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 ...
Pianist George Cable's website features reviews, sound bites, cds, discorgaphy, itinerary, reviews, discography.
When George Cables was going to school in New York City he used to walk the streets at night, taking in the cosmopolitan sights and sounds, mentally recording his encounters with "so many different kinds of people." In his musical career as well, Cables has prowled sidestreets and main thoroughfares in relative anonymity, absorbing countless influences into his personal style.
Born in New York City on November 14, 1944, Cables was classically trained as a youth and when he started at the "Fame" worthy High School of Performing Arts, he admittedly "didn't know anything about jazz." But he was soon smitten with the potential for freedom of expression he heard in jazz.
The young Cables was impressed by such keyboardists as Herbie Hancock and Chick Corea. But, he points out, "I never really listened to pianists when I was coming up. I would probably say I've been more influenced by Miles or Trane and their whole bands rather than by any single pianist. The concept of the music is more important than listening to somebody's chops, somebody's technique, The Way Miles' band held together, it was just like magic. You were transported to another world" ...
Pianist Dave Burrell's website features reviews, sound bites, recordings, diary,
biography. Distinguished composer-pianist Dave Burrell is a performing artist of singular stature on the international contemporary music scene. His dynamic compositions, with blues and gospel roots recall the tradition of Scott Joplin, Jelly Roll Morton, and Duke Ellington. After majoring in music at the University of Hawaii, he enrolled at Berklee College of Music in Boston in 1961. After graduating with degrees in composition/arranging and performance in 1965, he moved to New York City, where he quickly established himself as one of the most innovative and original pianists collaborating with the emerging leaders in contemporary jazz.
Burrell's Jazz Opera Windward Passage, written in collaboration with Swedish-born poet/lyricist Monika Larsson, blends opera voices with world class jazz soloists, a 21-piece jazz opera orchestra, dancers and chorus. Seldom has the classically trained voice played such a unique improvising roll as in this important, ground breaking endeavor. Burrell's dance drama, "Holy Smoke," with blue-print by Monika Larsson, is being developed for modern dance and tap. Burrell's "Jazz Sonata" for piano and violin has been completed and will be orchestrated for symphony orchestra ...
Pianist and composer Helio Alves has received high praise as an in-demand sideman with Joe Henderson, Yo-Yo Ma, Slide Hampton, Airto Moreira and Flora Purim, Paquito D'Rivera, Claudio Roditi, Oscar Castro-Neves and Gato Barbieri, to name but a few. And now, with more than 40 recordings in just over a decade - two at the helm of his own ensembles - this incomparable musician is quite deservedly earning respect as a leader. too.
Jazz pianist Kenny Barron's website features sound bites, reviews, activities, bio, photo gallery, etc ...
Kenny Barron's unmatched ability to mesmerize audiences with his elegant playing, sensitive melodies and infectious rhythms is what inspired the Los Angeles Times to name him "one of the top jazz pianists in the world" and Jazz Weekly to call him "The most lyrical piano player of our time."
Pianist David Hazeltine's website features reviews, sound bites, itinerary, biography, cds.
David Hazeltine is one of a handful of young pianists who has successfully forged his own distinctive style and musical voice out of the accumulated greatness and weight of a modern piano tradition. David's influences extend from Art Tatum and Bud Powell to such great living masters as Buddy Montgomery, Barry Harris and Cedar Walton.
David made his professional debut at age thirteen in Milwaukee, and later worked extensively in and around Chicago and Minneapolis. In Milwaukee, David served as house pianist at the famed Milwaukee Jazz Gallery, working with such greats as Charles McPherson, Eddie Harris, Sonny Stitt, Pepper Adams and Chet Baker. In fact, it was Baker who encouraged David to make his mark in New York City.
Since moving to New York City in 1992, David has made a name for himself as a "musician's musician." In addition to his working trio (with drum legend Louis Hayes and bassist Peter Washington), David is in constant demand as a sideman. Recent credits include work with Freddie Hubbard, James Moody, the Faddis-Hampton-Heath Sextet, the Carnegie Hall Jazz Band, the Louis Hayes Quintet, and Marlena Shaw, for whom he serves as pianist, arranger, and musical director. Recently David was spotlighted on Marian McPartland's "Piano Jazz" radio program. David is also a member of the band "One For All" which features rising tenor star Eric Alexander ...