Results for "piano"

Earl Hines

Born: December 28, 1903

A brilliant keyboard virtuoso, Earl “Fatha” Hines was one of the first great piano soloists in jazz, and one of the very few musicians who could hold his own with Louis Armstrong. His so-called 'trumpet' style used doubled octaves in the right hand to produce a clear melodic line that stood out over the sound of a whole band, but he also had a magnificent technical command of the entire range of the keyboard. Earl Kenneth Hines was born into a musical family in Duquesne, Pennsylvania, on December 28, 1905. His father worked as a foreman at the local coal docks and played cornet with the Eureka Brass Band, a group that performed at picnics and dances

Andrew Hill

Born: June 30, 1931

Over nearly half a century, composer-pianist-ensemble leader Andrew Hill gained international jazz renown for his uniquely original music and recorded ouevre, which is by turns dark, fragile, funny, stark, unforgettably tuneful, percussive, insightful, oblique, transparent and mysterious. With the release of Dusk (Palmetto Records), his first album in ten years, Hill reaches another peak, equaling high points of composition and collaboration he achieved in the 1960s with such innovators as Eric Dolphy, Kenny Dorham, John Gilmore, Roy Haynes, Joe Henderson, Bobby Hutcherson, Elvin Jones, Sam Rivers, Tony Williams and Reggie Workman, most often commissioned by Blue Note Records. A folio of songs for sextet loosely inspired by Cane, Jean Toomer's classic volume of stories and poems published during the Harlem Renaissance, Dusk features Hill's New Point of Departure Sextet of virtuosi and the mature vision of an artist who has always flourished just beyond fame's spotlight, the better to see, hear, feel and create without its insistent glare

Eddie Higgins

Born: February 21, 1932

Born and raised in New England, Eddie (Haydn) Higgins started his professional career in Chicago, while studying at the Northwestern University Music School. For twenty years Eddie worked at some of Chicago's best known jazz clubs, including the Brass Rail, Preview Lounge, Blue Note, Cloister Inn and Jazz Ltd. His longest and most memorable job was at the London House, where he led the house trio for twelve years, playing opposite the biggest jazz stars of the 50's and 60's, including Stan Getz, Oscar Peterson, Dizzy Gillespie, Errol Garner, George Shearing, Cannonball Adderley, Bill Evans and many others.

John Hicks

Born: December 21, 1941

Mr. Hicks, born in Atlanta, Georgia in 1941, was the eldest of five children. His parents, Reverend Doctor John J. Hicks and the former Pollie Louise Bledsoe of Atlanta, both deceased, moved to Los Angeles when Mr. Hicks was an infant. That is where Hicks received his first piano lessons under the tutelage of his mother.

When Hicks was fifteen, the family moved to Saint Louis, Missouri in order for the Reverend Hicks to take over the pulpit of Union Memorial Methodist Church. After graduating high school and attending Lincoln University, the prestigious Berklee School of Music in Boston, and Julliard School of Music in New York City, Hicks relocated to New York City from St. Louis by accepting his first road gig with Della Reese. That was over 40 years ago.

Eddie Heywood

Born: December 4, 1915

An extremely talented pianist, Eddie Heywood’s arrangement of Cole Porter's ''Begin the Beguine'' made his sextet one of the most popular jazz groups of the 1940’s. He also wrote the standard “Canadian Sunset,” in the 1950’s to add to his impressive resume. Heywood received his first piano lessons from his father, also named Eddie, who was a well-known band leader in the 20s. Heywood joined his father, playing piano in the pit band at an Atlanta theatre. He also accompanied singers, including Bessie Smith, and thereafter worked in various small jazz groups, including those led by Wayman Carver, Benny Carter and Don Redman

