Results for "piano"

Curtis Clark

Born: April 23, 1950

Curtis Clark was born in Chicago in 1950, moved and spent his student years in Los Angeles where he started composing and playing the piano. After Curtis graduated in music theory and composition from the renowned Californian Institute of Arts in Valencia, Curtis set out for New York. There he began working and recording with Angeleno {{m: David Murray = 9702}}. Influenced by {{m: Miles Davis = 6144}}, {{m: Duke Ellington = 6521}}, {{m: Thelonious Monk = 9507}} and {{John Coltrane}}, Curtis has become a fascinating pianist whose passionate style has been hailed in New York, Paris and Amsterdam (where he was based for many years until his return to the U.S

Mac Chrupcala

Born: July 15, 1941

Mac Chrupcala was born July 15, 1941 in Fall River, MA., to William Chrupcala and Ruth Olive (Brereton) Ratcliffe. He graduated from Durfee High School. He graduated from UMass Lowell with a B.S. in Music Education as a trombone and classical organ major while continuing to play piano professionally .He received his MA in Music History from the University of Rhode Island and did Advanced Graduate Studies in Afro American Music (Jazz) at the New England Conservatory of Music with Jaki Byard as his major professor.

Mac had a career as a music educator as the Supervisor of MusicK-12 for the Newport RI public Schools for 25 years before his retirement from that position. He also taught at the University of Rhode Island and was on the faculty of the RI School of Music in Providence, RI. He was a consultant for the Wurlitzer Piano Company as a Piano Lab specialist.

Eugen Cicero

Born: June 27, 1940

Eugen Cicero of Romanian-Hungarian descent, was born in Cluj-Napoca (Klausenburg), Romania, on June 27, 1940. His remarkable musical aptitude manifested itself at a very early age. He started taking piano lessons at the age of four and was taught by some of the country's most renowned teachers. He owed his brilliantly sensitive touch to the instruction he received from Aurelia Cionca, while Ana Pitis initiated him into the virtuoso tradition, as personified by Franz Liszt. In addition, Cicero studied instrumentation and composition at the National Conservatory in Bucharest. However, neither the prospect of an academic career nor that of becoming a conventional concert pianist appealed to him

Billy Childs

Born: March 8, 1957

illy Childs has emerged as one of the foremost American composers of his era, perhaps the most distinctly American composer since Aaron Copland – for like Copland, he has successfully married the musical products of his heritage with the Western neoclassical traditions of the twentieth century in a powerful symbiosis of style, range, and dynamism.

A native of Los Angeles, Childs grew up immersed in jazz, classical, and popular music influences. A prodigious talent at the piano earned him public performances by age six, and at sixteen he was admitted to the USC Community School of the Performing Arts, going on to earn a Bachelor of Music degree in Composition under the tutelage of Robert Linn and Morten Lauridsen.

Cyrus Chestnut

Born: January 17, 1963

Telarc International, a leader in jazz recording since the 1980s, adds another stellar name to its impressive roster by bringing pianist Cyrus Chestnut into the fold. Chestnut has recently finished an album with the help of producer Elaine Martone (McCoy Tyner, Tierney Sutton, Ray Brown). Genuine Chestnut, a mix of original material with a few covers, is scheduled for release in February 2006. “There’s a good team at Telarc, and an excellent reputation in jazz that spans almost two decades,” says Chestnut. “I’m very honored to be a part of the legacy of great artists who have recorded with them.” Born in January 1963, Chestnut first sat down at the piano with his father at age five, and began his formal training at seven

Ray Charles

Born: September 23, 1930

"In music you just can't escape when something is beautiful," Ray Charles recently said.

Added the legendary singer/pianist/composer, "Like a good song, you can't get away from a good song. You have a good song, and it will still be beautiful, even when somebody with a bad voice sings it. I love the old writers, who wrote beautiful love songs. I came up on those kinds of songs. But I have just as much love for blues and jazz too.

"It's like Duke Ellington said; there are only two kinds of music - good and bad. And you can tell when something is good."

Bill Charlap

Born: October 15, 1966

Bill Charlap was born in New York City into a musical family. His father, Moose Charlap, was a Broadway composer and songwriter whose credits included the scores to "Peter Pan, The Conquering Hero," "Whoop-up," "Alice Through the Looking Glass" and "Kelly." His mother, Sandy Stewart, is a popular song singer who performed with Benny Goodman, co-starred on TV's Perry Como Show and scored a Grammy nomination for her hit single, "My Coloring Book" by the songwriting team of Kander and Ebb. Mr. Charlap began playing the piano at a very young age. He studied with jazz pianist Jack Reilly and classical pianist Eleanor Hancock and informally picked up pointers from jazz/popular song pianist Dick Hyman, who was a distant cousin on his father's side. Mr

Joe Castro

Born: August 15, 1927

Joseph Armand "Joe" Castro was an American bebop jazz pianist, based primarily on the West Coast of the United States. Castro was born in Miami, Arizona on August 15, 1927 to John L. Castro and Lucy Sanchez. Castro went to school in Pittsburg, California in the San Francisco Bay area, north of Oakland, where he began playing professionally at the age of 15. His enrollment at San Jose State University was interrupted twice—first by a stint in the army from 1946 to 1947 and then when he formed his first jazz trio working on both the West Coast and in Hawaii. In 1956 Castro moved to New York City where his trio successfully appeared in the city's top jazz clubs—Basin Street, The Embers, The Hickory House and Birdland

Barbara Carroll

Born: January 25, 1925

Barbara Carroll - pianist, composer, vocalist The elegant jazz pianist, composer and vocalist Barbara Carroll is regarded as one of today’s most fascinating purveyors of swinging jazz piano and expressive vocals. Equally at home in a concert hall or intimate music room, she connects with her audience through the passion, joy and emotional power of her performances. Her inventive piano playing and unique vocal sound transforms composition by Harold Arlen, Cole Porter, Billy Strayhorn or Thelonious Monk into her own art with emotional directness and respect for the tunes and their possibilities. Noted jazz critic Leonard Feather declared that she was "the first girl to play bop piano," and People Magazine recently wrote: “Barbara Carroll’s jazz pianism is the subtlest and most intricate that New York has to offer.” Ms

Leroy Carr

Born: March 27, 1905

Born in Nashville, Leroy Carr moved to Indianapolis as a child. While he was still in his teens, he taught himself how to play piano. Carr quit school in his mid-teens, heading out for a life on the road. For the next few years, he would play piano at various parties and dances in the midwest and south. Carr wandered back toward Indianapolis, where he met guitarist Scrapper Blackwell in 1928. The duo began performing and shortly afterward they were recording for Vocalion, releasing "How Long How Long Blues" before the year was finished. The song was an instant, surprise hit. For the next seven years, Carr and Blackwell would record a number of classic songs for Vocalion, including "Midnight Hour Blues," "Blues Before Sunrise," "Hurry Down Sunshine," "Shady Lane Blues" and many others