Results for "piano"

Patrick Curley

Born: September 25, 1944

Pat Curley started playing piano at the ripe old age of 6. He played in his first organized garage band In the Louisville Kentucky area at 13. He did his first recording session at 15 in Nashville. This led to the opportunity to meet and perform with Artists such as Roy Orbison, Bobby Goldsboro, Skeeter Davis. The Tokens (Lion sleeps tonight fame), Dee Dee Sharp, Roger Miller and others. In more recent years Pat has turned to jazz as his genre and has recorded with well known artists such as Carmine D'Amico, John Patitucci,Lee Hopkins and Tony Messina and others. It is evident that his musical influences especially in the jazz area are Bill Evans, Oscar Peterson, McCoy Tynor, David Benoit and Dave Grusin.

Paul Asaro

Expertly blending the elements of such great jazz piano traditions as the Harlem Stride of James. P. Johnson, Fats Waller, Dick Wellstood, and Ralph Sutton, the ragtime of Scott Joplin and Eubie Blake, and the New Orleans styles of Jelly Roll Morton, into his own two-handed creation and adding a unique and highly recognizeable vocal style, Paul Asaro has performed across the U.S., Canada, and Europe. He studied music at Illinois Wesleyan University before graduating from Columbia College in Chicago with post-graduate work at Roosevelt University. Paul has since performed extensively as a piano soloist in Jazz and Ragtime festivals, clubs, and theaters in New York, Chicago, New Orleans, Toronto and Montreal, Canada, Milwaukee, Superior and La Cross, Wisconsin, Los Angeles, San Diego and Sacramento, California, and Branson, Missouri as well as Switzerland and Hungary. Also well known to bandleaders as a strong and experienced ensemble pianist and accompanist, he has played with Jim Beebe's Chicago Jazz, Connie Jones' Classic Jazz All-Stars in New Orleans, drum great Barrett Deems' Big Band, Stan Kenton alum William Russo's Chicago Jazz Ensemble, and Doug Finke's Independence Hall Jazz Band. Asaro has performed with such jazz luminaries and legends as Marian McPartland, Steve Allen, Leon Redbone, Jon Faddis, Jeff Healy, Jim Galloway, Dan Barrett, Jon-Erik Kellso, Duke Heitger, Brian Ogilvie, and Orange Kellin

Orrin Evans

Born: March 28, 1975

"The clear-cut best pianist of his time..." is how Hot House Magazine" described Orrin Evans in 1998, praise which was echoed again in the summer of 2002. This remarkable talent was nurtured in a household filled with music due to the efforts of his mother, a classical singer who surrounded the youngster with everything from the melodies of Puccini to the pulsating rhythms of Basie and Ellington. He learned from what he heard which is still the case today when he acknowledges such musicians as Trudy Pitts, Tim Warfield, Kenny Barron, Ralph Peterson, Edgar Bateman, Mickey Roker and Bobby Durham as inspirational guides

Pablo Held

Born: December 27, 1986

Pablo Held and his fellow musicians present piano trio music that leaves a lasting impression on the audience instead of going for short-dated effects. Despite his young age �" when recording his debut album in 2008 he was only 21 years old �" Held is already surprisingly confident in his style. His music has a mysterious and introverted quality, but at the same time manages to engage the listener with great tension without being withdrawn. The nearly instinctive sureness in playing with Robert Landfermann and Jonas Burgwinkel only serves to enhance this effect. http://www.pabloheld.com

Nicholas Bouloukos

Born: May 6, 1973

Updated bio coming soon.

Monica Dillon

Born: October 23, 1973

Monica Dillon is a New Orleans native and based jazz, blues, funk, vocalist, pianist, composer, and producer. Her music merges various genres of music in her repertoire including jazz, gospel, R & B, and adult contemporary. Monica’s CD, “All I Have is a Moment” has gotten worldwide attention reaching those in the USA, Germany, London, Japan, Spain, Greece, France, Hungary, and Croatia. Often compared to the soulful political influence of Nina Simone, the sultry balladry of Cassandra Wilson, the songwriting poise of Brenda Russell & Patrice Rushen, and the chops of Joe Sample, Monica’s sound blends jazz, blues, funk, and folk

Geordie Hormel

Born: July 17, 1928

Almost everyone knows who he is - born a Cancer, July 17, 1928, of a family who created the most deadly food of the century - SPAM - but some might be unaware of what he is. Continuing in his family's tradition, Geordie has been creating food since his youth - food for heart and soul. Maybe he didn't have to make an instrument out of a cigar box but, when he was three years old, he would have done anything necessary to have some way to be able to make music. The piano was there, and would seem to have been a logical start, but a piano teacher told his parents that a child was not ready to learn piano until the age of six! So, Geordie was told he was "too young to learn" and "Don't Bang On The Piano!" Necessarily, he created a secret practice place in the basement of the guest house even though it was unheated during those frigid Minnesota winters

Mika Pohjola

Born: December 1, 1971

Mika Pohjola is a Finnish-born jazz pianist and composer, who resides in New York City. He is one of the most prolific Scandinavian jazz musicians in his generation. Childhood in Helsinki, Finland 1971-87 Mika Pohjola was born in Helsinki, Finland, and grew up in the neighboring city of Vantaa. He received his formal education in a Steiner school, where his first instrument was violin. He then studied drums, and in 1979 piano and basic music theory with his father, Heikki Pohjola, who is a notable Finnish jazz guitarist. In 1982, young Pohjola entered the Helsinki cathedral boy choir, Cantores Minores under the direction of Heinz Hofmann

Michael Weiss

Born: February 10, 1958

Born in Dallas, Michael began piano studies at age six. Beyond his classical training, Weiss developed a quick ear picking out pop songs on the keyboard. At fifteen, he discovered the world of jazz at the Interlochen academy in Michigan. There Weiss studied arranging and subsequently penned several big band scores while in high school. He continued his studies at Indiana University while gaining invaluable bandstand experience with Indianapolis jazz veterans, Al Kiger and Pookie Johnson. After earning a bachelors degree, Weiss moved to New York and soon landed his first "name" gig with Jon Hendricks.

Meg Graf

Born: July 25, 1949

I play piano, woodwinds, fiddle, viola, accordion, hammered dulcimer, Celtic harp, and several ethnic instruments. The styles I most play are Dixieland, swing, big band, gospel, jazz, ragtime, classical, South American, folk and children's music. I perform either with ensembles, as a soloist, or as an accompanist. I play by note and by ear.