinary cast of stars to concert and radio audiences: Percy Mayfield, Lowell Fulson, Pee Wee Crayton, Jimmy McCracklin, Luther Tucker, Irma Thomas, Sugar Pie DeSanto, Sonny Rhodes, J.J

Simon Nabatov

Born: January 11, 1959

His musical education began at the age of 3, his father, himself a musician, being the first teacher. The Central School of Music and Moscow Conservatory were the next steps. After the whole family emigrated and settled in New York in 1979, Nabatov continued his studies at the Juilliard School Of Music. By that time his interest and involvement in jazz and improvised music grew strong enough to make them his main activity. Since then he performed and recorded with many fine musicians such as Paul Motian,Tony Scott, Sonny Fortune, Kenny Wheeler, Alan Skidmore, Herb Robertson, Louis Sclavis, Charles McPhearson, Billy Hart, David Murray, Paul Horn, Ricki Ford, Marty Ehrlich, Mark Dresser, Jim Snidero, Herb Geller, Dave Pike, Attila Zoller, Matthias Schubert, Barry Altschul, Vladimir Tarasov, John Betsch, Ed Schuller, Arto Tuncboyaci, Adam Nussbaum, Jay Clayton, Ron McClure, Mark Feldman, Drew Gress, Phil Minton, Michael Moore, Han Bennink, Misha Mengelberg, Wolter Wierbos and many others. He enjoyed continuous work with Ray Anderson Quartet, Arthur Blythe Quartet, NDR Big Band (Hamburg,Germany), Steve Lacy - Simon Nabatov Duo, Perry Robinson Quartet, Nils Wogram Quartet, Nils Wogram - Simon Nabatov Duo, Matthias Schubert Quartet, Matthias Schubert - Simon Nabatov Duo, Klaus König Orchestra. His own projects and activities include solo recitals, trio with the bassist Mark Helias and the drummer Tom Rainey (both based in New York), quartet "Nature Morte" with the British vocalist Phil Minton, multi reed-player Frank Gratkowski and trombonist Nils Wogram (both from Germany), quintet including his trio plus the violinist Mark Feldman and the trumpet player Herb Robertson ( both residing in New York). The most recent addition to the list is the formed in 2003 trio Nabatov - Reijseger - Vatcher

Romano Mussolini

Born: September 26, 1927

Talented jazz musician and the last surviving child of Italy's fascist dictator, Benito Mussolini. Though never actively involved in politics, he made an important contribution to a process that is subtly altering Italians' view of their recent past and transforming his father's image from that of an irascible despot into a benevolent, if occasionally misguided, patriarch. Ironically, had the fascist regime survived, Romano would have had the greatest difficulty pursuing his chosen career. Jazz, with its roots in black culture, was censured - and censored - by his father's government. American musicians were given Italian names so they could be shoehorned into the country's nationalist outlook

Amina Claudine Myers

Born: March 21, 1942

Amina Claudine Myers, Pianist, Organist, Vocalist, Composer, Master Improvisationalist, Actress and Educator. Ms. Myers has performed nationally and internationally throughout Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia and North America. She is well known for her work involving voice choirs, voice and instrumental ensembles. Ms. Myers’ career in music began in her preteens and throughout high school directing church choirs, singing and playing gospel and rhythm and blues. She began playing and singing jazz in college in and around Arkansas. Myers studied concert music at Philander Smith College, Little Rock, Arkansas and received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Music Education.

Bheki Mseleku

Born: 1955

Bheki Mseleku - pianist, guitar, saxophonist, vocalist, composer, recording artist The South African jazz scene is proud of its heritage and the musicians tend to integrate that essence into their style. Proper recognition of this fine multi-instrumentalist's talents seemed long in coming, but since 1991 this modest and dignified performer has been touring internationally and releasing several albums with major record labels, as well as appearing on releases from other artists. Bheki Mseleku arrived on the Johannesburg music scene in 1975 as an electric organ player for an R&B outfit, and has over time adapted and grown into one of the world's finest musicians

Sal Mosca

Born: April 27, 1927

Salvatore Joseph Mosca was born in Mt. Vernon, New York, on April 27, 1927. The son of first generation Americans, Sal and his sister Dolores grew up during the harsh years of the Great Depression. The genre of Jazz music that had been stylized by blacks in New Orleans was rapidly spreading to an area of New York City known as Harlem, a predominantly black community formed from the great northern migration caused by World War I. Sal and jazz were destined to meet in the late 1930s at the vaudeville shows, nightclubs, and band performances of the era. Sal would become a major figure of the Free Jazz/Cool Jazz genre. Sal says that as a child of ten or eleven years he would watch the keys on the player piano as a role of music played and would try to figure out how to play it back

Jelly Roll Morton

Born: October 20, 1890

The city of New Orleans has the distinction of being the ‘birthplace of jazz’ so its appropriate that in New Orleans in or around 1885 to 1890 would be born the self-proclaimed “inventor of jazz”. Ferdinand Joseph Lemott (Lamothe) and his story is one of mystery, legend, genius, with an incredulous outcome, and original musical score. Being considered a Creole in the Crescent City had its advantages in the fact that he was exposed to the fine arts and music as a child. He would undertake formal piano lessons with one Tony Jackson who was considered a wunderkind piano professor with exceptional musical ability, mirrored by the young student, who demonstrated an elevated level of talent, and the confidence to perform it. We pick up on his trail as he moved to Biloxi, Mississippi to stay with his godmother, and so begins life on the road