Famous Male Jazz Pianists

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Updated July 3, 2024 44.7K views 488 items

List of famous male jazz pianists, listed by their level of prominence with photos when available. This greatest male jazz pianists list contains the most prominent and top males known for being jazz pianists. There are thousand of males working as jazz pianists in the world, but this list highlights only the most notable ones. Historic jazz pianists have worked hard to become the best that they can be, so if you're a male aspiring to be a jazz pianist then the people below should give you inspiration.

The list you're viewing is made up of many different people, like Teddy Weatherford and Willie "The Lion" Smith.

While this isn't a list of all male jazz pianists, it does answer the questions "Who are the most famous male jazz pianists?" and "Who are the best male jazz pianists?"
  • Dudley Moore
    Dec. at 66 (1935-2002)
    Dudley Moore, born in Dagenham, England in 1935, was an extraordinary figure whose early life was marked by hardship, having been born with a clubfoot and raised in a working-class family. Yet, he rose above these challenges to carve out a successful career that spanned across music, comedy, and film. Moore's musical prowess emerged at an early age. He became a choirboy at the age of six and won a scholarship to study organ at the Guildhall School of Music in London when he was just 11. His love for jazz led him to form his own trio, The Dudley Moore Trio, which garnered significant acclaim in the UK. However, it was Moore's comedic talents that propelled him into the limelight. A founding member of the groundbreaking comedy revue Beyond the Fringe, Moore's knack for humor made him a household name in Britain and later, across the Atlantic. His transition to film was seamless and successful. Moore's memorable role in the 1979 film 10 made him an international star. His portrayal of a man undergoing a mid-life crisis resonated with audiences worldwide. This success was followed by the 1981 hit Arthur, where his engaging performance as a lovable drunk earned him an Oscar nomination. Despite his prolific career and fame, Moore remained grounded, using his celebrity status to raise awareness for progressive supranuclear palsy, a degenerative brain disorder he was diagnosed with in 1997. On March 27, 2002, Moore passed away from pneumonia at the age of 66 in Plainfield, New Jersey,
    • Birthplace: Dagenham, England, UK
    • 10
      110
      67 Votes
    • Arthur
      2Arthur
      101 Votes
    • Foul Play
      3Foul Play
      38 Votes
  • Harry Connick, Jr. was born on September 11, 1967 in New Orleans, Louisiana, an epicenter of jazz that undoubtedly shaped his artistic journey. Raised in a household saturated by music, his parents were both attorneys who also owned a record store. His father, Harry Connick Sr., even served as the district attorney of Orleans Parish for three decades. But the family's bond to music was unwavering, and it was here where young Harry found his calling. He began learning keyboards at the tender age of three, later mastering multiple instruments, with a focus on the piano. His talent was undeniable, and at just nine years old, Connick performed Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 3 Opus 37 with the New Orleans Symphony Orchestra. This early accomplishment launched his career into the spotlight, and he studied at the prestigious Manhattan School of Music under the mentorship of Ellis Marsalis. During this time, he caught the attention of Columbia Records which led to the release of his self-titled debut album in 1987. His musical style, beautifully blending jazz, funk, and blues, mirrored the vibrant culture of his hometown. Connick's career reached new heights when he provided the soundtrack for the romantic comedy When Harry Met Sally in 1989. The album went multi-platinum and earned him his first Grammy Award. This success opened doors to the world of acting and television, leading to notable roles in films like Independence Day and Hope Floats, as well as a recurring role in the popular TV series Will & Grace. Despite his diverse repertoire, Connick never strayed far from his musical roots. Throughout his career, he's released over 20 albums, won multiple Grammy and Emmy Awards, and has consistently used his platform to champion New Orleans's music and culture.
    • Birthplace: USA, New Orleans, Louisiana
  • Ray Charles
    Dec. at 73 (1930-2004)
    Ray Charles, born Ray Charles Robinson on September 23, 1930, in Albany, Georgia, was a trailblazer in the world of music who left a lasting legacy that transcends genres. Raised in Greenville, Florida, he began to lose his sight at the age of five due to glaucoma and was completely blind by the age of seven. Despite this adversity, Charles honed his early interest in music and became an accomplished pianist and songwriter in his youth. His mother, Aretha Williams, was a profound influence, encouraging him to become self-sufficient and independent despite his blindness. In the late 1940s, Charles began his professional career by moving to Seattle and recording his first singles. However, it was in the mid-1950s when he truly made his mark by combining elements of gospel and R&B to create a new genre - soul. His breakthrough hit, I Got A Woman, is widely regarded as one of the first songs in this genre. Charles' innovative style and distinctive voice brought him international fame. He also broke racial barriers during a time of segregation in America, becoming one of the first black musicians to have ownership and control over his own recordings. Charles' impact stretched beyond music; he was an advocate for civil rights and against drug abuse, drawing from his personal experiences. Despite struggling with addiction himself, he used his platform to raise awareness about the issue. In 1986, Charles was recognized for his contributions to music with an induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. His life and career were further immortalized in the 2004 biographical film Ray, with Jamie Foxx's portrayal earning an Academy Award. Ray Charles passed away on June 10, 2004, but his music continues to inspire and influence artists around the globe.
    • Birthplace: Georgia, USA, Albany
    • Georgia On My Mind
      1Georgia On My Mind
      30 Votes
    • Hit the Road Jack
      2Hit the Road Jack
      47 Votes
    • I Got A Woman
      3I Got A Woman
      30 Votes
  • Nat King Cole
    Dec. at 45 (1919-1965)
    Nathaniel Adams Coles, known professionally as Nat King Cole, was an iconic figure in the American music industry. Born on March 17, 1919, in Montgomery, Alabama, he embarked on a career that spanned three decades and saw him rise from a struggling nightclub singer to a world-renowned musician. Notable for his smooth baritone voice and jazz piano performances, Nat King Cole made a significant impact on the music landscape. From an early age, Cole showed an affinity for music. His family's move to Chicago when he was four years old exposed him to the city's vibrant jazz scene, fueling his passion. He formed the King Cole Trio in the mid-1940s, a group that played an essential role in elevating Cole's profile in the music arena. The trio's success led to a recording contract with Capitol Records, where Cole produced several hits like "Straighten Up and Fly Right," "The Christmas Song," and "Mona Lisa." Despite the racial prejudice he faced throughout his career, Nat King Cole broke significant barriers for African-American artists. He was the first African-American performer to host a variety television series, The Nat King Cole Show, which aired from 1956 to 1957. This achievement was a milestone in American television history, inspiring future generations of artists. Nat King Cole left an indelible mark on the entertainment industry, influencing countless musicians with his exceptional talent and resilience. He passed away on February 15, 1965, but his legacy continues to resonate in the realms of jazz and pop music.
    • Birthplace: Montgomery, Alabama
  • Count Basie
    Dec. at 79 (1904-1984)
    The first ever male African-American to win a Grammy Award, jazz pianist and bandleader Count Basie helped to define the swing era with his distinctive blend of minimal sparse solos and jumping beats. Mentored by the likes of Fats Waller and Willie 'The Lion' Smith, Basie began his career performing in various groups around the major jazz cities before forming the orchestra that he would go on to lead for over half a century. Responsible for launching the careers of such seminal musicians as Lester Young, Buck Clayton and Freddie Green, Basie also helped to showcase the talents of legendary vocalists Billie Holiday, Jimmy Rushing and Joe Williams, and unlike many of his peers, managed to remain a key musical figure long after the big band sound's decline in popularity.
    • Birthplace: Red Bank, New Jersey, USA
  • Duke Ellington
    Dec. at 75 (1899-1974)
    Duke Ellington, born Edward Kennedy Ellington in Washington D.C. on April 29, 1899, developed into an iconic figure of the 20th century music, revered for his profound impact on the jazz genre. The son of two pianists, Ellington's musical journey began at the age of seven when he started piano lessons, but it was more than a decade later when he truly fell in love with ragtime. In his early career, he performed in various D.C. clubs before he formed "The Duke's Serenaders" in 1917, heralding the start of his professional music career. The 1920s saw Ellington move to New York City, the epicenter of jazz innovation. His band, renamed "The Washingtonians", played at the Kentucky Club where they caught the attention of agent Irving Mills. This turned out to be a pivotal moment in Ellington's career. Mills helped to secure a spot for the band at the famous Cotton Club, leading to nationwide radio broadcasts that brought Ellington's innovative, orchestral jazz sound into homes across the country. It was during this period that Ellington created some of his most lauded works including Mood Indigo, Sophisticated Lady, and Black and Tan Fantasy. In the following decades, Duke Ellington composed thousands of scores that made a mark on American music. He became renowned for his ability to blend melodies, rhythms and subtle sonic movements into a unified whole. His unique compositions often broke down barriers between different musical genres and influenced not just jazz but the wider world of music. His illustrious career spanned more than half a century, earning him a dozen Grammy awards and the Presidential Medal of Freedom among numerous other accolades. Ellington passed away on May 24, 1974, leaving behind a legacy that continues to resonate in contemporary music.
    • Birthplace: Washington, D.C., USA
  • Herbie Hancock, born in 1940 in Chicago, Illinois, is an internationally acclaimed jazz pianist and composer whose innovative approaches to music have made him a significant figure in the evolution of modern jazz. His musical journey began with classical training as a child prodigy, leading to his first public performance with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at just 11 years old. He later studied electrical engineering and music at Grinnell College before pursuing a full-time career in music. Hancock's professional breakthrough came when he joined the Miles Davis Quintet in 1963. During his five years with the group, he contributed extensively to the development of post-bop sounds. His work on albums like Maiden Voyage and Empyrean Isles showcased his innovative harmonic progression and rhythmic complexity, which would become signature elements of his style. In parallel to his work with Davis, Hancock also led his own groups, including the experimental sextet Mwandishi, which incorporated electronic instruments and funk rhythms. In the 1970s, Hancock ventured further into electronic music and funk with his band The Headhunters, achieving commercial success with the hit single "Chameleon". He continued to break new ground in the following decades, blending jazz with pop, R&B, and hip-hop elements. His 2007 album River: The Joni Letters, a tribute to singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell, won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year, making Hancock one of the few jazz musicians to receive this honor. A dedicated educator and humanitarian, Hancock has also served as the UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador for Intercultural Dialogue since 2011. His contributions to music and culture continue to resonate worldwide, marking him as a true icon of jazz.
    • Birthplace: Chicago, Illinois, USA
  • Charles Mingus
    Dec. at 56 (1922-1979)
    Charles Mingus Jr. (April 22, 1922 ā€“ January 5, 1979) was an American jazz double bassist, pianist, composer and bandleader. A major proponent of collective improvisation, he is considered to be one of the greatest jazz musicians and composers in history, with a career spanning three decades and collaborations with other jazz legends such as Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Dannie Richmond, and Herbie Hancock. Mingus' compositions continue to be played by contemporary musicians ranging from the repertory bands Mingus Big Band, Mingus Dynasty, and Mingus Orchestra, to the high school students who play the charts and compete in the Charles Mingus High School Competition. In 1993, the Library of Congress acquired Mingus's collected papersā€”including scores, sound recordings, correspondence and photosā€”in what they described as "the most important acquisition of a manuscript collection relating to jazz in the Library's history".
    • Birthplace: Arizona, USA, Nogales
  • Art Tatum
    Dec. at 47 (1909-1956)
    Arthur Tatum Jr. (, October 13, 1909 ā€“ November 5, 1956) was an American jazz pianist. Tatum grew up in Toledo, Ohio, where he began playing professionally and had his own radio program, rebroadcast nationwide, while still in his teens. He left Toledo in 1932 and had residencies as a solo pianist at clubs in major urban centers including New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles. Throughout his career, Tatum also played for long periods at night in after-hours venues ā€“ at which he was often more spontaneous and creative than in his paid-for performances ā€“ and drank enormous quantities of alcohol. Although drinking did not negatively affect his playing, it did damage his health. In the 1940s, Tatum led a commercially successful trio for a short time and began playing in more formal jazz concert settings, including at Norman Granz-produced Jazz at the Philharmonic events. Granz recorded Tatum extensively in solo and small group formats in the mid-1950s, with the last session occurring only two months before the pianist's death from uremia at the age of 47. Tatum is widely regarded as one of the greatest jazz pianists. His playing encompassed everything that had come before, added great harmonic and rhythmic imagination and complexity, and was often at very high speed. He extended what was considered possible in jazz piano and established new ground in jazz more broadly through innovative use of reharmonization, voicing, and bitonality.
    • Birthplace: USA, Toledo, Ohio
  • Sun Ra
    Dec. at 79 (1914-1993)
    Le Sony'r Ra (born Herman Poole Blount, May 22, 1914 ā€“ May 30, 1993), better known as Sun Ra, was an American jazz composer, bandleader, piano and synthesizer player, and poet known for his experimental music, "cosmic" philosophy, prolific output, and theatrical performances. For much of his career, Ra led "The Arkestra", an ensemble with an ever-changing name and flexible line-up. Born and raised in Alabama, Blount became involved in the Chicago jazz scene during the late 1940s. He soon abandoned his birth name, taking the name Le Sony'r Ra, shortened to Sun Ra (after Ra, the Egyptian God of the Sun). He developed a complex persona and an idiosyncratic, myth-based credo that would make him a pioneer of Afrofuturism. He claimed to be an alien from Saturn on a mission to preach peace, and throughout his life he publicly denied ties to his prior identity.His widely eclectic and avant-garde music echoed the entire history of jazz, from ragtime and early New Orleans hot jazz, to swing music, bebop, free jazz and fusion. His compositions ranged from keyboard solos to works for big bands of over 30 musicians, along with electronic excursions, songs, chants, percussion pieces, and anthems. From the mid-1950s until his death, Ra led the musical collective The Arkestra (which featured artists such as Marshall Allen, John Gilmore and June Tyson throughout its various iterations). Its performances often included dancers and musicians dressed in elaborate, futuristic costumes inspired by ancient Egyptian attire and the Space Age. (Following Ra's illness-forced retirement in 1992, the band remained active as The Sun Ra Arkestra, and, as of 2018, continues performing under the leadership of veteran Ra sideman Marshall Allen.)Though his mainstream success was limited, Sun Ra was a prolific recording artist and frequent live performer, and remained both influential and controversial throughout his life for his music and persona. He is now widely considered an innovator; among his distinctions are his pioneering work in free improvisation and modal jazz and his early use of electronic keyboards and synthesizers. Over the course of his career, he recorded dozens of singles and over one hundred full-length albums, comprising well over 1000 songs, making him one of the most prolific recording artists of the 20th century.
    • Birthplace: Birmingham, USA, Alabama
  • Cecil Percival Taylor (March 25, 1929 ā€“ April 5, 2018) was an American pianist and poet.Taylor was classically trained and was one of the pioneers of free jazz. His music is characterized by an energetic, physical approach, resulting in complex improvisation often involving tone clusters and intricate polyrhythms. His technique has been compared to percussion. Referring to the number of keys on a standard piano, Val Wilmer used the phrase "eighty-eight tuned drums" to describe Taylor's style. He has been referred to as being "like Art Tatum with contemporary-classical leanings".
    • Birthplace: USA, New York, Long Island
  • Armando Anthony "Chick" Corea (June 12, 1941 ā€“ February 9, 2021) was an American jazz pianist/electric keyboardist and composer. His compositions "Spain", "500 Miles High", "La Fiesta" and "Windows", are considered jazz standards. As a member of Miles Davis's band in the late 1960s, he participated in the birth of jazz fusion. In the 1970s he formed the fusion band Return to Forever. With Herbie Hancock, McCoy Tyner and Keith Jarrett, he has been described as one of the major jazz piano voices to emerge in the post-John Coltrane era.Corea continued to pursue other collaborations and to explore musical styles throughout the 1980s and 1990s. He was also known for promoting and fundraising for a number of social issues.
    • Birthplace: USA, Massachusetts, Chelsea
  • Fred Hersch (born October 21, 1955) is an American jazz pianist and educator. He has performed solo and led his own groups, including the Pocket Orchestra consisting of piano, trumpet, voice, and percussion. He was the first person to play weeklong engagements as a solo pianist at the Village Vanguard in New York City. He has recorded more than 70 of his jazz compositions. Hersch has been nominated for several Grammy Awards, and, as of December 2014, had been on the Jazz Studies faculty of the New England Conservatory since 1980 (with breaks).
    • Birthplace: Cincinnati, Ohio
  • Eumir Deodato

