Two-time grammy nominated organist and winner of Downbeat
Magazine’s 2016 rising star poll Pat Bianchi, has established himself as one of
the principal organists on the scene today. His command of the instrument,
harmonic prowess, rhythmic intensity and versatility are rivaled by few. His
most recent release, A Higher Standard featuring Byron Landham and Craig Ebner,
exemplifies Bianchi's superiority and finesse in the organ trio setting,
bringing jazz standards to a completely 'higher' level. When Pat is not leading
his own trio, he performs regularly with jazz guitar icon, Pat Martino. Bianchi
also continues to perform with NEA Jazz Master and saxophone legend, Lou
Donaldson.
Bianchi, who comes
from a musically gifted family, began playing organ at the age of 7, after
receiving a Farfisa Compact Duo organ as a Christmas gift. His grandfathers
(Pat Bianchi – Saxophone and Richard Zona – Trumpet) along with his father
(Nick Bianchi – Drums) all working musicians, provided a great deal of support
and guidance early in his musical development. Recognizing Pat’s continuing
affinity for music, his parents enrolled him in classical piano study. While
still maintaining a strong interest in organ, he was playing his first
professional gigs by the age of 11, eventually performing with dance bands
around his hometown of Rochester, NY.
Bianchi’s interest shifted in his high school years as he
began to also focus on piano. Enrolling in The Eastman School of Music’s preparatory
program for piano and music theory, while being mentored by numerous musicians
in the Rochester jazz scene. Through a rich mentoring system, passion and
dedication, (also not being able to play left hand bass on a Spinet organ)
Bianchi taught himself to play bass lines solely with his foot pedals.
Upon graduating high school, Bianchi continued his studies
at Berklee College of Music in Boston and graduated in 1998 with a Bachelors of
Music in Jazz Piano Performance. Shortly after graduating cum laude, Bianchi
secured the position as the house pianist at the famous El Chapultepec club in
Denver, CO. The Pec (as it is known to locals) often brought in guest artists
giving Pat the opportunity to play with such greats as Red Holloway, Dakota
Staton, Carl Fontana, Javon Jackson, Mark Elf, Bud Shank, Brad Leali, Pete
Christlieb, and Conte Candoli. After being at the Pec for 6 nights a week for
almost 3 years, Pat became an important fixture on the Denver Jazz Scene.
At this time, Bianchi decided to focus exclusively on the
organ making his national debut as an organist, appearing on two recordings as
a member the Denver based organ trio, 3osity. The national release of Art of
The Jazz Organ Trio and the subsequent recording Tri-O-City brought Bianchi wider
recognition and onto a larger stage as a rising star of the organ.
Moving to NYC, Bianchi quickly established himself in the
competitive New York scene. At this time, legendary saxophonist Lou Donaldson
immediately took notice of the young organist.
Bianchi then joined the faculty of the University of
Colorado at Boulder Jazz Studies Program teaching piano, theory and ensembles
to undergraduate, masters and doctoral students. During this time he recorded
his first album as a leader, East Coast Roots, which features Mark Whitfield on
guitar and Byron Landham on drums. At the same time, Bianchi began working
closely with drummer Ralph Peterson Jr. on collaborative projects, including
and co-leading The Unity Project (a tribute to organist Larry Young and his
album Unity).
Bianchi returned to New York City in June of 2008, soon
after, he officially joined The Lou Donaldson’s quartet in 2009. Continuing to
play with Lou, Bianchi also joined Pat Martino’s working trio in 2011 while
taking on the responsibilities as musical director. Bianchi is featured on
numerous recordings such as Tim Warfield’s Sentimental Journey, a follow up to
Warfield’s recording One For Shirley (on which he also appears) as well as
guitarist Chuck Loeb’s release, Plain and Simple. At this time Bianchi also
continued to perform with drummer Ralph Peterson Jr., forging ahead with The
Unity Project. Bianchi was featured, recording much of this material on
Peterson’s CD Outer Reaches. Soon after Bianchi released his second recording
as a leader, Back Home. This recording features Terell Stafford, Ralph Peterson
Jr, Wayne Escoffery, Carmen Intorre Jr. and Gilad Hekselman.
While still actively performing with both Pat Martino and
Lou Donaldson, Bianchi not only continues to collaborate with many well known
musicians. His next album as a bandleader "Trios” will feature an array of
special guests including Pat Martino, Kevin Mahogany, Joe Locke, Peter
Bernstein, Paul Bollenback, Byron Landham, Carmen Intorre, Jr. will be released in 2018!
An ECM recording artist, bandleader and composer, Andy
Sheppard is one of Europe’s leading saxophonists and one of a very few British
musicians to have made a significant impact on the international jazz scene,
playing and writing for settings from solo to big band and chamber orchestra.
Sheppard has composed over 350 works that incorporate a strong and
characteristic sense of lyricism alongside a very personal use of rhythms from
Asia, Africa and South America.AndySheppardHorn1FinalX
Sheppard took up the saxophone at 19, highly motivated after
encountering the music of John Coltrane, and three weeks after getting his
first instrument was playing in public with the Bristol-based quartet Sphere.
