Results for "piano"

Alexander von Schlippenbach

Born: April 7, 1938

Alexander von Schlippenbach - piano, composer One of Europe's premier free jazz bandleaders, pianist Alexander von Schlippenbach's music mixes free and contemporary classical elements, with his slashing solos often the link between the two in his compositions. Schlippenbach formed The Globe Unity Orchestra in 1966 to perform the piece"Globe Unity,which had been commissioned by the Berliner Jazztage. He remained involved with the orchestra into the '80s. Schlippenbach began taking lessons at eight, and studied at the Staatliche Hochschule for Musik in Cologne with composers Bernd Alois Zimmermann and Rudolf Petzold. He played with Gunther Hampel in 1963, and was in Manfred Schoof's quintet from 1964 to 1967. Schlippenbach began heading various bands after 1967, among them 1970 trio with Evan Parker and Paul Lovens and a duo with Sven-Ake Johansson which they co-formed in 1976. Schlippenbach has also given many solos performances. In the late '80s, he formed the Berlin Contemporary Jazz Orchestra, which has featured a number of esteemed European avant-garde jazz musicians including Evan Parker, Paul Lovens, KennyWheeler, Misha Mengelberg and Aki Takase. During the 90`s Duo work with Tony Oxley, Sam Rivers and Aki Takase. The year 1999 he started performance and radiorecording of Thelonius Monks complete works,(all the compositions) with Rudi Mahall and his group. Awards: "Kunstpreis der Stadt Berlin "(1976)," Schallplattenpreise der UDJ"(1980/1981), "Albert Mangelsdorff Preis" (1994) At present activity: "SCHLIPPENBACH TRIO" "MONKS CASINO" "GLOBE UNITY ORCHESTRA" "LOK.03" "PIANO SOLO " "DUO WITH AKI TAKASE " The German Record Critics Award : "Monks Casino" 2005/3 The "SWR-Jazz Award" 2007

Hal Schaefer

Hal Schaefer, world-class jazz pianist, has had a rich and eclectic carer that has bridged several worlds -- from Classical to Swing and Jazz to film composition and coaching some of the most notable stars of the 20th Century. Considered a rising star of Progressive Jazz in the 1950's, he is an extraordinary pianist with a distinctive musical approach that combines a lush romanticism with a strong sense of swing. Hal's journey as a professional pianist began at the age of 12 in his native New York City. While still in his teens, he joined a big band and toured the country, ending up in Los Angeles in the 1940's, in the middle of a progressive jazz scene

Theo Saunders

Theo (Ted) Saunders, a native New Yorker, has lived in California since 1985, but his musical career remains international in scope. Saunders' musical odyssey has taken him to four continents and more than twenty countries. He has performed in many of the world's most prestigious jazz festivals, concert halls and night clubs, with distinguished jazz artists including: Freddie Hubbard, Carla Bley, Charles Lloyd, Bob Brookmeyer, Harold Land, Buddy Collette, Eddie Harris,Ted Curson, James Moody, Bobby Hutcherson, Teddy Edwards, Jack Dejohnette, Joe Lovano, Jimmy Garrison, Pharoah Sanders, Sonny Fortune, Slam Stewart, Al Cohn, Zoot Sims ,Reggie Workman, Curtis Fuller, Rashied Ali, Mike Stern, Benny Powell, Chris Conners, Morgana King, Roseanna Vitro, David "Fathead" Newman, J.R

Heikki Sarmanto

Born: June 22, 1939

Composer and pianist Heikki Sarmanto is a leading Finnish jazz scene figure who has been internationally praised for his symphonic, orchestral and jazz ensemble works. During the early 1960s, Sarmanto studied at the Sibelius Academy in Finland. Shortly thereafter he won a prestigious award for the International Competition of Jazz Composition in Minneapolis, MN. He also performed in numerous Finnish jazz recordings including Christian Schwindt’s “For Friends and Relatives” (RCA Victor) and Esa Pethman’s “The Modern Sound of Finland” (RCA Victor) Sarmanto entered the Berklee College of Music in Boston, in 1968 where he honed his piano and composition skills with coaching from Herb Pomeroy, Charlie Mariano and Margaret Chaloff

Sergio Salvatore

Born: March 3, 1981

Since he began recording at the remarkable age of 11, Sergio Salvatore's superb musicianship has led to recordings that have featured such notable players as Chick Corea, Michael & Randy Brecker, Gary Burton, Jay Anderson, Danny Gottlieb and William Kennedy, and shows with - among others - Gary Burton, Dave Grusin, Delfeayo Marsalis, Mel Torme, Tony Bennett, and Grover Washington, Jr. Sergio began playing at a very early age and was performing in public by the time he was four. His father, Luciano Salvatore, is a music teacher who majored in classical piano at Boston University and the Berklee College of Music

