|
 |
john hicks
Description
John Hicks:
"It was Clark Terry who got me into the mess I'm in today," quipped John Hicks, his sarcasm laced with huge appreciation. "Clark, along with (fellow St. Louis natives) Miles Davis and Oliver Nelson, encouraged me to come to New York."
And since relocating to New York City from St Louis more than 30 years ago, John Hicks is so firmly established among the most in-demand, prolific jazz pianists and composers on the recording and live appearance scenes, critics seem to have permanently affixed the adjective "ubiquitous" to his name. As a leader or first-call sideman, playing inside the chord changes or outside, presenting sparkling ballads or burning up the keyboard at torrid tempos, Hicks is as versatile as he is omnipresent.
John's varied influences include Fats Waller piano rolls, Methodist church music, George Gershwin and bebop, and among his musical mentors were such immortals as Lucky Thompson, Miles Davis and Clark Terry. Hicks played road gigs with blues legends Little Milton and Albert King, and jazz greats Al Grey, Johnny Griffin and Pharaoh Sanders before he arrived in New York in 1963. John then worked with, among numerous others, Kenny Dorham, Lou Donaldson and Joe Henderson before becoming a full-time member of Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers. After two years with the seminal Messengers band, John joined the Betty Carter Trio, another important incubator for world-class beboppers. His productive stints with the vocalist Carter (1966-68) and (1975-80) and a 20-month residency with the Woody Herman Big Band helped to propel John's career as a recording artist into national notice.
The intervening years also saw Hicks appear live and on record with a galaxy of jazz giants that included Sonny Rollins, Freddie Hubbard, Frank Foster, Roy Haynes, Sonny Stitt, Jon Hendricks and James Moody ...
"It was Clark Terry who got me into the mess I'm in today," quipped John Hicks, his sarcasm laced with huge appreciation. "Clark, along with (fellow St. Louis natives) Miles Davis and Oliver Nelson, encouraged me to come to New York."
And since relocating to New York City from St Louis more than 30 years ago, John Hicks is so firmly established among the most in-demand, prolific jazz pianists and composers on the recording and live appearance scenes, critics seem to have permanently affixed the adjective "ubiquitous" to his name. As a leader or first-call sideman, playing inside the chord changes or outside, presenting sparkling ballads or burning up the keyboard at torrid tempos, Hicks is as versatile as he is omnipresent.
John's varied influences include Fats Waller piano rolls, Methodist church music, George Gershwin and bebop, and among his musical mentors were such immortals as Lucky Thompson, Miles Davis and Clark Terry. Hicks played road gigs with blues legends Little Milton and Albert King, and jazz greats Al Grey, Johnny Griffin and Pharaoh Sanders before he arrived in New York in 1963. John then worked with, among numerous others, Kenny Dorham, Lou Donaldson and Joe Henderson before becoming a full-time member of Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers. After two years with the seminal Messengers band, John joined the Betty Carter Trio, another important incubator for world-class beboppers. His productive stints with the vocalist Carter (1966-68) and (1975-80) and a 20-month residency with the Woody Herman Big Band helped to propel John's career as a recording artist into national notice.
The intervening years also saw Hicks appear live and on record with a galaxy of jazz giants that included Sonny Rollins, Freddie Hubbard, Frank Foster, Roy Haynes, Sonny Stitt, Jon Hendricks and James Moody ...
Category
Date
Jan 7, 2006
Contact name
Email
Link ID
11944
Write a Review
Add to My Favorite
Refer it to Friend
Report Broken Link
Other links at Keyboard, Piano > piano players: jazz
James Weidman's website features reviews, sound bites, recordings, newletter,
biography.
New York-based pianist James Weidman is indisputably one of the world's top sidemen. Over the years he has played and recorded with musicians as diverse as Max Roach, Woody Herman, Archie Shepp, James Moody, Greg Osby, and Marty Ehrlich.
He has also been the accompanist of choice for some of the world's most celebrated singers, including legendary jazz vocalist Abbey Lincoln and Cassandra Wilson. Clearly, Weidman -- described by New York Times jazz critic Ben Ratliff as playing "smoothly and decorously" behind Lincoln at a recent reunion concert -- is one those rare accompanists to whom singers feel it is safe to give free rein ...
biography.
New York-based pianist James Weidman is indisputably one of the world's top sidemen. Over the years he has played and recorded with musicians as diverse as Max Roach, Woody Herman, Archie Shepp, James Moody, Greg Osby, and Marty Ehrlich.
He has also been the accompanist of choice for some of the world's most celebrated singers, including legendary jazz vocalist Abbey Lincoln and Cassandra Wilson. Clearly, Weidman -- described by New York Times jazz critic Ben Ratliff as playing "smoothly and decorously" behind Lincoln at a recent reunion concert -- is one those rare accompanists to whom singers feel it is safe to give free rein ...
