Composer and an acclaimed jazz pianist, and the founder of Open Studio, which is the world’s leading jazz education platform. His newest album was just released on December 1 and features his brand-new quartet. His touring career has taken him to six continents numerous times, and he played in the White House by invitation from President Obama several times. He performed on and arranged Dianne Reeves’ GRAMMY-winning release, “A Little Moonlight,” and appeared in George Clooney’s 2005 film “Good Night, and Good Luck,” as well as being the featured pianist and an arranger on the GRAMMY-winning soundtrack. He has also performed, toured, and recorded with names like Wynton Marsalis and Chris Botti, as well as the Berlin Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic.
“I’ve gotten better at not – hopefully better at not – tinkering with some stuff that I like that comes out of me too much, whereas when I was younger it’d be like, ‘Well, does this need to be changed because it’s too simple or too complex’? Or trying to make it into something.”
“I do like to get the feedback and see how people react to things so that I get a more accurate view.”
“I’m not a chef, but I’m a piano player, so my job is to serve up music. And I think as jazz musicians – similar to classical musicians, and I kind of came up in both worlds – but, like, sometimes we’re a little too precious about everything, waiting for something to be perfect or at the perfect situation or with the perfect microphones.”
“Sometimes, just put up on your phone something cool and if it puts a tap in somebody’s foot or improves their day or something then I’m doing what I’m supposed to be doing on this planet.”
“I always keep, like, a music notebook of just ideas, and it’s always way more than I can, sort of, actualize at any time.”
“When we’re able to sort of lean into the things that people really love about jazz music – improvisation, interaction amongst musicians, a certain serendipity in the moment to what’s going to happen – those are hallmarks of jazz, those are markers and things that we excel at.”
“Because I wrote the music, I was thinking about, like, how can I serve our community, what are they going to be interested in, and I just asked them.”
“Open Studio is the number one online jazz learning community, and really jazz appreciation and jazz loving community and we launched it in 2015, so we’re getting close to nine years old, which is amazing to me because we started at nothing and now we have members in over 130 countries. We have over 20 thousand active members – folks that have bought different courses.”
“I got a message saying, ‘Are you available on this date to play with a group of jazz musicians we’re putting together for a special event at the White House… and basically, you’d be playing with Chris Botti and Diane Reeves and maybe Dee Dee Bridgewater’?”
“Groove Echo Chamber”
“Gratitude In Motion”