Fred Hersch

Born: October 21, 1955

Proclaimed by Vanity Fair magazine, “the most arrestingly innovative pianist in jazz over the last decade or so,” Fred Hersch balances his internationally recognized instrumental skills with significant achievements as a composer, bandleader, and theatrical conceptualist, as well as remaining an in-demand collaborator with other noted bandleaders and vocalists. As a solo pianist (he was the first artist in the 75-year history of New York's legendary Village Vanguard to play week-long engagements as a solo pianist - his second featured run is documented on the 2011 release, Alone at the Vanguard); as leader of a widely praised trio whose Whirl found its way onto numerous 2010 best-recordings-of-the-year lists; and as the impetus behind the ambitious 2011 production, “My Coma Dreams,” a full-evening work for 11 instruments, actor/singer and animation/multimedia - Hersch has fully lived up to the approbation of the New York Times who, in a featured Sunday Magazine article, praised him as “singular among the trailblazers of their art, a largely unsung innovator of this borderless, individualistic jazz – a jazz for the 21st century.” He was nominated for two 2011 Grammy Awards for Alone at the Vanguard - for Best Jazz Album and Best Improvised Jazz Solo; these are his fourth and fifth nominations

Erwin Helfer

Born: January 21, 1936

Erwin Helfer, a Chicago boogie woogie innovator and master, has been forging his own piano music legacy. Born in 1936, Erwin has been playing and performing for over forty years. The sounds and personalities of past boogie woogie and blues pianists have nurtured Erwin's musical growth. Erwin celebrated his seventieth birthday, but his way of playing the piano is not 70 years old it is timeless with its power and impertinence of youth paired with the expertise and humorous wisdom of age, mellowed and ripened not in barrels but in blues joints, jazz clubs and concert halls in the States, Europe and Asia. For many years, Erwin accompanied Mama Yancey, the wife of Chicago blues piano patriarch Jimmy "Papa" Yancey, and later recorded one album with her

David Hazeltine

Born: October 27, 1958

David Hazeltine is one of a handful of contemporary pianists who has mastered all of the major musical skills, from improvisation and technique, to accompaniment, arranging, and composition. Even more impressive, David is the rare artist able to innovate in each category. Thus it’s no surprise that he’s the most recorded contemporary jazz pianist of our time, having recorded thirty five cd’s as a leader and hundreds more as a sideman, on various major labels globally. A Milwaukee native, David was playing the clubs as a preteen, and before he’d even come of age he was already grabbing the attention and respect of jazz legends like Sonny Stitt, and Chet Baker

Hampton Hawes

Born: November 13, 1928

Who Was Hampton Hawes?

Although one rarely hears of Hampton Hawes today hewas a significant presence on the jazz scene in the mid-50s then again from the mid-60s on until his death in1977. A direct descendant of bebop who had beenvariously classified as "West Coast" and "funk-jazz" or"rhythm school," Hawes transcended all thesecategories. He was famous for his prodigious right hand,his deep groove, his very personal playing, his profoundblues conceptions, and his versatility within a mainstreamcontext. He remained anchored in chord-change basedjazz with chord changes his whole career.

Gene Harris

Born: September 1, 1933

During the decades since rising to fame with the ThreeSounds in the early 1960's, pianist Gene Harris alwaysstuck true to his singular musical vision…the blues. Amasterful pianist with a titanic technique, Harris' everychorus radiated the blues. His solos were melodic,accessible and swinging yet quite sophisticated and full ofpersonal ideas, his own chord voicings, flavored with thechurch. While the listener has a good idea what to expectfrom a Gene Harris record, the pianist never fails tosurprise.

Gene Harris was born September 1, 1933 in BentonHarbor, Michigan, where he was first attracted to musicwhen he was four. Locally, Harris was attracted to themusic of bandleader Charles Metcalf's group and wasinspired to try to pick out songs on the piano. Harris alsoenjoyed the music he heard in church and the boogie-woogie records of his parents (one can detect Meade LuxLewis and Albert Ammons all over Harris' playing). Swing,gospel and blues combined in a humid eutectoid to form therue of his piano style.