Category:
Pianist Rob Schneiderman's website features biography, discography, sound bites, transcriptions, itinerary, reviews, etc.
Rob Schneiderman was born in Boston, Massachusetts, and raised in California. His Jazz career began in San Diego during the late seventies and early eighties playing piano for visiting soloists such as Eddie Harris, Sonny Stitt, Harold Land and Charles McPherson. A move to New York in 1982 led to performing and touring experience with the likes of J.J. Johnson, Chet Baker, James Moody, Art Farmer and Clifford Jordan including trips to Europe and Japan. A performance fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts featured Rob with George Coleman, Jimmy Heath, Claudio Roditi, and Slide Hampton. The collaboration with Slide resulted in the CD New Outlook, the first of Rob's nine recordings as a leader for the Reservoir Music label. These CD's contain over twenty Schneiderman originals as well as arrangements of many standards. The most recent release is Back In Town, which features Rob in a trio setting with Boris Kozlov on bass and Johnathan Blake on drums. Among the sidemen featured on the other dates are Billy Higgins, Rufus Reid, Brian Lynch, Ralph Moore, Peter Washington, Lewis Nash, Akira Tana, Billy Hart, Gary Smulyan and Ben Riley. Rob's Reservoir CD Keepin' in the Groove received 4 ½ stars (out of five) from Down Beat magazine. Rob's recordings as a sideman include sessions with Eddie Harris, J.J. Johnson, and TanaReid ...
Rob Schneiderman was born in Boston, Massachusetts, and raised in California. His Jazz career began in San Diego during the late seventies and early eighties playing piano for visiting soloists such as Eddie Harris, Sonny Stitt, Harold Land and Charles McPherson. A move to New York in 1982 led to performing and touring experience with the likes of J.J. Johnson, Chet Baker, James Moody, Art Farmer and Clifford Jordan including trips to Europe and Japan. A performance fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts featured Rob with George Coleman, Jimmy Heath, Claudio Roditi, and Slide Hampton. The collaboration with Slide resulted in the CD New Outlook, the first of Rob's nine recordings as a leader for the Reservoir Music label. These CD's contain over twenty Schneiderman originals as well as arrangements of many standards. The most recent release is Back In Town, which features Rob in a trio setting with Boris Kozlov on bass and Johnathan Blake on drums. Among the sidemen featured on the other dates are Billy Higgins, Rufus Reid, Brian Lynch, Ralph Moore, Peter Washington, Lewis Nash, Akira Tana, Billy Hart, Gary Smulyan and Ben Riley. Rob's Reservoir CD Keepin' in the Groove received 4 ½ stars (out of five) from Down Beat magazine. Rob's recordings as a sideman include sessions with Eddie Harris, J.J. Johnson, and TanaReid ...
Category:
Award winning pianist Jill McCarron's website includes all flash jukebox, presskit, bio, recordings and more ...
ill McCarron is a dedicated New Yorker. Born in Minneapolis, she spent her childhood and teen years in Canada (Winnipeg and Ottawa). She also lived for a time in Toronto, where she performed solo piano and with several local bands at Toronto's top jazz clubs while also attending Humber College.
Upon winning a Canada Council Grant, she relocated to New York for private studies in the jazz program at the New School for Social Research. After seeing the wider opportunities for growth that the city offered, it was not a tough decision for Jill to stay on permanently.
Although she enjoyed piano lessons from the age of five and proved to be unusually talented, Jill's moment of decision came at the age of 16, when listening to a radio recording of Art Pepper with her brother, Ross. A bebop piano caught her ear, which she discovered years later to be the stylings of Russ Freeman, and there was an instant connection. "I knew I could do that," she recalls thinking. From then she pursued the study of jazz with unflagging enthusiasm.
Jill's first place win ("for her deeply rooted jazz sensibility") at the 13th Great American Jazz Piano Competition in Jacksonville, Florida in 1995 capped her earlier (1993) semi-finalist selection at the Thelonius Monk Jazz Piano Competition and her still earlier (1990) win, with her quintet, of the New York City Finals of the Hennessy Jazz Search.
Among those artists she has worked with since being in New York are trumpeter Randy Brecker, tenor saxist Don Braden, guitarist Russell Malone, alto saxist Vincent Herring, drummer Sheri Maricle's DIVA, and Kit McClure's Big Band. Venues have included The Blue Note, Shanghai Jazz, Knickerbocker,Tavern on the Green, Iridium, Metropolitan Cafe and Cleopatra's Needle, among others. Her performances have taken her throughout the U.S. and Europe.