Joe Sample

Born: February 1, 1939

Joe Sample is a pianist of great energy, versatility, and enterprise. He has constantly sought out novel directions to express his ideas. Since his days with the Jazz Crusaders to his multiple solo efforts and countless sideman sessions, though never seeking the spotlight, is recognized by both his peers and the knowing public as a first class musical artist Born on February 1, 1939, in Houston, Texas, Joe Sample grew up in a fertile musical Creole neighborhood hearing zydeco and Louis Armstrong. He started playing the piano at age five, and he incorporated a range of local traditions into his music: jazz, gospel, blues, and even Latin and classical forms. In high school in the 1950s, Sample teamed up with two friends, saxophonist Wilton Felder and drummer Nesbert "Stix" Hooper, to form a group called the Swingsters

Jamie Saft

Jamie Saft (piano, organs, analog synthesis, bass and guitar, steel guitars) is a native of Queens, New York. Since returning to New York in 1993, Saft's stylistic versatility, multi-instrumentalist capabilities, and production skills have been featured with Bobby Previte, John Zorn, the B-52's, Laurie Anderson, The Beastie Boys, Jerry Granelli, Dave Douglas, Holly Palmer, Marc Ribot's Los Cubanos Postisos, Elysian Fields, Boomish, Black Beatle, Pramrod Sexena, Liminal, Antony and the Johnsons, Chocolate Genius, JoJo Mayer's Nerve, E-Z Pour Spout, Cuong Vu, Chris Speed Trio Iffy, Jane Ira Bloom, and the Groove Collective. Saft was the pianist for the New York and Paris premiers of John Adams' opera "I Was Looking at the Ceiling and then I Saw the Sky" at Lincoln Center and MC93 Bobingy. Saft has released two solo records on Tzadik

Frederic Rzewski

Born: April 13, 1938

American composer, now resident in Belgium, of mostly chamber, vocal and piano works that have been performed throughout the world; he is also active as a pianist. Prof. Rzewski studied music privately with Charles Mackey in Springfield as a child and studied composition with Walter Piston and Roger Sessions, counterpoint with Randall Thompson and orchestration with Claudio Spies at Harvard University from 1954-58. He studied composition with Milton Babbitt and the music of Richard Wagner with Oliver Strunk at Princeton University from 1958-60, where he also studied Greek literature and philosophy

George Russell

Born: June 23, 1923

George Russell is a hugely influential, innovative figure in the evolution of modern jazz, the music's only major theorist, one of its most profound composers, and a trail blazer whose ideas have transformed and inspired some of the greatest musicians of our time.

Russell was born in Cincinnati in 1923, the adopted son of a registered nurse and a chef on the B&O Railroad. He began playing drums with the Boy Scout Drum and Bugle Corps and eventually received a scholarship to Wilberforce University where he joined the Collegians, whose list of alumni include Coleman Hawkins, Benny Carter, Fletcher Henderson, Ben Webster, Cootie Williams, Ernie Wilkins and Frank Foster. But his most valuable musical education came in 1941, when, in attempting to enlist in the Marines, he was diagnosed with tuberculosis, spending 6 months in the hospital where he was taught the fundamentals of harmony from a fellow patient. From the hospital he sold his first work, "New World," to Benny Carter. He joined Benny Carter's Band, but was replaced by Max Roach; after Russell heard Roach, he decided to give up drumming. He moved to New York where he was part of a group of musicians who gathered in the basement apartment of Gil Evans. The circle included Miles Davis, Gerry Mulligan, Max Roach, Johnny Carisi and on occasion, Charlie Parker. He was commissioned to write a piece for Dizzy Gillespie's orchestra; the result was the seminal "Cubano Be/Cubano Bop" the first fusion of Afro-Cuban rhythms with jazz, premiered at Carnegie Hall in 1947 and featuring Chano Pozo. Two years later his "Bird in Igor's Yard" was recorded by Buddy DeFranco, a piece notable for its fusion of elements from Charlie Parker and Stravinsky.

Hilton Ruiz

Born: May 29, 1952

If there was a pianist who personified the term "Latin Jazz" it would have to be Hilton Ruiz. His knowledge, ability and technical skill in bop, blues, stride, avant garde, his innate talent for the Afro Cuban montuno,and his fusing of the genres made for a unique style that was all his own. Born in New York City in 1952,of Puerto Rican parents, Hilton Ruiz was a piano prodigy who by the age of five was appearing on local television, playing church organ, and performing at Carnegie Hall by the time he was eight. After lifelong classical training he under took personal training under the great Mary Lou Williams