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Eric Zinman

Born 1963 and educated in Boston, MA USA, Eric Zinman began piano studies at age 7. At age 11 he sang in a boy's soprano choir in Donald Martino's opera THE DIVINE COMEDY in the 70's. He continued to sing in musicals and choirs throughout his childhood and teenage years and piano studies with Angel Ramon Rivera, and jazz with Paul Barringer, and Don Hemwall. As a teenager he says he discovered Black Music and became completely immersed in that approach. He met musician/composer Bill Dixon in 1981. Zinman considers this the turning point in his musical life. Mr. Zinman also speaks highly of his studies with musician/pianist/composer Naqi Qamar. He continued his studies of modern music at the New England Conservatory of Music with Ran Blake, Jimmy Giuffre, and George Russell where he received an MM degree in 1985.

At the forefront of creative music for more than 20 years, Eric Zinman’s piano playing is known internationally and has been described as a “fleet and appealing touch”. Rooted in the language of the avant garde, his vision embraces the role of the piano in the orchestras of the future, the piano’s relation to the trap set drums, its touch, the way it can surround the other instruments and mark varying shifts in weight, the way the piano can also move lyrically within the whole from varying densities of sound masses to sparkling melodies spanning the whole keyboard.

"I am interested in the sensual nature of sound, with the piano that is first and foremost TOUCH. FORM, then, is a manifestation from beginning to end of dynamics and within that the phrasing, silence and an arresting balance between the pedaled and un-pedaled sounds. Dynamics is Rhythm. Rhythm is form."

Eric Zinman has played with Craig Schildhauer, Raqib Hassan, Toshi Makihara, Sabir Mateen, Marco Eneidi, Lisle Ellis, Peter Valsamis, Tatsuya Nakatani, Glynis Lomon and Blaise Siwula, Ernst-Ludwig Petrowsky, Jan Roder, Thomas Rehnert, John Voigt and Laurence Cook, Benjamin Duboc and Didier Lasserre, Mario Rechtern, Fritz Novotny, and many others. Mr. Zinman has also composed music for dance and theatre using verbal directives as well as graphic scores and with painters and poets. He has written about music and musicians and is recorded on Ayler, and Cadence Records.

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Gnome Notes

Eric Zinman's Excellent European Adventures

Read "Eric Zinman's Excellent European Adventures" reviewed by Chris Rich


Eric Zinman goes to Europe each year on his own dime for a varying array of shoe string gigs with people who mean a lot to him as colleagues. He usually works with Mario Rechtern and people from a community in jny: Vienna that includes expatriate, Linda Sharrock. His most recent trip was especially gratifying as he is pleased to inform us. “For the first time Mario and I, with help from friends, were able to ...

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Interview

Eric Zinman: The Piano as Endangered Species

Read "Eric Zinman: The Piano as Endangered Species" reviewed by Brian Wrentham


For over twenty years, pianist/composer Eric Zinman has been crafting his own approach to his instrument, since meeting trumpeter Bill Dixon in the '80s. He views himself as an ensemble player, who plays to include; in addition to his own writing, his trio disc, Eric Zinman Ensemble (Cadence, 2006), features short pieces by John Voigt, Laurence Cook, Lowell Davidison and Ornette Coleman. Each composition feels lived with and explored thoroughly, while the music breaths and flows with a wide dynamic ...

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Multiple Reviews

Eric Zinman: Ensemble & The Great Divide

Read "Eric Zinman: Ensemble & The Great Divide" reviewed by Elliott Simon


Eric Zinman EnsembleEric Zinman EnsembleCadence Jazz2006 The Great DivideThe Great DivideStudio 2342006 Pianist Eric Zinman works in the creative music genre that keeps alive the flames of those heady days when jazz was the real underground. For these two trio releases, it is evident that these fires still burn hot, at a time when ...

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Performance / Tour

Laurence Cook and Eric Zinman Show Musical Vision in "Double Action" Duet CD

Laurence Cook and Eric Zinman Show Musical Vision in "Double Action" Duet CD

Source: Gapplegate Music Review by Grego Edwards

New-England based avant jazzmen Laurence Cook and Eric Zinman each have an impressive track record in improvisatory music. Laurence has played drums and percussion in a number of important ensembles over the years; Eric Zinman's pianism has been a central part of significant live and recorded dates. For all that, one might nonetheless be unprepared for what happened when the two began working on a series of duets in 2009. The fruits of that collaboration can be heard on Double ...

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Recording

Laurence Cook and Eric Zinman - Double Action (Ayler, 2011) ****a1/2

Laurence Cook and Eric Zinman - Double Action (Ayler, 2011) ****a1/2

Source: Free Jazz by Stef Gijssels

By Stanley Zappa Laurence Cook is a national treasure. Why the cultural machinery would rather embrace bourgeois twaddle rather than reward Laurence Cook with a Guggenheim grant or Macarthur award or the key to the city of Cambridge is one of the more egregious betrayals of our modern day. Cook took the drum seat after Milford Graves in the Lowell Davidson Trio. Cook was also Bill Dixon's drummer following Freddy Waits and preceding Tony Oxley—right smack dab in the middle ...

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Interview

Pianist Eric Zinman Interviewed at All About Jazz

Pianist Eric Zinman Interviewed at All About Jazz

Source: John Kelman

For over twenty years, pianist/composer Eric Zinman has been crafting his own approach to his instrument, since meeting trumpeter Bill Dixon in the '80s. He views himself as an ensemble player, who plays to include. In addition to his Eric Zinman Trio, the pianist's recent releases on Ayler Records involve larger ensembles, also featuring undervalued master saxophonist Mario Rechtern. Since 2006, Zinman has been performing internationally, and has released two digital-only recordings on Ayler Records—New Language Collaborative/Unified Fields (2008), and ...

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Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Devototionalien

Challenge Records
2013

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Rocks In The Sea

Challenge Jazz
2012

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Eric Zinman Trio

Studio 234
2009

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Unified Fields

Ayler Records
2007

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Ensemble - Live At...

Challenge Records
2006

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Eric Zinman Ensemble

Cadence Jazz Records
2006

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