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Billy Mintz

In an extraordinary career spanning nearly 40 years, drummer Billy Mintz has played with some of the biggest names in the jazz and pop worlds.

Mr. Mintz was born in Queens, New York in 1947. By the age of 15 he was firmly entrenched in several of the show bands of the Catskill Mountain resorts, and as his musicianship developed he would eventually tour with jazz artists such as Lee Konitz, Eddie Daniels, Harold Danko, Mike Garson, Mose Allison, Mark Murphy, and the Kim Richmond Sextet. He also toured and recorded extensively with Bobby Shew.

At the same time, his credentials grew in the pop arena, leading to tours with Juliette Prowse, James Darren, Gloria Gaynor, and a stint with the show band for the Merv Griffin Show.

In 1986, Mr. Mintz toured Japan with the Los Angeles Symphonic Jazz Orchestra (having relocated to Los Angeles in 1981). In 1988 he toured Europe with saxophone great Charles Lloyd, and from 1989 to 1995 he performed with the Alan Broadbent Trio

Throughout his life Mr. Mintz has taught privately and done clinics at schools around the world, including the Berklee School of Music, the Dick Grove School of Music, Bloomingdale House of Music, Long Island Drum and Percussion Club, Eagle Rock H.S., Arizona State University at Tempe, University of Arizona at Phoenix, and North Texas State University. He also taught extensively while on tour with various artists in Sydney, Australia, Tel Aviv, Israel and Wellington, New Zealand.

Mr. Mintz has written two books: Different Drummers, originally published by Aamsco Music Publishing and Advanced Sticking and Sight-Reading (BM Publications). He has also had articles published in Not Just Jazz and Modern Drummer magazines.

Mr. Mintz appears on records by the following artists, among others: Bill Perkins/James Clay Quintet; Vinny Golia; Fred Tompkins; The Cryers; Harold Danko; Eddie Daniels; Bobby Shew; Bob Magnusson; Mike Garson; Art Resnick; Walking Wounded; Kim Richmond; Clay Jenkins; Ken Filiano; John Woods; Joey Sellars; Bruce Fowler.

In recent years, Mr. Mintz has taken on new roles as a bandleader and a composer, performing his own compositions with various ensembles. He also performs solo drumset concerts with increasing frequency.


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Liner Notes

Jeff Johnson: My Heart

Read "Jeff Johnson: My Heart" reviewed by Jeff Johnson


jny: Minneapolis... circa 1972 is where this story begins. People ask me, “where did you go to study music?" I always answer, “Minneapolis / St.Paul, Minnesota." Then they ask, “yes... but what school?" My reply, “the streets, night clubs, and music scene of Minneapolis / St. Paul. I have a bastard's degree in music from Minneapolis / St. Paul." The “Twin Cities" as they are called in Minnesota, was extremely fertile musical ground at the time ...

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Album Review

Jeff Johnson: My Heart

Read "My Heart" reviewed by Paul Rauch


What could possibly be so interesting about a thirty-two-year old session of first takes, recorded live to 2-track DAT by a quartet led by a Seattle- based bassist who is not exactly a household name? A quick answer would include superlatives such as “masterful," or “historic." A brief history of bassist and composer Jeff Johnson creates a better sense of understanding. Johnson is perhaps best known as a pioneering member of pianist Hal Galper's revolutionary rubato trio of the '90's, ...

4
Liner Notes

Hal Galper Trio: Invitation to Openness

Read "Hal Galper Trio: Invitation to Openness" reviewed by Paul Rauch


Two and a half hours outside of New York City, the tiny Delaware River town of Callicoon, New York is home to little more than three thousand people. On Upper Main Street, Rafter's Tavern has been a part of this upstate hamlet since the late nineteenth century. In current times, this local eatery, bar and music venue welcomes in forty five year local resident and jazz piano legend Hal Galper and his trio for a weekly matinee performance. Bassist Tony ...

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Album Review

Karl Berger, Max Johnson, Billy Mintz: Sketches

Read "Sketches" reviewed by Mike Jurkovic


An exquisitely palatable sense of dance permeates the gregarious music bassist Max Johnson brings to the fore on Sketches, the second of two heady 2022 releases. Whereas the first, Orbit of Sound (Unbroken Sounds), teams him up with the rule-elusive sax and flute of Anna Weber and drummer Michael Sarin, Sketches presents a slightly more straight ahead approach with pianist and vibraphonist Karl Berger and drummer Billy Mintz. But straight ahead is not quite fair, or descriptive enough ...