    Eumir Deodato

    Age: 81
    Eumir Deodato de Almeida (Brazilian Portuguese: [įŗ½ŹŠĢƒĖˆmiĻ‡ djoĖˆdatu]; born June 22, 1942) is a Brazilian pianist, composer, arranger, and record producer, primarily in jazz but who has been known for his eclectic melding of genres, such as pop, rock, disco, rhythm and blues, classical, Latin and bossa nova.Deodato has been nominated for three Grammy Awards, winning the 1974 Grammy Award for Best Pop Instrumental Performance for "Also Sprach Zarathustra (2001)". His 500+ works as a producer and arranger includes Kool & the Gang's hits "Celebration", "Ladies' Night", and "Too Hot".
    • Birthplace: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
  • Jan Hammer
    Age: 76
    Jan Hammer (Czech pronunciation: [Ėˆjan ĖˆÉ¦amɛr]) (born 17 April 1948) is a Czech-American musician, composer and record producer. He first gained his most visible audience while playing keyboards with the Mahavishnu Orchestra in the early 1970s, as well as his film scores for television and film including "Miami Vice Theme" and "Crockett's Theme", from the 1980s television program, Miami Vice. He has continued to work as both a musical performer and producer, expanding to producing film later in his career. Hammer has collaborated with some of the era's most influential jazz and rock musicians such as John McLaughlin, Jeff Beck, Al Di Meola, Mick Jagger, Carlos Santana, Stanley Clarke, Tommy Bolin, Neal Schon, Steve Lukather and Elvin Jones. He has composed and produced at least 14 original motion picture soundtracks, the music for 90 episodes of Miami Vice and 20 episodes of the television series Chancer. His compositions have won him several Grammy Awards.
    • Birthplace: Czech Republic, Prague
  • Billy Strayhorn
    Dec. at 51 (1915-1967)
    William Thomas Strayhorn (November 29, 1915 ā€“ May 31, 1967) was an American jazz composer, pianist, lyricist, and arranger, best remembered for his long-time collaboration with bandleader and composer Duke Ellington that lasted nearly three decades. His compositions include "Take the 'A' Train", "Chelsea Bridge", "A Flower Is a Lovesome Thing", and "Lush Life".
    • Birthplace: Dayton, Ohio
  • Thelonious Monk
    Dec. at 64 (1917-1982)
    Thelonious Sphere Monk (, October 10, 1917 ā€“ February 17, 1982) was an American jazz pianist and composer. He had a unique improvisational style and made numerous contributions to the standard jazz repertoire, including "'Round Midnight", "Blue Monk", "Straight, No Chaser", "Ruby, My Dear", "In Walked Bud", and "Well, You Needn't". Monk is the second-most-recorded jazz composer after Duke Ellington, which is particularly remarkable as Ellington composed more than a thousand pieces, whereas Monk wrote about 70.Monk's compositions and improvisations feature dissonances and angular melodic twists and are consistent with his unorthodox approach to the piano, which combined a highly percussive attack with abrupt, dramatic use of switched key releases, silences, and hesitations. His style was not universally appreciated; the poet and jazz critic Philip Larkin dismissed him as "the elephant on the keyboard".Monk was renowned for a distinct look which included suits, hats, and sunglasses. He was also noted for an idiosyncratic habit during performances: while other musicians continued playing, Monk stopped, stood up, and danced for a few moments before returning to the piano.Monk is one of five jazz musicians to have been featured on the cover of Time magazine (the others being Louis Armstrong, Dave Brubeck, Duke Ellington and Wynton Marsalis).
    • Birthplace: Rocky Mount, North Carolina, USA
  • Bobby Troup
    Dec. at 80 (1918-1999)
    Actor, composer, and jazz pianist Bobby Troup graduated from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. Troup's first musical success was writing the song "Daddy" in 1941, which stayed at number one on the Billboard Best Seller chart for eight weeks; it was subsequently recorded by Glenn Miller and The Andrews Sisters. Frank Sinatra also recorded his song "Snootie Little Cutie." During World War II, Troup was a Marines Captain on an all-black unit in Jacksonville, North Carolina. Troup's troops built huts, a nightclub, a boxing ring, and formed a jazz band and orchestra. His immensely popular song "(Get Your Kicks On) Route 66," was recorded, at different times, by Chuck Berry, Nat King Cole, and The Rolling Stones. Troup wrote the theme song of the 1950s rock and roll movie "The Girl Can't Help It," which was sung by Little Richard. In the mid-1950s, along with Mel Blanc and Johnny Mercer, Troup was a panelist on the quiz show "Musical Chairs," also providing much of the show's music. In 1959, he married singer Julie London and later produced London's hit record "Cry Me a River." As an actor, Troup played the cordial Dr. Joe Early on the 1970s TV series "Emergency!," opposite Julie London and directed by Jack Webb (London's ex-husband). In February, 1999, Troup died at UCLA Medical Center of a massive heart attack.
    • Birthplace: Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, USA
  • Michel Legrand
    Dec. at 86 (1932-2019)
    Child prodigy who worked as a piano accompanist for singers including Juliette Greco and Bing Crosby and enjoyed success as composer and singer of popular music before turning his attention to the screen in the mid-1950s. His lushly melodic work graced the early films of New Wave directors such as Jean-Luc Godard and Agnes Varda and he has subsequently worked with international figures including Norman Jewison, Joseph Losey, Kon Ichikawa and Orson Welles. Legrand has also enjoyed a long and fruitful association with countryman Jacques Demy, composing and conducting the music for his internationally popular romantic musical "The Umbrellas of Cherbourg" (1964). Legrand won Oscars for his hit song "The Windmills of Your Mind" (1968) and his scores for "Summer of '42" (1971) and "Yentl" (1983). He made his feature directing debut with "Five Days in June" (1989), an autobiographical war drama set in Normandy circa 1944. Son of Raymond Legrand (1908-74), a French film composer of the 1940s and 50s.
    • Birthplace: Paris, France
  • Dave Brubeck
    Dec. at 91 (1920-2012)
    David Warren Brubeck (; December 6, 1920 ā€“ December 5, 2012) was an American jazz pianist and composer, considered one of the foremost exponents of cool jazz. Many of his compositions have become jazz standards including "In Your Own Sweet Way" and "The Duke". Brubeck's style ranged from refined to bombastic, reflecting both his mother's classical training and his own improvisational skills. His music is known for employing unusual time signatures as well as superimposing contrasting rhythms, meters, and tonalities. Brubeck experimented with time signatures throughout his career, recording "Pick Up Sticks" in 64, "Unsquare Dance" in 74, "World's Fair" in 134, and "Blue Rondo Ć  la Turk" in 98. He was also a composer of orchestral and sacred music and wrote soundtracks for television, such as Mr. Broadway and the animated miniseries This Is America, Charlie Brown. Often incorrectly attributed to Brubeck, the song "Take Five", which has become a jazz standard, was composed by Brubeck's long-time musical partner, alto saxophonist Paul Desmond. Appearing on one of the top-selling jazz albums, Time Out, and written in 54 time, "Take Five" has endured as a jazz classic associated with Brubeck.
    • Birthplace: USA, California, Concord
  • Pianist Keith Jarrett was a prodigy from an early age. Born in Pennsylvania, he began playing piano at age two, appeared in a TV talent program at three, and gave a classical recital at five. He studied music through his teens, rejecting an offer to work in Paris with Nadia Boulanger and instead attending the Berklee College of Music in Boston. After moving to New York and playing club dates, he was recruited by drummer Art Blakey to join the Jazz Messengers, making his recorded debut on the 1966 live album Buttercorn Lady; future solo star Chuck Mangione was also in that lineup. Jarrett than joined saxophonist Charles Lloyd in a seminal quartet with drummer Jack DeJohnette and bassist Cecil McBee; together they made the album Forest Flower which saw crossover success among the hippie audience in 1968. Hippie culture was also an influence on Jarrett's early solo release, Restoration Ruin, a Dylanesque folk-rock album unlike anything else in his catalogue. In another about-face he then joined up with Miles Davis, who had recently made Bitches Brew and was headed into his most extreme electric phase. His 1970 stint with Davis was captured on several live albums, which feature Jarrett's keyboard interplay with the young Chick Corea. The electric direction would continue on Jarrett's early '70s albums, with notable contributors including Dewey Redman (sax), Airto Moriera (percussion) and Charlie Haden (bass). By the mid-70s Jarrett was leading two separate quartets, one European and one American, drawing from classical and folk sources along with post-bop and free jazz. After his brief fusion period, he decided he was opposed to playing electric instruments. A turning point in Jarrett's career was the late-1971 release of Facing You, his first solo piano album for the fledgling ECM label. His complex, lyrical improvisations (often accompanied by spontaneous vocalizations) would become his trademark, and an influence on the New Age genre. 1975's entirely improvised double album The Koln Concert sold 3.5 million copies and became the best-selling solo piano album in history; a Japanese tour the following year was released as a 10-LP set, Sun Bear Concerts. His improvised shows continued to be a popular and critical success, captured on a further string of live albums. In 1983 he formed a new trio with DeJohnette on drums and bassist Gary Peacock; they recorded extensively and divided their repertoire between free improvisations and arrangements of standards. During 1988 he returned to classical music with an album of Bach pieces, launching an ongoing series of classical recordings. Despite a late-'90s break from performing caused by chronic fatigue syndrome, Jarrett continued to work prolifically as a soloist and bandleader. In 2015 two simultaneous albums, the solo jazz Creation and a classical album of Bartok and Barber pieces, were released to commemorate his 70th birthday.
    • Birthplace: Allentown, Pennsylvania, USA
  • Michel Petrucciani
    Dec. at 36 (1962-1999)
    Michel Petrucciani (French pronunciation: ā€‹[miŹƒÉ›l petŹutŹƒani]; Italian: [petrutĖˆtŹƒaĖni]; 28 December 1962 ā€“ 6 January 1999) was a French jazz pianist. From birth he had osteogenesis imperfecta, a genetic disease that causes brittle bones and, in his case, short stature. He became one of the most accomplished jazz pianists of his generation despite having arms that caused him pain.
    • Birthplace: France, Orange
  • George Russell
    Dec. at 86 (1923-2009)
    George Allen Russell (June 23, 1923 ā€“ July 27, 2009) was an American jazz pianist, composer, arranger and theorist. He is considered one of the first jazz musicians to contribute to general music theory with a theory of harmony based on jazz rather than European music, in his book Lydian Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organization (1953).
    • Birthplace: USA, Cincinnati, Ohio
  • George Duke
    Dec. at 67 (1946-2013)
    George M. Duke (January 12, 1946 ā€“ August 5, 2013) was an American keyboardist, composer, singer-songwriter and record producer. He worked with numerous artists as arranger, music director, writer and co-writer, record producer and as a professor of music. He first made a name for himself with the album The Jean-Luc Ponty Experience with the George Duke Trio. He was known primarily for thirty-odd solo albums, of which A Brazilian Love Affair from 1979 was his most popular, as well as for his collaborations with other musicians, particularly Frank Zappa.
    • Birthplace: USA, San Rafael, California
  • Dave Kikoski is an American jazz pianist and keyboardist. Kikoski learned piano from his father and played with him in bars as a teenager. He studied at the Berklee College of Music in the early 1980s, then moved to New York City in 1985, touring and recording subsequently with Roy Haynes, Randy Brecker, Bob Berg, and Billy Hart. He has also played or recorded with George Garzone, Barry Finnerty, Red Rodney, Craig Handy, Ralph Moore, Didier Lockwood, Joe Locke, Olivier Ker Ourio and Mingus Big Band. Kikoski won a 2011 Grammy Award with the Mingus Big Band for the Best Live Jazz Ensemble Album, "Live at the Jazz Standard". He also had a Grammy nomination with Roy Haynes for the "Birds of a Feather" CD.
    • Birthplace: New Brunswick, Canada
  • Johnnie Johnson
    Dec. at 80 (1924-2005)
    Johnnie Clyde Johnson (July 8, 1924 ā€“ April 13, 2005) was an American pianist who played jazz, blues and rock and roll. His work with Chuck Berry led to his induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He was posthumously awarded the Congressional Gold Medal for breaking racial barriers in the military, as he was a Montford Point Marine - where the African-American unit endured racism and inspired social change while integrating the previously all-white Marine Corps during World War II.
    • Birthplace: Fairmont, USA, West Virginia
  • Shelly Berg

    Shelly Berg

    Age: 69
    Shelton "Shelly" Glen Berg (born August 18, 1955) is an American pianist, composer, arranger, orchestrator, and producer. He is the Dean and Patricia L. Frost Professor of Music at the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami.
  • Jan Johansson

    Jan Johansson

    Dec. at 37 (1931-1968)
    Jan Johansson is the name of: Jan Johansson (bluegrass musician) (born 1958), Swedish acoustic musician Jan Johansson (jazz musician) (1931ā€“1968), Swedish jazz pianist Jan Johansson (bobsleigh) (born 1943), Olympic bobsledder Jan Emanuel Johansson (born 1974), Swedish healthcare entrepreneur and former Member of Parliament Jan Tƶve Johansson (born 1958), Swedish landscape photographer, publicist, writer Jan Johansson (chess player) (born 1960), Swedish chess player, winner of the 1989 Swedish Chess Championship
    • Birthplace: Sƶderhamn, Sweden
  • Roy Fisher

    Roy Fisher

    Age: 95
    Roy Fisher is a British poet and jazz pianist. He was one of the first British writers to absorb the poetics of William Carlos Williams and the Black Mountain poets into the British poetic tradition. Fisher was a key precursor of the British Poetry Revival.
    • Birthplace: Handsworth, West Midlands, United Kingdom
  • Michael Wolff may refer to: Michael Wolff (graphic designer) (born 1933), British graphic designer, co-founder of Wolff Olins Michael Wolff (journalist) (born 1953), American author, essayist, and journalist Michael Wolff (musician) (born 1952), American jazz musician Michael A. Wolff (born 1945), former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Missouri, Dean of Saint Louis University School of Law
    • Birthplace: Victorville, USA, California
  • Albert Dailey