As a soloist, playing both jazz and classical selections, Jill regularly performs at the Harvard Club of NYC Monday and Tuesday evenings and has recently added vocals to her repertoire. Her Wednesday evenings belong to Arturo's in Greenwich Village. For the balance of the week, she is in high demand, both as a soloist or with her combos, at numerous popular restaurants and night spots in NYC and environs ...
ill McCarron is a dedicated New Yorker. Born in Minneapolis, she spent her childhood and teen years in Canada (Winnipeg and Ottawa). She also lived for a time in Toronto, where she performed solo piano and with several local bands at Toronto's top jazz clubs while also attending Humber College.
Upon winning a Canada Council Grant, she relocated to New York for private studies in the jazz program at the New School for Social Research. After seeing the wider opportunities for growth that the city offered, it was not a tough decision for Jill to stay on permanently.
Although she enjoyed piano lessons from the age of five and proved to be unusually talented, Jill's moment of decision came at the age of 16, when listening to a radio recording of Art Pepper with her brother, Ross. A bebop piano caught her ear, which she discovered years later to be the stylings of Russ Freeman, and there was an instant connection. "I knew I could do that," she recalls thinking. From then she pursued the study of jazz with unflagging enthusiasm.
Jill's first place win ("for her deeply rooted jazz sensibility") at the 13th Great American Jazz Piano Competition in Jacksonville, Florida in 1995 capped her earlier (1993) semi-finalist selection at the Thelonius Monk Jazz Piano Competition and her still earlier (1990) win, with her quintet, of the New York City Finals of the Hennessy Jazz Search.
Among those artists she has worked with since being in New York are trumpeter Randy Brecker, tenor saxist Don Braden, guitarist Russell Malone, alto saxist Vincent Herring, drummer Sheri Maricle's DIVA, and Kit McClure's Big Band. Venues have included The Blue Note, Shanghai Jazz, Knickerbocker,Tavern on the Green, Iridium, Metropolitan Cafe and Cleopatra's Needle, among others. Her performances have taken her throughout the U.S. and Europe.
As a soloist, playing both jazz and classical selections, Jill regularly performs at the Harvard Club of NYC Monday and Tuesday evenings and has recently added vocals to her repertoire. Her Wednesday evenings belong to Arturo's in Greenwich Village. For the balance of the week, she is in high demand, both as a soloist or with her combos, at numerous popular restaurants and night spots in NYC and environs ...
Category:
4. benny green
Benny Green's website features music, cds, bios, itinerary, electronic press kit, photo gallery, discography.
Born in New York in 1963, Benny Green grew up in Berkeley, California, and began classical piano studies at the age of seven. Influenced by his father, a tenor saxophonist, his attention soon turned into Jazz: “I began trying to improvise on the piano, imitating the records I’d been hearing from my father’s collection, which included a lot of Monk and Bird… it was a gradual process of teaching myself”. He played in school bands before hooking up with Jazz singer Fay Carroll: “That was good training for me in terms of accompaniment and learning about the blues, and she also gave me a chance to play trio, opening for her every night”. As a teenager he worked with Eddie Henderson, and got some big band experience with a 12-piece group led by Chuck Israels. After his graduation, Benny freelanced around the bay area for a year, and then moved to New York in the spring of 1982. Back in the Big Apple, Benny met veteran pianist Walter Bishop Jr.: “I began studying with him and he helped point me in the direction of developing my own sound, and he also encouraged me to check out and study the whole scope of Jazz piano history, so I could get a sense of how I was to fit in”. After a short stint with Bobby Watson, Green worked with Betty Carter between 1983 and 1987, the year he joined Art Blakey’s band. He remained a Jazz Messenger through late 1989, at which point he began working with Freddie Hubbard’s quintet. In 1993 Oscar Peterson chose Benny as the first recipient of the City of Toronto’s Glen Gould International Protégé Prize in Music. That year, Green replaced Gene Harris in Ray Brown’s Trio, working with the veteran bass player until 1997. From 1997 on, Benny resumed his freelance career, leading his own trios, accompanying singers like Diana Krall, and concentrating in his solo piano performances ...
