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Grant Simpson
As a teenager, I heard a recording of "Fats" Waller and was immediately captivated and inspired. I enrolled in traditional music lessons and amidst a conventional study of the classics, began "picking out" sections of the Fats Waller and James P Johnson recordings by ear.
My initial excitement and enthusiasm for the stride style has flourished and grown more with every passing year.
During the past 25 years as a professional pianist, I have performed in hundreds venues throughout the world including Korea, throughout the Caribbean, United States and Canada, appearing as a featured artist at many concerts and festivals including The Vancouver Dixieland Festival, Hermann's Jazz Club, on the MS Oosterdam, Montreal's Queen Elizabeth Hotel and many more. I was a featured artist on CBC's famed Jazz Program "Hot Air" with my favorite musician "Alan Matheson". We hope to record a duo CD soon.
I perform as a soloist, in various duos and trios or in my traditional jazz band "New Orleans North" featuring: Amanda Leslie, Lloyd Arntzen, Alan Matheson, Craig Scott and Grant Simpson.
For more information on any of these groups, please look us up on the web.
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Grant Simpson: Stride and True
by Robert R. Calder
Grant Simpson hits the piano cleanly, and he sounds like he hits it hard. He mentions the ever-present dry wit" of Dick Wellstood when introducing a performance of Wellstood's Dollar Dance," whose composer called it a distant relative" of Jelly Roll Morton's Perfect Rag."
Though it's necessary to mention Wellstood's likely influence on Simpson's slowish tempo through much of the opener, James P. Johnson's One Hour"--and Simpson's central commitment to Harlem stride piano--he emulates Morton by making a priority of ...
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Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson