Results for "piano"

Bob Baldwin

Jon Balke

Born: June 7, 1955

Jon Balke was born in Furnes, Norway, and has been a professional musician since 1974. Balke has no formal education in music or composition and has mainly worked within the realm of improvised music.

His main instrument has been the piano and this has lead, in time, to the use of electronic keyboards. He began composing for larger ensembles in 1982, first and foremost for Oslo 13, a 'small' big band, and has since composed works for the theatre and various chamber ensembles, in addition to big bands and jazz ensembles.

Balke's activities in music have always been two-fold. On the one hand, there is a search for maximum spontaneity through the establishing of orchestras which are increasingly based on pure improvisation; a development that has culminated in his very successful trio Jøkleba with Audun Kleive and Per Jørgensen (keys, percussion, and trumpet).

Charlie Austin

Born: March 3, 1943

Pianist Charlie Austin has influenced an entire generation of western Canadian jazz musicians. As a performer, Charlie’s versatility and musicianship have seen him establish a solid career for the past four decades, playing in a wide range of settings from festivals, clubs, concerts and theatres as well as recording and television studios. He’s appeared with a diversity of stars such as Mel Torme, Henry Mancini, Connie Stevens and the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra to name a few. Charlie occasionally plays for visiting jazz vocal artists at the Yardbird Suite, including Trudy Desmond, Jeri Brown, and Flora Ware amongst others. The now-retired full-time professor taught at Grant MacEwan College’s Music Program for over 30 years, where he inspired many students who’ve gone on to become leaders on the scene today

Lovie Austin

Born: September 19, 1887

This lady was one of the premier bandleaders in the hot jazz scene in Chicago in the 1920’s. She was the house pianist at Paramount records, where she accompanied the best women singers, as well as leading her own sessions with formidable sidemen of the era. She was born Cora Calhoun in Chattanooga, Tennessee, in 1887. She was well educated and received extensive formal training in college as well. Her early career was in vaudeville where she played piano and performed in variety acts. She led a couple of acts on the T.O.B.A. circuit including her own Blues Serenaders. This band used a carefully varied series of devices based around the blues which lent the music real individuality

Paul Arslanian

PAUL ARSLANIAN started his professional career as a pianist, composer for dance and theater, and dance accompanist in San Francisco during the 1970s where he led his own jazz and Latin ensembles and was composer and pianist for the Bishop Norman Williams Quartet. He has recorded with such notables as Pepper Adams, Pharaoh Sanders, Dave Liebman, Woody Shaw, and Bill Summers, and been a sideman with Freddy Hubbard, and Terri Gibbs. In 1979, Paul co-founded the Jazz Tap Ensemble and as music director worked with tap dancing greats Honi Coles, Foster Johnson, Cookie Cook, Eddie Brown, Harold and Fayard Nicholas, Buster Brown and many others

Lil Hardin Armstrong

Born: February 3, 1898

Lil Hardin helped introduce America to jazz music. She was a dedicated jazz pianist, who established a reputation as "Hot Miss Lil," one of the few female band ensemble members of the 1920’s. She played on many of the first jazz recordings ever made and she wrote many of the early songs of the jazz era. Though she might be identified in the jazz world as the wife of Louis Armstrong, she was much more than that. Lil Armstrong was born Lillian Beatrice Hardin on February 3, 1898. Her grandmother, Priscilla Thompson, was born into slavery in 1850 in Lafayette County near Oxford, Mississippi. Her parents separated when Armstrong was very young

Albert Ammons

Born: March 1, 1907

Pianist Albert Ammons was the king of boogie-woogie, a bluesy jazz style that swept the United States, and then the world, from the late 1930s into the mid-1940s. Although his origins were modest, his powerful piano style would take him from Chicago barrooms to Carnegie Hall to the White House. As a soloist and in duets, Ammons's propulsive style gave life to classics like "Boogie Woogie Stomp" and "Pinetop's Boogie Woogie." Albert Ammons was one of the big three of late-'30s boogie-woogie, along with Pete Johnson and Meade Lux Lewis.

Ammons was born on September 23, 1907, in Chicago, Illinois. Both of his parents were pianists, so it was little surprise that he had learned to play by the age of ten. He also played percussion in the drum and bugle corps as a teenager and was soon performing with bands on the Chicago club scene. After World War I, he became interested in the blues and learned by listening to Chicago pianists Hersal Thomas and the Yancey brothers.

Jimmy Amadie

Born: January 5, 1937

Philadelphia born Jimmy Amadie is a veteran jazz pianist, called "a serious keyboard talent" by Billboard Magazine and one of "America's leading jazz educators" by Jazz Forum Magazine. While Amadie's skill and musicianship have been compared to Tommy Flanagan and Hank Jones, his determination to overcome devastating obstacles has equally inspired. Jimmy Amadie is known today as a musician and music educator, but his first love was competitive sports. Jimmy was a good athlete and participated in the citywide Sand Lot Sports League playing baseball, the Pop Warner Conference for football, and learned to box at Lighthouse Boys Club

Geri Allen

Born: June 12, 1957

Pianist, composer, Guggenheim Fellow, and educator Geri Allen died on Tuesday, June 27, 2017 from complications of cancer in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She had recently celebrated her 60th birthday. Hailed as one of the most accomplished pianists and educators of her time, Allen's most recent position was as Director of Jazz Studies at the University of Pittsburgh. She was especially proud of performing with renowned pianist McCoy Tyner for the last two years, and was also part of two recent groundbreaking trios: ACS (Geri Allen, Terri Lyne Carrington, and Esperanza Spalding) and the MAC Power Trio with David Murray and Carrington — their debut recording Perfection was released on Motéma Music in 2016 to critical acclaim. "The jazz community will never be the same with the loss of one of our geniuses, Geri Allen

Steve Allee

Steve Allee, pianist, composer and arranger hails from Indianapolis, Indiana, the hometown of jazz legends Wes Montgomery, Freddie Hubbard, Slide Hampton and J.J. Johnson. Touring with the Buddy Rich Orchestra at age 19, Steve’s passion for the piano and jazz were evident to the audiences and all who performed with him.

Steve’s big band CD, Downtown Blues, was nominated for a Grammy® award with bassist John Clayton and drummer John VonOhlen. Allee's first national solo CD, The Magic Hour, released on Noteworthy Records, landed at #14 on the Gavin national radio poll.