    Albert Dailey

    Dec. at 45 (1939-1984)
    Albert Dailey was an American jazz pianist. Dailey's first professional appearances were with the house band of the Baltimore Royal Theater in the early 1950s. Later in the decade he studied at Morgan State University and the Peabody Conservatory. He backed Damita Jo DuBlanc on tour from 1960 to 1963, and following this briefly put together his own trio in Washington, D.C., playing at the Bohemian Caverns. In 1964 he moved to New York City, where he played with Dexter Gordon, Roy Haynes, Sarah Vaughan, Charles Mingus, and Freddie Hubbard. In 1967 he played with Woody Herman at the Monterey Jazz Festival, and played intermittently with Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers around this time. In the 1970s he played with Sonny Rollins, Stan Getz, Elvin Jones, and Archie Shepp. In the 1980s he did concerts at Carnegie Hall and was a member of the Upper Manhattan Jazz Society with Charlie Rouse, Benny Bailey, and Buster Williams. He died of pneumonia in 1984.
    • Birthplace: Baltimore, Maryland
  • Geoffrey Keezer (born November 20, 1970) is an American jazz pianist. Keezer was playing in jazz clubs as a teenager, playing piano for Art Blakey at age 18 and touring with Joshua Redman, Benny Golson and Ray Brown in his 20s. He has toured with David Sanborn, Chris Botti, Joe Locke and Christian McBride and worked with vocalist Denise Donatelli, receiving Grammy Award nominations, and releaing albums influenced by Hawaiian, Okinawan, and Afro-Peruvian folk traditions. His 2009 album Ɓurea was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Latin Jazz Album; in 2010 he was nominated for Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist(s) for "Don't Explain" on Denise Donatelli's album When Lights Are Low. In 2013 Keezer released his first solo piano album in 13 years, Heart of the Piano (MotĆ©ma Music).
    • Birthplace: Eau Claire, Wisconsin
  • Chick Corea Elektric Band is a jazz fusion band, led by pianist Chick Corea. Following the demise of Return to Forever, Corea established the musical ensemble in 1986. Following a long hiatus, the band reunited to produce To the Stars in 2004. The band's debut album can be described as "jazz-rock", though it is much closer to traditional jazz than the jazz-rock albums of the 1970s. The keyboard sounds on the album are typical for the mid-1980s. The drums played by Dave Weckl dominate the album's sound, with the guitar duties split between Scott Henderson and Carlos Rios. The second album, Light Years (1987) is more funk-oriented than its predecessor. Saxophonist Eric Marienthal joins the band and Frank Gambale replaces Henderson and Rios (who still plays on some tracks) to form what is considered the band's definitive lineup. The third album, Eye of the Beholder, relies on softer sounds. Here Corea relies on acoustic piano, with synthesizers largely in the background. Gambale also plays acoustic guitar on some tracks, lending a Flamenco-influenced sound to pieces like "Eternal Child." The Elektric Band's fourth album, Inside Out (1990), features some compositions that fall in the post-bop rather than the fusion category. The four-part piece "Tale of Daring", which closes the album, relies on unconventional melodies and relatively free improvisation. But two other compositions, the title track and "Kicker," are more traditional fusion pieces. Corea still uses mostly acoustic piano, but Gambale plays electric guitar throughout. The last album featuring the band's traditional lineup was Beneath the Mask (1991), a return to the electric jazz-funk of the second album. For the next album, Elektric Band II: Paint the World (1993), only Corea and Marienthal returned from the original lineup. Gary Novak became the new drummer, Jimmy Earl took the bass, and Mike Miller played guitar. The album's style can be described as modern jazz, crossing between post-bop and fusion. In 1996, the band teamed up with Steve Vai's Monsters to record a version of "Rumble" from West Side Story for the RCA Victor tribute album called The Songs of West Side Story. The original members reunited in 2004 for To the Stars (2004), which is stylistically close to the avant-garde and post-bop on Inside Out. After the final studio album the band has toured also with Victor Wooten who has replaced Patitucci, who returned to the band in the middle of 2016.
  • Oscar Peterson
    Dec. at 82 (1925-2007)
    Oscar Emmanuel Peterson, (August 15, 1925 ā€“ December 23, 2007) was a Canadian jazz pianist and composer. He was called the "Maharaja of the keyboard" by Duke Ellington, but simply "O.P." by his friends. He released over 200 recordings, won eight Grammy Awards, and received numerous other awards and honours. He is considered one of the greatest jazz pianists, and played thousands of concerts worldwide in a career lasting more than 60 years.
    • Birthplace: Montreal, Canada
  • Jamie Cullum (born 20 August 1979) is an English jazz-pop singer-songwriter and radio presenter. Although primarily a vocalist and pianist, he also accompanies himself on other instruments, including guitar and drums. Since April 2010, he has presented a weekly evening jazz show on BBC Radio 2.
    • Birthplace: Rochford, United Kingdom
  • Jelly Roll Morton
    Dec. at 50 (1890-1941)
    Ferdinand Joseph LaMothe (October 20, 1890 ā€“ July 10, 1941), known professionally as Jelly Roll Morton, was an American ragtime and early jazz pianist, bandleader and composer who started his career in New Orleans, Louisiana. Widely recognized as a pivotal figure in early jazz, Morton was jazz's first arranger, proving that a genre rooted in improvisation could retain its essential spirit and characteristics when notated. His composition "Jelly Roll Blues", published in 1915, was the first published jazz composition. Morton also wrote the standards "King Porter Stomp", "Wolverine Blues", "Black Bottom Stomp", and "I Thought I Heard Buddy Bolden Say", the last a tribute to New Orleans musicians from the turn of the 20th century. Morton's claim to have invented jazz in 1902 aroused resentment. The jazz historian, musician, and composer Gunther Schuller says of Morton's "hyperbolic assertions" that there is "no proof to the contrary" and that Morton's "considerable accomplishments in themselves provide reasonable substantiation". Alan Lomax, who recorded extensive biographical interviews of Morton at the Library of Congress in 1938, did not agree that Morton was an egotist: In being called a supreme egotist, Jelly Roll was often a victim of loose and lurid reporting. If we read the words that he himself wrote, we learn that he almost had an inferiority complex and said that he created his own style of jazz piano because "All my fellow musicians were much faster in manipulations, I thought than I, and I did not feel as though I was in their class." So he used a slower tempo to permit flexibility through the use of more notes, a pinch of Spanish to give a number of right seasoning, the avoidance of playing triple forte continuously, and many other points". --Quoted in John Szwed, Dr Jazz.
    • Birthplace: USA, New Orleans, Louisiana
  • David Bryan Benoit (born August 18, 1953) is an American jazz pianist, composer and producer from Los Angeles, California. Benoit has charted over 25 albums since 1980, and has been nominated for three Grammy Awards. He is also music director for the Asia America Symphony Orchestra and the Asia America Youth Orchestra.
    • Birthplace: Bakersfield, USA, California
  • Howard Wyeth
    Dec. at 51 (1944-1996)
    Howard Pyle Wyeth (April 22, 1944 ā€“ March 27, 1996), also known as Howie Wyeth, was an American drummer and pianist. Wyeth is remembered for work with the saxophonist James Moody, the rockabilly singer Robert Gordon, the electric guitarist Link Wray, the rhythm and blues singer Don Covay, and the folk singer Christine Lavin. Best known as a drummer for Bob Dylan, he was a member of the Wyeth family of American artists.
    • Birthplace: Jersey City, New Jersey
  • Steve Barakatt (born May 17, 1973) in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada from a family of Lebanese origins) is a Canadian composer, music producer, pianist, singer and creative director. When he was four, he began piano lessons. Over the next 10 years he studied classical music, and then switched to jazz. Barakatt enjoyed many challenging musical experiences from an early age, including that of guest soloist with l'Orchestre symphonique de QuĆ©bec when he was 13. When he was 16, he became fascinated by composition, arranging and production. He studied the new technology available and soon mastered all the intricacies of music programming. So much so that the Japanese firm Roland invited him to present their new products at the 1992 NAMM Show in Anaheim, California. Barakatt has been invited to appear on various recordings and live performances with many artists and ensembles from the Alexandrov Red Army Choir to the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra. A true passionate artist, Barakatt enjoys meeting musicians and exploring all styles of music.
    • Birthplace: Canada
  • Mose Allison
    Dec. at 89 (1927-2016)
    Mose John Allison Jr. (November 11, 1927 ā€“ November 15, 2016) was an American jazz and blues pianist, singer, and songwriter. He became notable for playing a unique mix of blues and modern jazz, both singing and playing piano. After moving to New York in 1956, he worked primarily in jazz settings, playing with jazz musicians like Stan Getz, Al Cohn, and Zoot Sims, along with producing numerous recordings. He is described as having been "one of the finest songwriters in 20th-century blues." His songs were strongly dependent on evoking moods, with his individualistic, "quirky", and subtle ironic humor. His writing influence on R&B had well-known fans recording his songs, among them Pete Townshend, who recorded his "Young Man Blues" for the Who's Live At Leeds album in 1970. John Mayall was one of dozens who recorded his classic, "Parchman Farm", and Georgie Fame used many of Allison's songs. Others who recorded his songs included Leon Russell ("I'm Smashed") and Bonnie Raitt ("Everybody's Crying' Mercy"). The 1980s saw an increase in his popularity with new fans drawn to his unique blend of modern jazz. In the 1990s he began recording more consistently. Van Morrison, Georgie Fame and Ben Sidran collaborated with him on a tribute album, Tell Me Something: The Songs of Mose Allison. The Pixies wrote the song "Allison" as a tribute.Allison's music had an important influence on other artists, such as Jimi Hendrix, J. J. Cale, the Yardbirds, the Rolling Stones, Tom Waits, and Pete Townshend. He was inducted into the Long Island Music Hall of Fame in 2006.
    • Birthplace: Tippo, Mississippi, USA
  • Bradley Joseph (born 1965) is an American composer, arranger, and producer of contemporary instrumental music. His compositions include works for orchestra, quartet, and solo piano, while his musical style ranges from "quietly pensive mood music to a rich orchestration of classical depth and breadth".Active since 1983, Joseph has performed in front of millions of people around the world. He played various instruments in rock bands throughout the Midwest until 1989 when Greek composer Yanni hired him for his core band after hearing a tape of his original compositions. He was a featured concert keyboardist with Yanni through six major tours, most recently in 2003 for the 60-city Ethnicity tour. He appears in the multi-platinum album and concert film, Live at the Acropolis. Joseph also spent five years as musical director and lead keyboardist for Sheena Easton, including a 1995 performance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Joseph is the founder of the Robbins Island Music label. His solo career began when he independently released Hear the Masses, featuring many of his Yanni bandmates. This debut was followed by Rapture, an instrumental album recorded with a 50-piece orchestra in which Joseph wrote and conducted all of the scores. It was released on the Narada label and reached ZMR Airwaves Top 30. A number of subsequent recordings including Christmas Around the World and One Deep Breath also held positions on ZMR's Top 100 radio chart, with the most recent being Paint the Sky which debuted at #15 in April 2013. Paint the Sky was nominated for Best Neo-Classical Album in the 10th annual ZMR Music Awards. He has produced numerous CDs/DVDs and piano books. His music is included in multiple various-artist compilation albums including the 2008 release of The Weather Channel Presents: Smooth Jazz II.
    • Birthplace: Bird Island, Minnesota
  • J. Russel Robinson

    J. Russel Robinson

    Dec. at 71 (1892-1963)
    Joseph Russel Robinson was a United States ragtime and dixieland jazz pianist and a composer of jazz, blues, and popular tunes. Robinson, whose name appeared as "J. Russel Robinson", was born in Indianapolis, Indiana. He started publishing ragtime compositions in his teens; his early hits included "Sapho Rag" and "Eccentric". With his drummer brother John he toured the Southern United States in the early 1910s including an extended stay in New Orleans. He also turned out hundreds of piano roll recordings for the US Music Company in Chicago and later the QRS Company in New York. He was known for his heavily blues and jazz influenced playing style. His style has been described as having a swinging, shimmying style with many right hand only blues breaks. In October 1918, he joined W. C. Handy's publishing company Pace and Handy, supplying new arrangements and lyrics for popular editions of tunes like "The Memphis Blues" in the 1920s. Robinson joined the Original Dixieland Jazz Band when pianist Henry Ragas died in the Spanish Flu Pandemic in 1919. Also in 1919, he co-wrote the song "Though We're Miles and Miles Apart" with W.C. Handy and Charles H. Hillman.
    • Birthplace: Indianapolis, Indiana
  • Bob James
    Age: 85
    Robert McElhiney James (born December 25, 1939) is an American Grammy Award-winning jazz keyboardist, arranger, and record producer. He founded the band Fourplay and wrote "Angela," the theme song for the TV show Taxi. He is most famous for standards such as "Nautilus", "Westchester Lady", "Heads", "Night Crawler", "Touchdown", "Blue Lick", "Sign Of the Times", "Spunky", "Marco Polo", "Courtship" and "Just One Thing". Music from his first seven albums has often been sampled and has contributed to the formation of hip hop.
    • Birthplace: Marshall, Missouri
  • Bill Evans
    Dec. at 51 (1929-1980)
    William John Evans (August 16, 1929 ā€“ September 15, 1980) was an American jazz pianist and composer who mostly played in trios. His use of impressionist harmony, inventive interpretation of traditional jazz repertoire, block chords, and trademark rhythmically independent, "singing" melodic lines continue to influence jazz pianists today. Born in Plainfield, New Jersey, in 1929, he was classically trained at Southeastern Louisiana University and the Mannes School of Music, where he majored in composition and received the Artist Diploma. In 1955, he moved to New York City, where he worked with bandleader and theorist George Russell. In 1958, Evans joined Miles Davis's sextet, which in 1959, then immersed in modal jazz, recorded Kind of Blue, the best-selling jazz album of all time. During that time, Evans was also playing with Chet Baker for the album Chet. In late 1959, Evans left the Miles Davis band and began his career as a leader, with bassist Scott LaFaro and drummer Paul Motian, a group now regarded as a seminal modern jazz trio. In 1961, ten days after finishing an engagement at the New York Village Vanguard jazz club, LaFaro died in a car accident. After months of seclusion, Evans re-emerged with a new trio, featuring bassist Chuck Israels. In 1963, Evans recorded Conversations with Myself, a solo album using the unconventional technique of overdubbing over himself. In 1966, he met bassist Eddie GĆ³mez, with whom he would work for eleven years. Many of Evans's compositions, such as "Waltz for Debby", have become standards, played and recorded by many artists. Evans was honored with 31 Grammy nominations and seven awards, and was inducted into the Down Beat Jazz Hall of Fame.
    • Birthplace: Plainfield, USA, New Jersey
  • Cy Coleman
    Dec. at 75 (1929-2004)
    A classically-trained child prodigy and concert pianist turned popular songwriter and Broadway tunesmith, Coleman made his Carnegie Hall debut at age seven and by his late teens had become somewhat of a society darling, performing jazz piano in sophisticated New York nightclubs. By the 1950s, he turned to composing pop standards (with lyricists Joseph McCarthy Jr, Bob Hilliard and Hal David) for the likes of Frank Sinatra and Nat King Cole and ran his own New York nightspot, The Playroom.
    • Birthplace: New York, New York, USA
  • Joe Chambers (born June 25, 1942) in Chester, Pennsylvania is an American jazz drummer, pianist, vibraphonist and composer. He attended the Philadelphia Conservatory for one year. In the 1960s and 1970s Chambers gigged with many high-profile artists such as Eric Dolphy, Charles Mingus, Wayne Shorter, and Chick Corea. During this period, his compositions appeared on some of the albums in which he made guest appearances, such as those with Freddie Hubbard and Bobby Hutcherson. He has released eight albums as a bandleader and been a member of several incarnations of Max Roach's M'Boom percussion ensemble.He has also taught, including at the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music in New York City, where he leads the Outlaw Band. In 2008, he was hired to be the Thomas S. Kenan Distinguished Professor of Jazz in the Department of Music at the University of North Carolina Wilmington.
    • Birthplace: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
  • Don Pullen
    Dec. at 53 (1941-1995)
    Don Gabriel Pullen (December 25, 1941 ā€“ April 22, 1995) was an American jazz pianist and organist. Pullen developed a strikingly individual style throughout his career. He composed pieces ranging from blues to bebop and modern jazz. The great variety of his body of work makes it difficult to pigeonhole his musical style.
    • Birthplace: Roanoke, Virginia
  • For the poker personality, see Matt Savage (poker director). For the keyboardist/actor see Levellers (band).Matthew "Matt" Savage (born May 12, 1992) is an American autistic savant musician. Born in Sudbury, Massachusetts, he is the son of Diane and Lawrence "Larry" Savage.
  • Johnny O'Neal

    Johnny O'Neal

    Age: 68
    Johnny O'Neill is an actor and a pianist.
    • Birthplace: Michigan, USA, Detroit
  • Dick Twardzik
    Dec. at 24 (1931-1955)
    Richard Henryk Twardzik (April 30, 1931 in Danvers, Massachusetts ā€“ October 21, 1955 in Paris) was a jazz pianist, known for bebop, who worked in Boston for the bulk of his career. He trained in classical piano as a child, and made his professional debut at 14. He was taught by prominent Boston piano teacher Margaret Chaloff, mother of baritone saxophone player Serge Chaloff, in whose group Twardzik recorded, in addition to one led by Charlie Mariano. Twardzik also worked with Charlie Parker on several occasions toward the end of Parker's life when he was performing locally. Twardzik became addicted to heroin as a teenager. He died from a heroin overdose while on a European tour with Chet Baker.
    • Birthplace: Danvers, Massachusetts
  • Pablo Ziegler (born September 2, 1944) is an Argentine composer, pianist, arranger based in New York City. He is currently the leading exponent of nuevo tango, thanks to the skills and reputation he gathered while working extensively as Ɓstor Piazzolla's regular pianist from 1978 until the maestro's retirement for health reasons in 1989. During their collaboration, they performed with Milva, Placido Domingo, Gary Burton among others. He played with Piazzolla's re-formed Conjunto 9 in 1983 for his Teatro ColĆ³n concert with the Buenos Aires Philharmonic. In 1985 Ziegler composed the music for the film Adios Roberto, and in 1990, he established the New Tango Quartet.His playing style, both sharply percussive and metallically lyrical, is instantly recognizable and bears some similarities to that of Vladimir Horowitz as well as some of the wistfulness of Bill Evans. As a composer he has taken Piazzolla's contrapuntal approach to tango music and added more jazz influence, notably with the regular use of a drumkit, lighter harmonies similar to those used in Bossa Nova, and extended passages of improvisation. Having created a bridge between jazz and improvisation and the new tango of Piazzolla, he was very successful with his 2003 album Bajo Cero, for which he earned a Latin Grammy award. He has worked with a wide range of classical, jazz, and Latin musicians including Emmanuel Ax, Gary Burton, Regina Carter, Branford Marsalis, Paquito Dā€™Rivera, Kenny Garrett, Stefon Harris, Joe Lovano, Christopher Oā€™Riley, Quique Sinesi, Walter Castro, Nestor Torres, Joe Locke, Randy Brecker, David SĆ”nchez (musician), Miguel ZenĆ³n the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, the Metropole Orkest, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Presidential Symphony Orchestra, Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra and the Wellington Chamber Orchestra, with whom he performed in New Zealand in June 2014.
    • Birthplace: Buenos Aires, Argentina
  • Julian Miles "Jools" Holland, OBE, DL (born 24 January 1958) is an English pianist, bandleader, singer, composer and television presenter. He was an original member of the band Squeeze and his work has involved him with many artists including Sting, Eric Clapton, Mark Knopfler, George Harrison, David Gilmour, Magazine, The The and Bono. Since 1992, he has hosted Later... with Jools Holland, a music-based show aired on BBC2, on which his annual show Hootenanny is based. Holland is a published author and appears on television shows besides his own and contributes to radio shows. In 2004, he collaborated with Tom Jones on an album of traditional R&B music. Holland also regularly hosts the weekly programme Jools Holland on BBC Radio 2, which is a mix of live and recorded music and general chat and features studio guests, along with members of his orchestra.
    • Birthplace: England, London
  • Fats Waller
    Dec. at 39 (1904-1943)
    Thomas Wright "Fats" Waller (May 21, 1904 ā€“ December 15, 1943) was an American jazz pianist, organist, composer, violinist, singer, and comedic entertainer. His innovations in the Harlem stride style laid the groundwork for modern jazz piano. His best-known compositions, "Ain't Misbehavin'" and "Honeysuckle Rose", were inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1984 and 1999. Waller copyrighted over 400 songs, many of them co-written with his closest collaborator, Andy Razaf. Razaf described his partner as "the soul of melody... a man who made the piano sing... both big in body and in mind... known for his generosity... a bubbling bundle of joy". It's possible he composed many more popular songs and sold them to other performers when times were tough. Waller started playing the piano at the age of six, and became a professional organist aged 15. By the age of 18 he was a recording artist. Waller's first recordings, "Muscle Shoals Blues" and "Birmingham Blues", were made in October 1922 for Okeh Records. That year, he also made his first player piano roll, "Got to Cool My Doggies Now". Waller's first published composition, "Squeeze Me", was published in 1924. He became one of the most popular performers of his era, touring internationally and achieving critical and commercial success in the United States and Europe. He died from pneumonia, aged 39. One descendant is professional football player Darren Waller, who is Fats' great-grandson.
    • Birthplace: New York City, USA, New York
  • Vince Guaraldi
    Dec. at 47 (1928-1976)
    Vincent Anthony Guaraldi (July 17, 1928 ā€“ February 6, 1976), born Vincent Anthony Dellaglio, was an American jazz pianist noted for his innovative compositions and arrangements and for composing music for animated television adaptations of the Peanuts comic strip, as well as his performances on piano as a member of Cal Tjader's 1950s ensembles and for his own solo career which included the radio hit "Cast Your Fate to the Wind".
    • Birthplace: California
  • Roy Assaf

    Roy Assaf

    Age: 43
    Roy Assaf is a New York-based jazz pianist and composer.
    • Birthplace: Israel
  • William Henry Cunliffe Jr. (born June 26, 1956), known professionally as Bill Cunliffe, is an American jazz pianist and composer. He has written books on jazz for Alfred Publications and has taught at California State University, Fullerton.
    • Birthplace: Andover, Massachusetts
  • Anthony John Medeski (born June 28, 1965) is an American jazz keyboard player and composer. Medeski is a veteran of New York's 1990s avant-garde jazz scene and is known popularly as a member of Medeski Martin & Wood. He plays the acoustic piano and an eclectic array of keyboards, including the Hammond B3 organ, melodica, mellotron, clavinet, ARP String Ensemble, Wurlitzer electric piano, Moog Voyager Synthesizer, Wurlitzer 7300 Combo Organ, Vox Continental Baroque organ, and Yamaha CS-1 Synthesizer (a "kids' toy"), among others. When playing acoustic piano, Medeski usually plays the Steinway piano and is listed as a Steinway Artist.
    • Birthplace: Louisville, Kentucky
  • John Taylor (25 September 1942 ā€“ 17 July 2015) was a British jazz pianist born in Manchester, England, who occasionally performed on the organ and the synthesizer.
    • Birthplace: Manchester, United Kingdom
  • Raimonds Pauls