After a period in Paris where he worked with groups including performance art
band Urban Sax, he returned to the UK in the mid-80’s recording the album “Andy
Sheppard” for Antilles/Island, with Steve Swallow as producer, the beginning of
a long musical association that continues to this day. Since then Sheppard has
recorded for labels including Blue Note, Verve, Label Bleu and Provocateur.
Sheppard has been invited to compose for large and small
ensembles in the areas of jazz and contemporary classical music. His big band
writing includes work with the renowned UMO Orchestra (Finland), the Bergen Big
Band (Norway) – initially for a joint commission from Cheltenham and Vossa
Festivals – Voice of the North and Jambone (UK). Most recently in 2012,
Sheppard was commissioned to write a new Big Band Suite for the Bergen Big
Band, this brand new work entitled Bump 5250 was performed during the
prestigious NattJazz Festival (Norway) in 2013. He wrote music for a
collaboration with the classical saxophonist John Harle, and composed View from
the Pyramids, a concerto for saxophone and piano for the Bournemouth
Sinfonietta, which premiered at the 1998 Salisbury Festival with Joanna
MacGregor as piano soloist. Other significant commissions include a solo
performance piece for saxophone and electronics from the Maison de la Culture
in Amiens which subsequently turned into his Nocturnal Tourist CD; Nothing
moved but the wind – a work for the Kintamarni Saxophone Quartet; Strange
Episode – a piece for tape oboe and percussion for New Noise; the
multi-disciplinary Cityscapes – a collaboration with Joanna McGregor et al for
the City of London Festival; Glossolalia – a choral work with saxophone, guitar
and percussion soloists commissioned by Bigger Sky and the Norfolk &
Norwich Festival with premiere in Norwich Cathedral and new big band and vocal
work for the northern youth big band Jambone with youth choir, which premiered
at the Gateshead International festival in 2012. Curiously, Sheppard has been
commissioned to write music to commemorate two feats of UK engineering.
The first was a collaboration with renowned Northumbrian
piper Kathryn Tickell to celebrate the opening of the andy3Gateshead Millennium
Bridge. This landmark commission resulted in Music for a New Crossing, written
for the Northen Sinfonia, pipes and saxophones, with premiere played live on
the spectacular setting of the bridge itself.The second saw Andy commissioned by Brunel 200 to write a piece to mark
the 200th anniversary of the birth of Isambard Kingdom Brunel, the engineer of
the Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol. For this work, entitled The Living
Bridge, Andy composed a fanfare using prepared electronics incorporating the
sounds of the bridge and utilizing the talents of 200 local saxophonists in
homage to his early work subsequently formed the basis of Saxophone Massive – a
series of large-scale celebratory performances performed in the UK and abroad
by saxophone choirs made up of players of all ages and abilities that can be
tailored to suit indoor or outdoor performance venues. Saxophone Massive has
played all over Europe and as part of the BT River of Music, the London 2012
Cultural Olympiad programme supported by the National Lottery and Paul Hamlyn
Foundation, in July 2012 there was a special version of saxophone Massive at
Somerset House in London. The Man Who Had All the Luck which ran at the Young
Vic; dance (his trio Inclassificable devised the music for the award winning
dance piece Modern Living, choreographed by Jonathan Lunn); radio and TV. His TV
credits include original music commissioned by BBC’s Omnibus for Ice dances
Torvill and Dean; the Oscar nominated Channel 4 film, Syrup directed by Paul
Unwin; a documentary series about Peter Sellers.andy4
Sheppard has been described as a serial collaborator,
playing recording and developing new music with artists as varied as Brazilian
percussionist Nana Vasconcelos, Indian violinist L.Shankar, English folk
musician Kathryn Tickell, contemporary classical composer-performers John Harle
and Joanna MacGregor, singer songwriter John Martyn, and a myriad of leading
jazz figures, including the rare hat-trick of three of the seminal composers in
contemporary Jazz – Carla Bley, George Russell and the late Gil Evans.
The first album for ECM with his own project Movements in
Colour recorded in 2008 draws upon established and more recent relationships.
The saxophonist plays regularly in duos with jazz guitarist John Parricelli and
tabla player Kuljit Bhamra, and both are also members of his quartet in Dancing
Man & Woman. It was while touring as a guest soloist with Ketil Bjørnstad’s
band that Sheppard eventually got to play with Eivind Aarset – “the perfect
choice for the sound world that I was after.” UK tours with Bjørnstad also
brought Sheppard and Arild Andersen together, and while writing the music for
Movements in Colour album, Sheppard reports that he was “hearing melodies on
acoustic bass and knew that Arild’s sound and lyricism would make them sing as
well as provide essential energy.”
Sheppard’s current performing priorityis Andy Sheppard Quartet/Surrounded by Sea,
his third ECM album is a strongly atmospheric recording.
Extending the range of his widely-praised Trio Libero
(ECM)project in 2012 with Michel Benita
and Seb Rochford, Andy Sheppard adds Eivind Aarset (who made significant
contributions to 2008’s Movements In Colour) to the band. With Aarset’s ambient
drones and electronic textures as a backdrop, Sheppard and co seem to have even
more space to explore. The music embraced includes new compositions, open
improvisations, an Elvis Costello tune, and the Gaelic traditional ballad
“Aoidh, Na Dean Cadal Idir”.