Born in New York in 1963, Benny Green grew up in Berkeley, California, and began classical piano studies at the age of seven. Influenced by his father, a tenor saxophonist, his attention soon turned into Jazz: “I began trying to improvise on the piano, imitating the records I’d been hearing from my father’s collection, which included a lot of Monk and Bird… it was a gradual process of teaching myself”. He played in school bands before hooking up with Jazz singer Fay Carroll: “That was good training for me in terms of accompaniment and learning about the blues, and she also gave me a chance to play trio, opening for her every night”. As a teenager he worked with Eddie Henderson, and got some big band experience with a 12-piece group led by Chuck Israels. After his graduation, Benny freelanced around the bay area for a year, and then moved to New York in the spring of 1982. Back in the Big Apple, Benny met veteran pianist Walter Bishop Jr.: “I began studying with him and he helped point me in the direction of developing my own sound, and he also encouraged me to check out and study the whole scope of Jazz piano history, so I could get a sense of how I was to fit in”. After a short stint with Bobby Watson, Green worked with Betty Carter between 1983 and 1987, the year he joined Art Blakey’s band. He remained a Jazz Messenger through late 1989, at which point he began working with Freddie Hubbard’s quintet. In 1993 Oscar Peterson chose Benny as the first recipient of the City of Toronto’s Glen Gould International Protégé Prize in Music. That year, Green replaced Gene Harris in Ray Brown’s Trio, working with the veteran bass player until 1997. From 1997 on, Benny resumed his freelance career, leading his own trios, accompanying singers like Diana Krall, and concentrating in his solo piano performances ...
Category:
Richard Bliwas:
The pianist has been compared to Joni Mitchell , Laura Nyro, Miles Davis , Randy Newman , The Beatles, Van Dyke Parks, Brian Wilson and Sun Ra-- but as All About Jazz said in it’s review of Rising Rose Records 2004 chart-haunting release Ghost “ His writing is unmistakably original …. Cadence Magazine said in it’s review of Compose Yourself “ Bliwas transforms intricate phrases into seamless music , and Shredding Paper said in it’s review of Walk the Bike “ Bliwas walks the line between jazz and folkrock with confidence…producing a dialectic sound that compliments rather than conflicts. His lyrics have been described as profound, cryptic, silly, perceptive and poetic. Hidden tracks on a couple CD’s led one music journalist to proclaim that "Richard Bliwas has a great sense of humor…”
Soon after studying with composer Olivier Messiaen, pianist Joseph Schwartz,and poet David Young at Oberlin College and Conservatory , Richard's early 80's groups with Ben Sher and Ned Goold were incorporating the influences of Miles Davis , Brian Eno , Syd Barrett and The Beatles , in intimate innovative recordings-- and in performances at Pittsburgh's Kool Jazz festival , smokey old jazz clubs where Benson and Eckstine played a few generations earlier or rock/punk clubs like The Electric Banana. The music however, freely crossed genre lines, foreshadowing alternative and contemporary styles.
When he moved to New York in 1984, Richard began an odyssey of gigs--from playing piano for Jacques d'Amboise and the National Dance Institute , to infusing his sensibilities as an improviser into the jazz and pop music he loved everywhere from CBGB's to the 21 Club, to creative structural and line by line editing of Cynthia Kadohata's acclaimed first novel --The Floating World ...
The pianist has been compared to Joni Mitchell , Laura Nyro, Miles Davis , Randy Newman , The Beatles, Van Dyke Parks, Brian Wilson and Sun Ra-- but as All About Jazz said in it’s review of Rising Rose Records 2004 chart-haunting release Ghost “ His writing is unmistakably original …. Cadence Magazine said in it’s review of Compose Yourself “ Bliwas transforms intricate phrases into seamless music , and Shredding Paper said in it’s review of Walk the Bike “ Bliwas walks the line between jazz and folkrock with confidence…producing a dialectic sound that compliments rather than conflicts. His lyrics have been described as profound, cryptic, silly, perceptive and poetic. Hidden tracks on a couple CD’s led one music journalist to proclaim that "Richard Bliwas has a great sense of humor…”
Soon after studying with composer Olivier Messiaen, pianist Joseph Schwartz,and poet David Young at Oberlin College and Conservatory , Richard's early 80's groups with Ben Sher and Ned Goold were incorporating the influences of Miles Davis , Brian Eno , Syd Barrett and The Beatles , in intimate innovative recordings-- and in performances at Pittsburgh's Kool Jazz festival , smokey old jazz clubs where Benson and Eckstine played a few generations earlier or rock/punk clubs like The Electric Banana. The music however, freely crossed genre lines, foreshadowing alternative and contemporary styles.
When he moved to New York in 1984, Richard began an odyssey of gigs--from playing piano for Jacques d'Amboise and the National Dance Institute , to infusing his sensibilities as an improviser into the jazz and pop music he loved everywhere from CBGB's to the 21 Club, to creative structural and line by line editing of Cynthia Kadohata's acclaimed first novel --The Floating World ...
Category:
Main Category
10
2002
555
335
215
6
791
59
2257
363
411
190
140
211
22
2321
74
120
3
178
36
145
105
36
14
26
1038
159
234
98
273
9
1067
151
245
144
312
254
348
15
78
214
128
70
414
535
2604
90
Top 10
Statistics
Links: 17422
Categories: 1112
Unique Outgoing Hits: 4408723
Pagerank Statistics