    Raimonds Pauls

    Age: 89
    Ojārs Raimonds Pauls (born 12 January 1936 in Iļģuciems, Riga, Latvia) is a Latvian composer and piano player who is well known in Latvia, Russia, post-Soviet countries and world-wide. He was the Minister of culture of Latvia from 1988 to 1993.
    • Birthplace: Iļģuciems, Riga, Latvia
  • Jay McShann
    Dec. at 90 (1916-2006)
    James Columbus "Jay" McShann (January 12, 1916 ā€“ December 7, 2006) was a jazz pianist and bandleader. He led bands in Kansas City, Missouri, that included Charlie Parker, Bernard Anderson, Ben Webster, and Walter Brown.
    • Birthplace: Muskogee, Oklahoma
  • Allen Toussaint (; January 14, 1938 ā€“ November 10, 2015) was an American musician, songwriter, arranger and record producer, who was an influential figure in New Orleans rhythm and blues from the 1950s to the end of the century, described as "one of popular music's great backroom figures". Many musicians recorded Toussaint's compositions, including "Java", "Mother-in-Law", "I Like It Like That", "Fortune Teller", "Ride Your Pony", "Get Out of My Life, Woman", "Working in the Coal Mine", "Everything I Do Gonna Be Funky", "Here Come the Girls", "Yes We Can Can", "Play Something Sweet", and "Southern Nights". He was a producer for hundreds of recordings, among the best known of which are "Right Place, Wrong Time", by his longtime friend Dr. John ("Mac" Rebennack), and "Lady Marmalade", by Labelle.
    • Birthplace: USA, New Orleans, Gert Town, Louisiana
  • AntĆ“nio Carlos Jobim
    Dec. at 67 (1927-1994)
    AntĆ“nio Carlos Brasileiro de Almeida Jobim, often hailed as one of the greatest songwriters of the 20th century, was a pivotal figure in the development and global popularization of bossa nova music. Born on January 25, 1927, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, this iconic musician exhibited an early attraction towards music, particularly that which encapsulated the spirit of his Brazilian heritage. He studied music theory, harmony, and composition in his youth, laying the foundation for his phenomenal career. Jobim's professional journey began in the late 1950s when he teamed up with poet Vinicius de Moraes to write a play. This collaboration became a cornerstone for Jobim's career, leading to the creation of songs like "Se Todos Fossem Iguais a VocĆŖ" and "A Felicidade", both of which later became classic pieces of the bossa nova canon. However, it was the song "The Girl from Ipanema", co-written with de Moraes and Norman Gimbel, that catapulted Jobim to international fame. This Grammy-winning song went on to become one of the most recorded songs in history, firmly establishing Jobim's position among the greats of world music. Over his career, Jobim composed more than 400 songs, many of which have been covered by prominent musicians worldwide. His compositions seamlessly blended elements of jazz with traditional Brazilian rhythms, producing a unique sound that left an indelible mark on the music industry. Jobim passed away in 1994, but his legacy continues to live on. His contributions to bossa nova and world music have been celebrated posthumously with numerous honors, including induction into the Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Latin Grammy Trustees Award.
    • Birthplace: Brazil, Tijuca
  • Pete Johnson
    Dec. at 62 (1904-1967)
    Pete Johnson (born Kermit H. Johnson, March 25, 1904 ā€“ March 23, 1967) was an American boogie-woogie and jazz pianist. Journalist Tony Russell stated in his book The Blues ā€“ From Robert Johnson to Robert Cray that "Johnson shared with the other members of the 'Boogie Woogie Trio' the technical virtuosity and melodic fertility that can make this the most exciting of all piano music styles, but he was more comfortable than Meade Lux Lewis in a band setting; and as an accompanist, unlike Lewis or Albert Ammons, he could sparkle but not outshine his singing partner". Fellow journalist Scott Yanow (Allmusic) added "Johnson was one of the three great boogie-woogie pianists (along with Lewis and Ammons) whose sudden prominence in the late 1930s helped make the style very popular".
    • Birthplace: Kansas City, USA, Missouri
  • Billy Taylor
    Dec. at 89 (1921-2010)
    Billy Taylor (July 24, 1921 ā€“ December 28, 2010) was an American jazz pianist, composer, broadcaster and educator. He was the Robert L. Jones Distinguished Professor of Music at East Carolina University in Greenville, and from 1994 was the artistic director for jazz at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.A jazz activist, Taylor sat on the Honorary Founders Board of The Jazz Foundation of America, an organisation he started in 1989, with Ann Ruckert, Herb Storfer and Phoebe Jacobs, to save the homes and the lives of America's elderly jazz and blues musicians, later including musicians who survived Hurricane Katrina.Taylor was also a jazz educator, who lectured in colleges, served on panels and travelled worldwide as a jazz ambassador. Critic Leonard Feather once said, "It is almost indisputable that Dr. Billy Taylor is the world's foremost spokesman for jazz."
    • Birthplace: Greenville, USA, North Carolina
  • Alfred McCoy Tyner (December 11, 1938 ā€“ March 6, 2020) was a jazz pianist from Philadelphia known for his work with the John Coltrane Quartet and a long solo career.
    • Birthplace: USA, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
  • Erroll Garner
    Dec. at 53 (1923-1977)
    Erroll Louis Garner (June 15, 1923 ā€“ January 2, 1977; some sources say b. 1921) was an American jazz pianist and composer known for his swing playing and ballads. His best-known composition, the ballad "Misty", has become a jazz standard. Scott Yanow of Allmusic calls him "one of the most distinctive of all pianists" and a "brilliant virtuoso." He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6363 Hollywood Blvd.
    • Birthplace: Pittsburgh, USA, Pennsylvania
  • Gordon L. Goodwin (born 1954) is an American pianist, saxophonist, composer, arranger, and conductor. He is the leader of Gordon Goodwin's Big Phat Band, and on faculty at the Los Angeles College of Music. He has won Grammy Awards and Daytime Emmy Awards and has received over twenty Grammy nominations for his compositions and arrangements.
    • Birthplace: Neal, Kansas
  • Page Samuel McConnell (born May 17, 1963 in Philadelphia) is an American multi-instrumentalist most noted for his work as a songwriter and keyboardist for the band Phish. In addition to being a member of Phish since 1985, McConnell has been part of a number of other side projects, including leading the electronic jazz fusion band Vida Blue and acting as a session musician for the comedy rock duo Tenacious D. He released his debut solo album, Page McConnell, in 2007.
    • Birthplace: USA, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
  • Abdullah Ibrahim (born Adolph Johannes Brand on 9 October 1934 and formerly known as Dollar Brand) is a South African pianist and composer. His music reflects many of the musical influences of his childhood in the multicultural port areas of Cape Town, ranging from traditional African songs to the gospel of the AME Church and ragas, to more modern jazz and other Western styles. Ibrahim is considered the leading figure in the subgenre of Cape jazz. Within jazz, his music particularly reflects the influence of Thelonious Monk and Duke Ellington. He is known especially for "Mannenberg", a jazz piece that became a notable anti-apartheid anthem.During the apartheid era in the 1960s Ibrahim moved to New York City and, apart from a brief return to South Africa in the 1970s, remained in exile until the early '90s. Over the decades he has toured the world extensively, appearing at major venues either as a solo artist or playing with other renowned musicians, including Max Roach, Carlos Ward and Randy Weston, as well as collaborating with classical orchestras in Europe. With his wife, the jazz singer Sathima Bea Benjamin, he is father to the New York underground rapper Jean Grae, as well as to a son, Tsakwe.
    • Birthplace: South Africa, Cape Town
  • Marco Benevento (born July 22, 1977) is a pianist, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and record producer who has been a fixture of the New York experimental music rock and jazz scene since 1999. He is the founder and recording engineer of Fred Short, a recording studio in Upstate New York, and a member of the rock groups Benevento/Russo Duo and Joe Russo's Almost Dead, both of which feature his regular musical collaborator Joe Russo.
    • Birthplace: USA, Livingston, New Jersey
  • Joe Zawinul
    Dec. at 75 (1932-2007)
    Josef Erich Zawinul (7 July 1932 ā€“ 11 September 2007) was an Austrian jazz keyboardist and composer. First coming to prominence with saxophonist Cannonball Adderley, Zawinul went on to play with Miles Davis and to become one of the creators of jazz fusion, a musical genre that combined jazz with rock. He co-founded the groups Weather Report and The Zawinul Syndicate. He pioneered the use of electric piano and synthesizer, and was named "Best Electric Keyboardist" twenty-eight times by the readers of Down Beat magazine.
    • Birthplace: Vienna, Austria
  • Carlos McKinney

    Carlos McKinney

    Age: 52
    Carlos McKinney (born January 10, 1978) is a Grammy Award-winning American record producer and jazz pianist.
    • Birthplace: Detroit, Michigan
  • Charles William Ashworth (born August 10, 1956), known professionally as Charlie Peacock, is an American singer, songwriter, pianist, record producer, session musician, and author. His albums include Love Press Ex-Curio, Arc of the Circle and No Man's Land (2012).
    • Birthplace: Yuba City, California
  • Michael Cain