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Album Review

Alan Broadbent Trio: Like Minds

Read "Like Minds" reviewed by Jack Bowers


Alan Broadbent, a superb New Zealand-born pianist who has made his home in America for more than fifty years, has mapped out another impressive trio album, Like Minds, his twenty-seventh as leader or co-leader and third for Savant Records. The term “pianist" is used here because that is Broadbent's most conspicuous role on this recording. He is as well-known at home and abroad as a Grammy-winning composer-arranger for an array of jazz luminaries including but not limited to Sue Raney, ...

6
Album Review

Hal Galper Trio: Invitation To Openness

Read "Invitation To Openness" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan


Pianist Hall Galper turned away from the life of touring in 2000, and eased into “the shed," to work on some innovative ideas that would change the shape of the piano trio. Rubato is where he went--a style of playing that stretches time, making it flexible, unpredictable and free. It takes special trio mates to assist in this, and he found them in his East Coast Trio, with bassist Tony Marino and drummer Billy Mintz, eventually, the group responsible for ...

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Album Review

Lena Bloch & Feathery: Rose Of Lifta

Read "Rose Of Lifta" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan


Saxophonist Lena Bloch knows something about the pain of separation from one's homeland. Born in Russia, she emigrated to Israel in 1990, then to Europe and, finally, in 2008, to the United States, setting up shop in New York City's fertile jazz ground. In 2014, Feathery, (Thirteen Note Records), the album and her quartet of that name, came into being. The group's second album, Heart Knows (Fresh Sound New Talent, 2007), cemented her distinctive horn-and-rhythm-section approach, with bassist ...

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Recording

Pianist Roberta Piket Showcases The Composing Talents Of Husband/Collaborator Billy Mintz On "Domestic Harmony: Picket Plays Mintz," Due Dec. 6

Pianist Roberta Piket Showcases The Composing Talents Of Husband/Collaborator Billy Mintz On "Domestic Harmony: Picket Plays Mintz," Due Dec. 6

Source: Terri Hinte Publicity

Pianist Roberta Piket presents a truly intimate musical offering with the December 6 release of Domestic Harmony: Piket Plays Mintz on her own Thirteenth Note Records. A solo piano performance (her third, following 2012’s Solo and 2015’s Solo Volume 2), the album assays ten intriguing compositions by Billy Mintz, the highly regarded drummer who regularly collaborates with Piket— and who is also her husband. The intimacy on display throughout Domestic Harmony is authentic: it was intended for an audience of ...

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Event

Tom McNalley / John Gross / Joe McNalley / Mark Dresser / Billy Mintz, November 8 in San Diego

Tom McNalley / John Gross / Joe McNalley / Mark Dresser / Billy Mintz,  November 8 in San Diego

Source: All About Jazz

On Thursday, November 8th at 7pm, there will be a concert at the Neurosciences Institute in La Jolla. The concert will feature original compositions by Billy Mintz and Tom McNalley.

The first set will be: John Gross - tenor sax Billy Mintz - drums

The second set will be: Tom McNalley - electric guitar John Gross - tenor sax Joe McNalley - Hutchins bass Mark Dresser - Hutchins ...

Photos

Concerts

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

My Heart

Origin Records
2023

buy

Invitation To Openness

Origin Records
2022

buy

Like Minds

Savant Records
2022

buy

Sketches

Fresh Sound Records
2022

buy

Echos

Sunnyside Records
2021

buy

Socially Distanced...

Self Produced
2021

buy

Linden Station

From: My Heart
By Billy Mintz

Ambleside

From: Invitation To Openness
By Billy Mintz

Promise of Return

From: Rose Of Lifta
By Billy Mintz

Heart Knows

From: Heart Knows
By Billy Mintz

Three Treasures (Russ Lossing)

From: Heart Knows
By Billy Mintz

Lateef Suite

From: Heart Knows
By Billy Mintz

Newfoundsong

From: Heart Knows
By Billy Mintz

Marshmallow (Warne Marsh)

From: Feathery
By Billy Mintz

Starry-Eyed

From: Feathery
By Billy Mintz

Marshmallow

From: Feathery
By Billy Mintz

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