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Jack Maeby

Jack Maeby grew up in upstate New York, where he began playing music professionally while in high school. At age 19, he signed a recording contract with a St. Louis-based record label. After a few years of touring the South and Midwest opening for acts such as The Doobie Brothers, Rod Stewart and Parliament/Funkadelic, Jack returned to Albany to back vocalist David Ward, a veteran of the King Curtis band. Through Ward, he was introduced to the late King Curtis' musical family, which included R&B legends Cornell DuPree, Gordon Edwards and Bernard Purdie.

Moving to New York City in the 1980's, Maeby built a career playing piano and organ behind acts such as Etta James, Otis Rush and Lowell Fulson. He was a keyboardist with the Uptown Horns band, accompanying Aaron Neville, Buster Poindexter and many other name attractions on their New York appearances. Jack was a regular member of NY Jazz and Blues Society honoree Danny Draher's band, played regularly with avant-garde jazz artist Marc Ribot and toured Europe with guitarist Joe Taino.

During his time in New York, Maeby was composer and musical director for a number of Off Broadway theater productions at La Mama Etc., CSC Repertory and the McCarter Theater. He began composing for film and television, garnering a Clio nomination for Original Music Scoring. His motion picture and TV work includes the films "Scandal", Disney's "The Arabian Night" and "How the Toys Saved Christmas" and the long-running children's series, "The World of David the Gnome".

After re-locating to Los Angeles in the mid-90's, Jack began writing fiction while touring Japan as musical director for a vocal group. He studied creative writing under novelist Claire Carmichael (aka Claire McNab), and was the recipient of a 2005 James Kirkwood Literary Award.

“The Thorazine Mirrorball” is Jack Maeby’s first published novel. He is at work on a sequel.

Awards

Clio Nomination Original Music Scoring James Kirkwood Literary Award

Gear

Nord C1 Organ Hammond A100 Organ


Tags

237

Book / Magazine

The Thorazine Mirrorball: Jazz Mystery Getting Raves

The Thorazine Mirrorball: Jazz Mystery Getting Raves

Source: All About Jazz

LA Jazz musician Jack Maeby's thriller, The Thorazine Mirrorball is garnering critical acclaim from the literary and jazz communities alike. Dick Wood, host of “Jazz Tracks” on WABY Radio, raves “What an exciting read! You can almost hear the music. I couldn’t put the darn thing down." Aaron Lazar, writing for Futures Mystery Magazine says, “a superb thriller...a taut and colorful novel...characters jump from the page.” The Thorazine Mirrorball takes place in the jazz and R&B milieu of the 1970s ...

“Jack Maeby is one of those rare, soul-infused artists whose work is a reflection of having packed a lot of living into his time on earth so far, and who knows how to express it all.." Steve Hopkins, The Kingston Times (NY)

"Maeby is a consummate musician." Dick Wood, Host of "Jazz Tracks" WABY Radio

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