    Michael Cain

    Age: 58
    Michael Cain (born April 2, 1966 in Los Angeles, California) is a pianist and composer.
  • Eubie Blake
    Dec. at 96 (1887-1983)
    James Hubert Blake (1887ā€“1983), known as Eubie Blake, was an American composer, lyricist, and pianist of ragtime, jazz, and popular music. In 1921, he and his long-time collaborator Noble Sissle wrote Shuffle Along, one of the first Broadway musicals to be written and directed by African Americans. Blake's compositions included such hits as "Bandana Days", "Charleston Rag", "Love Will Find a Way", "Memories of You" and "I'm Just Wild About Harry". The musical Eubie!, which opened on Broadway in 1978, featured his works.
    • Birthplace: Baltimore, USA, Maryland
  • Ralph Burns
    Dec. at 79 (1922-2001)
    Ralph Jose P. Burns (June 29, 1922 ā€“ November 21, 2001) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and arranger.
    • Birthplace: Newton, Massachusetts, USA
  • Sam Rivers
    Dec. at 88 (1923-2011)
    Samuel Carthorne Rivers (September 25, 1923 ā€“ December 26, 2011) was an American jazz musician and composer. He performed on soprano and tenor saxophones, bass clarinet, flute, harmonica and piano. Active in jazz since the early 1950s, he earned wider attention during the mid-1960s spread of free jazz. With a thorough command of music theory, orchestration and composition, Rivers was an influential and prominent artist in jazz music.
    • Birthplace: USA, El Reno, Oklahoma
  • Hank Jones
    Dec. at 91 (1918-2010)
    Henry Jones Jr. (July 31, 1918 ā€“ May 16, 2010), best known as Hank Jones, was an American jazz pianist, bandleader, arranger, and composer. Critics and musicians described Jones as eloquent, lyrical, and impeccable. In 1989, The National Endowment for the Arts honored him with the NEA Jazz Masters Award. He was also honored in 2003 with the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) Jazz Living Legend Award. In 2008, he was awarded the National Medal of Arts. On April 13, 2009, the University of Hartford presented Jones with an honorary Doctorate of Music for his musical accomplishments.Jones recorded more than 60 albums under his own name, and countless others as a sideman, including Cannonball Adderley's celebrated album Somethin' Else. On May 19, 1962, he played piano as actress Marilyn Monroe sang her famous "Happy Birthday, Mr. President" song to then U.S. president John F. Kennedy.
    • Birthplace: USA, Mississippi, Vicksburg
  • Stan Kenton
    Dec. at 67 (1911-1979)
    Stanley Newcomb Kenton (December 15, 1911 ā€“ August 25, 1979) was an American popular music and jazz artist. As a pianist, composer, arranger and band leader he led an innovative and influential jazz orchestra for almost four decades. Though Kenton had several pop hits from the early 1940s into the 1960s, his music was always forward looking. Kenton was also a pioneer in the field of jazz education, creating the Stan Kenton Jazz Camp in 1959 at Indiana University.
    • Birthplace: USA, Wichita, Kansas
  • Michel Camilo (born April 4, 1954) is a Grammy-award winning pianist and composer from Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. He specializes in jazz, Latin and classical piano work. Camilo lists some of his main influences as Chick Corea, Keith Jarrett, Oscar Peterson, Bill Evans, and Art Tatum.
    • Birthplace: Dominican Republic, Santo Domingo
  • Jason Moran (born January 21, 1975) is an American jazz pianist, composer, and educator involved in multimedia art and theatrical installations.Moran recorded first with Greg Osby and debuted as a band leader with the 1999 album Soundtrack to Human Motion. Since then, he has released albums with his trio The Bandwagon, solo, as a sideman, and with other bands. He combines post-bop and avant-garde jazz, blues, classical music, stride piano, and hip hop.
    • Birthplace: Houston, Texas, USA
  • Andrew Hill
    Dec. at 75 (1931-2007)
    Andrew Hill, Andy Hill or Drew Hill may refer to:
    • Birthplace: Chicago, Illinois, USA
  • Jordan Rudess (born Jordan Charles Rudes; November 4, 1956) is an American keyboardist and composer best known as a member of the progressive metal/rock band Dream Theater and the progressive rock supergroup Liquid Tension Experiment.
    • Birthplace: New York City, USA, New York
  • Dick Hyman
    Age: 97
    Richard Hyman (born March 8, 1927) is an American jazz pianist and composer. Over a 60-year career, he has functioned as a pianist, organist, arranger, music director, electronic musician, and, increasingly, as a composer. He was named a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Masters fellow in 2017.
    • Birthplace: New York City, USA, New York
  • Paul Bley
    Age: 92
    Hyman Paul Bley, CM (November 10, 1932 ā€“ January 3, 2016) was a Canadian pianist known for his contributions to the free jazz movement of the 1960s as well as his innovations and influence on trio playing and his early live performance on the Moog and Arp audio synthesizers. Bley was a long-time resident of the United States. His music has been described by Ben Ratliff of the New York Times as "deeply original and aesthetically aggressive". Bley's prolific output includes influential recordings from the 1950s through to his solo piano records of the 2000s.
    • Birthplace: Montreal, Canada
  • Clare Fischer
    Dec. at 83 (1928-2012)
    Douglas Clare Fischer (October 22, 1928 ā€“ January 26, 2012) was an American keyboardist, composer, arranger, and bandleader. After graduating from Michigan State University (from which, five decades later, he would receive an honorary doctorate), he became the pianist and arranger for the vocal group the Hi-Lo's in the late 1950s. Fischer went on to work with Donald Byrd and Dizzy Gillespie, and became known for his Latin and bossa nova recordings in the 1960s. He composed the Latin jazz standard "Morning", and the jazz standard "Pensativa". Consistently cited by jazz pianist and composer Herbie Hancock as a major influence ("I wouldn't be me without Clare Fischer"), he was nominated for eleven Grammy Awards during his lifetime, winning for his landmark album, 2+2 (1981), the first of Fischer's records to incorporate the vocal ensemble writing developed during his Hi-Lo's days into his already sizable Latin jazz discography; it was also the first recorded installment in Fischer's three-decade-long collaboration with his son Brent. Fischer was also a posthumous Grammy winner for Ā”Ritmo! (2012) and for Music for Strings, Percussion and the Rest (2013). Beginning in the early 1970s, Fischer embarked on a parallel (and far more lucrative) career, eventually becoming a much sought-after arranger, providing orchestral "sweeteners" for pop and R&B artists such as Rufus (with Chaka Khan), Prince (a regular client from 1984 onwards, and by far Fischer's most frequent in pop music), Robert Palmer, Paul McCartney, Michael Jackson, Celine Dion, and many others.
    • Birthplace: Durand, Michigan
  • Fletcher Henderson
    Dec. at 55 (1897-1952)
    James Fletcher Hamilton Henderson Jr. (December 18, 1897 ā€“ December 29, 1952) was an American pianist, bandleader, arranger and composer, important in the development of big band jazz and swing music. He was one of the most prolific black musical arrangers and, along with Duke Ellington, is considered one of the most influential arrangers and bandleaders in jazz history. Henderson's influence was vast. He helped bridge the gap between the Dixieland and the swing eras. He was often known as "Smack" Henderson (apparently because of his skill as a batter playing baseball in college).
    • Birthplace: Georgia, USA, Cuthbert
  • Butch Thompson (born November 28, 1943 in Marine on St. Croix, Minnesota) is an American jazz pianist and clarinetist best known for his ragtime and stride performances.
    • Birthplace: Minnesota
  • Marcelo Uchoa Zarvos (born October 1969) is a Brazilian pianist and composer.
    • Birthplace: SĆ£o Paulo, Brazil
  • Jovino Santos Neto (born September 18, 1954 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) is a Brazilian American jazz pianist, flutist, composer, arranger, educator, and record producer. Jovino Santos Neto started playing piano at age 13 and by 16 was playing keyboards in a band called the Vacancy Group in Bangu, Rio de Janeiro. He earned a degree in Biology, from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, and later from Macdonald College of McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. In 1977, he joined the group led by Brazilian composer Hermeto Pascoal, working as a pianist, flutist, composer, arranger and producer. Since leaving Hermeto's group in 1992 and relocating to the United States, Santos Neto has released several albums. He has toured internationally as the leader of his own ensemble and with musicians such as Airto Moreira, Flora Purim, and Mike Marshall. Santos Neto teaches at Seattle's Cornish College of the Arts and is a frequent teacher at Jazz Camp West.
    • Birthplace: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
  • Cyrus Chestnut (born January 17, 1963) is an American jazz pianist, composer and producer. In 2006, Josh Tyrangiel, music critic for Time, wrote: "What makes Chestnut the best jazz pianist of his generation is a willingness to abandon notes and play space." Chestnut enjoys mixing styles and resists being typecast in any one niche, though his gospel sound is apparent on a number of his recordings.
    • Birthplace: Baltimore, USA, Maryland
  • James Booker
    Dec. at 43 (1939-1983)
    James Carroll Booker III (December 17, 1939 ā€“ November 8, 1983) was a New Orleans rhythm and blues keyboardist born in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. Booker's style combined rhythm and blues with jazz standards. Musician Dr. John described Booker as "the best black, gay, one-eyed junkie piano genius New Orleans has ever produced." Flamboyant in personality, he was known as "the Black Liberace".
    • Birthplace: New Orleans, Louisiana
  • Lyle Mays
    Age: 71
    Lyle David Mays (born November 27, 1953) is an American jazz pianist and composer best known as a member of the Pat Metheny Group. Metheny and Mays composed and arranged nearly all of the group's music, for which Mays has won eleven Grammy Awards.
    • Birthplace: USA, Wisconsin, Wausaukee
  • Ellis Louis Marsalis Jr. (November 14, 1934 - April 1, 2020) was an American jazz pianist and educator. He had been active since the late 1940s. Marsalis came to greater attention in the 1980s and 1990s as the patriarch of a musical family, with sons Branford Marsalis and Wynton Marsalis rising to international acclaim.
    • Birthplace: USA, New Orleans, Louisiana
  • Friedrich Gulda
    Dec. at 69 (1930-2000)
    Friedrich Gulda (16 May 1930 ā€“ 27 January 2000) was an Austrian pianist and composer who worked in both the classical and jazz fields.
    • Birthplace: Vienna, Austria
  • Eddie Palmieri (born December 15, 1936) is a Grammy Award-winning pianist, bandleader, musician, and composer of Puerto Rican ancestry. He is the founder of the bands La Perfecta, La Perfecta II, and Harlem River Drive.
    • Birthplace: East Harlem, New York City, USA, New York
  • Kenny Kirkland
    Dec. at 43 (1955-1998)
    Kenneth David "Kenny" Kirkland (September 28, 1955 ā€“ November 12, 1998) was an American pianist/keyboardist.
    • Birthplace: New York City, USA, New York
  • Kym Purling is an Australian pianist, composer, and conductor from Vietnam.
    • Birthplace: Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
  • Clarence Williams
    Dec. at 72 (1893-1965)
    Clarence Williams (October 6, 1898 or October 8, 1893 ā€“ November 6, 1965) was an American jazz pianist, composer, promoter, vocalist, theatrical producer, and publisher.
    • Birthplace: USA, Plaquemine, Louisiana
  • D.D. Jackson

    D.D. Jackson

    Age: 58
    Robert Cleanth Kai-Nen "D. D." Jackson (born January 25, 1967) is a Canadianā€“American jazz pianist and composer. His work as a leader or co-leader appears on 12 CDs. He won the Juno Award for Best Contemporary Jazz Album ā€“ Instrumental in 2000 for his solo piano disc ...So Far. Jackson has composed operas and for television programs.
    • Birthplace: Ottawa, Canada
  • John Hicks
    Dec. at 64 (1941-2006)
    John Josephus Hicks, Jr. (December 21, 1941 ā€“ May 10, 2006) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and arranger. He was leader for more than 30 recordings and played as a sideman on more than 300.After early experiences backing blues musicians, Hicks moved to New York in 1963. He was part of Art Blakey's band for two years, then backed vocalist Betty Carter from 1965 to 1967, before joining Woody Herman's big band, where he stayed until 1970. Following these largely mainstream jazz experiences, Hicks expanded into freer bands, including those of trumpeters Charles Tolliver and Lester Bowie. He rejoined Carter in 1975; the five-year stay brought him more attention and helped to launch his recording career as a leader. He continued to play and record extensively in the United States and internationally. Under his own leadership, his recordings were mostly bebop-influenced, while those for other leaders continued to be in a diversity of styles, including multi-year associations with saxophonists Arthur Blythe, David Murray, David "Fathead" Newman, and Pharoah Sanders.
    • Birthplace: Georgia, USA, Atlanta
  • Born in Algeria to musician parents, Martial Solal began studying the piano at the age of 6. By 1950, a 23-year-old Solal had moved to Paris, begun collaborating with well-known jazz musicians, and embarked on his recording career. A talented performer, Solal gained international attention and spent much of the 1960s playing throughout Europe and the United States. He has recorded over 25 jazz albums, including "Jazz a Juan," his 1974 collaboration with American alto saxophonist Lee Konitz, and "Live at the Village Vanguard," a recording of his 2001 New York performance with FranƧois Moutin and Bill Stewart. Solal has composed the musical scores for over 20 films, and is perhaps best known for his score of the 1960 crime drama "Breathless," which was New-Wave filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard's first feature film. Other notable scores by Solal include the 1960 French comedy "It Happened All Night" and the 1962 Finnish dramedy "The Flamboyant Sex." After composing the score for the 1983 drama "Ballade Ć  Blanc," Solal took a 17-year break from writing film scores, instead refocusing on his performing and recording career, producing nine albums in that time. He finally returned to film in 2000 with his score for director Bertrand Blier's comedy "Actors."
    • Birthplace: Algiers, France
  • Big Joe Turner
    Dec. at 74 (1911-1985)
    Joseph Vernon "Big Joe" Turner Jr. (May 18, 1911 ā€“ November 24, 1985) was an American blues shouter from Kansas City, Missouri. According to songwriter Doc Pomus, "Rock and roll would have never happened without him." His greatest fame was due to his rock-and-roll recordings in the 1950s, particularly "Shake, Rattle and Roll", but his career as a performer endured from the 1920s into the 1980s.Turner was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987, with the Hall lauding him as "the brawny voiced 'Boss of the Blues'".
    • Birthplace: Kansas City, USA, Missouri
  • Jim McNeely (born May 18, 1949) is a Grammy award-winning jazz pianist, composer, and arranger.
    • Birthplace: Chicago, Illinois
  • Bob Brookmeyer
    Dec. at 81 (1929-2011)
    Robert Edward "Bob" Brookmeyer (December 19, 1929 ā€“ December 15, 2011) was an American jazz valve trombonist, pianist, arranger, and composer. Born in Kansas City, Missouri, Brookmeyer first gained widespread public attention as a member of Gerry Mulligan's quartet from 1954 to 1957. He later worked with Jimmy Giuffre, before rejoining Mulligan's Concert Jazz Band. He garnered 8 Grammy Award nominations during his lifetime.
    • Birthplace: Kansas City, Missouri
  • Alan Pasqua (born June 28, 1952) is an American jazz pianist, educator, and composer. He co-composed the CBS Evening News theme. He has also had an extensive career in pop and rock music, most notably as a founding member, keyboardist, and songwriter of the 1980s hard rock band Giant. He studied at Indiana University and the New England Conservatory of Music. His album Standards with drummer Peter Erskine was nominated for a Grammy Award. As a session musician, he has toured and recorded with Bob Dylan, Cher, Michael BublĆ©, Eddie Money, Allan Holdsworth, Joe Walsh, Pat Benatar, Rick Springfield, Juice Newton, Prism, and Santana.
    • Birthplace: USA, New Jersey
  • Earl Hines
    Dec. at 79 (1903-1983)
    Earl Kenneth Hines, also known as Earl "Fatha" Hines (December 28, 1903 ā€“ April 22, 1983), was an American jazz pianist and bandleader. He was one of the most influential figures in the development of jazz piano and, according to one source, "one of a small number of pianists whose playing shaped the history of jazz".The trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie (a member of Hines's big band, along with Charlie Parker) wrote, "The piano is the basis of modern harmony. This little guy came out of Chicago, Earl Hines. He changed the style of the piano. You can find the roots of Bud Powell, Herbie Hancock, all the guys who came after that. If it hadn't been for Earl Hines blazing the path for the next generation to come, it's no telling where or how they would be playing now. There were individual variations but the style of ... the modern piano came from Earl Hines."The pianist Lennie Tristano said, "Earl Hines is the only one of us capable of creating real jazz and real swing when playing all alone." Horace Silver said, "He has a completely unique style. No one can get that sound, no other pianist". Erroll Garner said, "When you talk about greatness, you talk about Art Tatum and Earl Hines".Count Basie said that Hines was "the greatest piano player in the world".
    • Birthplace: USA, Duquesne, Pennsylvania
  • Vijay Iyer
    Age: 53
    Vijay Iyer (born October 26, 1971) is an American jazz pianist, composer, bandleader, producer, electronic musician, and writer based in New York City. He is a 2013 MacArthur Fellow. He became the Franklin D. and Florence Rosenblatt Professor of the Arts (in the Department of Music) at Harvard University in early 2014.
    • Birthplace: USA, Albany, New York
  • Claude Thornhill
    Dec. at 56 (1908-1965)
    Claude Thornhill (August 10, 1908 ā€“ July 1, 1965) was an American pianist, arranger, composer, and bandleader. He composed the jazz and pop standards "Snowfall" and "I Wish I Had You".
    • Birthplace: Terre Haute, Indiana
  • Mike Melvoin
    Dec. at 74 (1937-2012)
    Mike Melvoin (May 10, 1937 ā€“ February 22, 2012) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and arranger. He served as chairman and president of The Recording Academy and worked as a prolific studio musician, recording with Frank Sinatra, John Lennon, The Jackson 5, Natalie Cole, and The Beach Boys. Melvoin was nominated for the 2003 Grammy Award for Best Jazz Instrumental Solo for "All or Nothing at All" from his album It's Always You.
    • Birthplace: USA, Wisconsin, Oshkosh
  • Matthew Shipp (born December 7, 1960) is an American pianist, composer, and bandleader.
    • Birthplace: Wilmington, USA, Delaware
  • Gerald Wilson
    Dec. at 96 (1918-2014)
    Gerald Stanley Wilson (September 4, 1918 ā€“ September 8, 2014) was an American jazz trumpeter, big band bandleader, composer/arranger, and educator. Born in Mississippi, he was based in Los Angeles from the early 1940s. In addition to being a band leader, Wilson wrote arrangements for Duke Ellington, Sarah Vaughan, Ray Charles, Julie London, Dizzy Gillespie, Ella Fitzgerald, Benny Carter, Lionel Hampton, Billie Holiday, Dinah Washington, and Nancy Wilson.
    • Birthplace: Shelby, Mississippi
  • Aaron Goldberg is an American jazz pianist. Described by The New York Times as a "post-bop pianist of exemplary taste and range," Goldberg has released five albums as a solo artist and has performed and collaborated with Joshua Redman, Wynton Marsalis, Kurt Rosenwinkel, and Guillermo Klein, among others.
    • Birthplace: Boston, Massachusetts
  • Anthony Davis

    Anthony Davis

    Age: 74
    Anthony Davis, is an American jazz pianist, composer, and student of gamelan music. Davis is best known for his operas including X, The Life and Times of Malcolm X, which was premiered by the New York City Opera in 1986, Amistad, which premiered with the Lyric Opera of Chicago in 1997, and Wakonda's Dream, which premiered at Opera Omaha in 2007.
    • Birthplace: Paterson, New Jersey
  • Bill Anschell is a jazz pianist and composer. He has recorded seven CDs as a leader, and performed or recorded with many jazz greats. His original compositions and piano work are prominently featured on Freelon's Grammy Award-nominated recording Shaking Free (Concord Records) and her CBS recordings Heritage and Listen. His own CDs have received extensive national airplay and critical acclaim. His compositions have appeared in many films and television series, including "The West Wing," "The Wire," "Bloodline," and "NCIS: LA."
    • Birthplace: Seattle, Washington
  • Kenny Werner (born November 19, 1951) is an American jazz pianist, composer, and author.
    • Birthplace: New York City, USA, New York
  • Ray Reach
    Age: 76
    Raymond Everett Reach, Jr. (born August 3, 1948) is an American pianist, vocalist, guitarist, composer, arranger, music producer and educator, named by AL.com as one of "30 Alabamians who changed jazz history." He serves as President and CEO of Ray Reach Music and Magic City Music Productions.Reach has performed and recorded in various genres, including pop, R & B, Motown/soul, gospel, rock, classic rock, country (contemporary and traditional), contemporary Christian, classical and jazz music, but is perhaps best known for his work in jazz, combining jazz piano stylings with Sinatra-style vocals. He resides in Birmingham, Alabama.
    • Birthplace: Birmingham, Alabama
  • Tord Gustavsen (born 5 October 1970) is a Norwegian jazz pianist and composer. He tours extensively worldwide, and he has been a bandleader for a trio, ensemble and quartet at various times, all bearing his name.
    • Birthplace: Oslo, Norway
  • Bobby Short
    Dec. at 80 (1924-2005)
    Robert Waltrip Short (September 15, 1924 ā€“ March 21, 2005) was an American cabaret singer and pianist, best known for his interpretations of songs by popular composers of the first half of the 20th century such as Rodgers and Hart, Cole Porter, Jerome Kern, Harold Arlen, Richard A. Whiting, Vernon Duke, NoĆ«l Coward and George and Ira Gershwin. He also championed African-American composers of the same period such as Eubie Blake, James P. Johnson, Andy Razaf, Fats Waller, Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn, presenting their work not in a polemical way, but as simply the obvious equal of that of their white contemporaries. His dedication to his great love ā€“ what he called the "Great American Song" ā€“ left him equally adept at performing the witty lyrics of Bessie Smith's "Gimme a Pigfoot (And a Bottle of Beer)" or Gershwin and Duke's "I Can't Get Started". Short stated his favorite songwriters were Ellington, Arlen and Kern, and he was instrumental in spearheading the construction of the Ellington Memorial in New York City. He was a personal friend of Tom Jobim and was present during the composer's final days in New York City.
    • Birthplace: Danville, USA, Illinois
  • Onaje Allan Gumbs (born Allan Bentley Gumbs, September 3, 1949) is a New York-based pianist, composer, and bandleader.
    • Birthplace: Harlem, New York City, New York