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Bill Cunliffe

Jazz pianist, composer and Grammy Award-winning arranger Bill Cunliffe is known for his innovative and swinging recordings and compositions. Bill began his career as pianist and arranger with the Buddy Rich Big Band and worked with Frank Sinatra, Joe Henderson, Freddie Hubbard, Benny Golson and James Moody. He has since established himself as a solo artist and bandleader, with more than a dozen albums under his name.

Bill currently plays with his trio; his big band; his Latin band, Imaginación; and his classical-jazz ensemble, Trimotif. He performs in the U.S. and around the world as a leader and sideman as well as a soloist with symphony orchestras.

His latest recording is the Bill Cunliffe Trio album “River Edge, New Jersey,” with bassist Martin Wind and drummer Tim Horner, released in April by Azica Records.

Other recent releases include his Overture, Waltz and Rondo for jazz piano, trumpet and orchestra (BCM+D Records, 2012). Bill performed the work with trumpeter Terell Stafford and the Temple University Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Luis Biava. The recording won Bill his fifth Grammy nomination, in the Best Instrumental Composition category.

Also released in 2012 was his Concerto for Tuba and Orchestra, with tubist Jim Self and the Hollywood Ensemble, with Bill conducting (Metre Records, 2012). Bill’s album of solo improvisations on Christmas carols, “That Time of Year” (Metre Records, 2011), was described as a “tour de force” in the Los Angeles Times.

Bill’s other recordings show his affinity for Latin rhythms (“Bill in Brazil,” Imaginación” and his Grammy-nominated trumpet concerto “fourth stream … La Banda”) and pay tribute to some of his musical heroes, including Bud Powell, Oliver Nelson and Paul Simon.

Bill wrote the score for the film “On the Shoulders of Giants,” Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s homage to the Harlem Rens basketball team of the 1920s and ’30s. The movie recently received an NAACP Image Award for Best Documentary. Bill’s soundtrack was nominated for Best Album.

He recently completed scoring a film noir by Singaporean director Ying J. Tan and is producing a jazz album for singer Freda Payne.

Bill’s books “Jazz Keyboard Toolbox” and “Jazz Inventions for Keyboard” (Alfred Music Publishing) have become standard reference works. His most recent publications are “Uniquely Christmas” (2012), a book of arrangements inspired by his CD “That Time of Year,” and “Uniquely Familiar: Standards for Advanced Solo Piano” (2010).

Bill was awarded a Grammy for Best Instrumental Arrangement for “West Side Story Medley,” on the album “Resonance Big Band Plays Tribute to Oscar Peterson” (Resonance Records, 2009). In addition to receiving five Grammy nominations, he is a two-time Emmy nominee.

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11
Album Review

Joe La Barbera: World Travelers

Read "World Travelers" reviewed by Dave Linn


Drummer Joe La Barbera has an extensive and impressive resume. At the age of 20, he played in the second drum chair for the Buddy Rich Big Band before driving the 1972 stellar lineup of Woody Herman's Thundering Herd. In 1978, he was offered the prestigious opportunity to be part of the acclaimed (and what turned out to be the final) line-up of the Bill Evans Trio, where he stayed until the pianist's tragic death in 1980. Later, gigs with ...

4
Album Review

Doug MacDonald: Big Band Extravaganza

Read "Big Band Extravaganza" reviewed by Richard J Salvucci


Some reviewers have been known to complain that contemporary big bands can do most anything but swing. Like all generalizations, there is some merit to the observation. But, like all generalizations, the occasional exception falsifies it. Looking for a big band that pushes all the right buttons? Look no further. Doug MacDonald's “desert jazz" band is an extremely good one. While it might be difficult to make claims about the novelty of what is on offer, the band is tight, ...

34
Album Review

Doug MacDonald: Big Band Extravaganza

Read "Big Band Extravaganza" reviewed by Jack Bowers


Pardon the superlative, but what a terrific album! Extravanga marks the debut of guitarist Doug MacDonald's seventeen-member Jazz Orchestra, and he has guaranteed that it swings with gusto by writing nine perceptive and luminous charts that are sure to bring out the best in any ensemble, especially one as well-equipped as this. During his decades-long career as one of the West Coast's foremost guitarists, MacDonald has recorded fifteen albums with groups ranging from solo to duo, quartet to brass and ...

18
Album Review

Joe La Barbera Quintet: World Travelers

Read "World Travelers" reviewed by Jim Worsley


February is surely a bit early in the year to be talking about the best live recording released in 2023. Still, when you have your socks blown off, time of year is of little concern. Drumming icon Joe La Barbera is back, and in a big way. The pendulum has swung and La Barbera's Quintet was swinging like some hep cats in a small club back in the '50s. It has been some time since La Barbera's last recording. This ...

43
Album Review

Jim Self: My America 2: Destinations

Read "My America 2: Destinations" reviewed by Jack Bowers


Tuba maestro Jim Self's My America 2: Destinations is a successor of sorts to the album My America, recorded and released some twenty years before, also on Self's Basset Hound label. While personnel has inevitably changed (only trombonist Bill Booth returns from that earlier album), Self has employed the services of the same arranger, Kim Scharnberg—and thank goodness for that! Although Self and his eleven-member supporting cast acquit themselves well, it is Scharnberg's ingenious charts that make this engine run. ...

33
Album Review

Doug MacDonald: Overtones

Read "Overtones" reviewed by Jack Bowers


The term “all-star" is not one to be used lightly. Be that as it may, the appellation fits guitarist Doug MacDonald's Los Angeles-based octet as snugly as a glove; he and his colleagues are among the finest, most experienced and in-demand musicians on the West Coast. On Overtones, recorded in September 2021, the ensemble shows its mastery by gracefully skating through seven of MacDonald's upbeat themes and one standard, Ram Ramirez' ardent “Lover Man." Three of MacDonald's ...

4
Album Review

Doug MacDonald: Overtones

Read "Overtones" reviewed by Richard J Salvucci


Some of you may well remember Arthur Conley's 1967 chart-topper, “Sweet Soul Music." The lyrics began with the imperishable line, “Do you like good music?" That may resonate with listeners of a certain age, because Overtones: Doug MacDonald and the L.A. All Star Octet certainly qualifies as “good music." What is it about West Coast stuff inflected with Birth of the Cool? It somehow never gets old, even when a listener thinks, “Hmm. There may not be anything new here, ...

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Performance / Tour

Temple University’s Boyer College Of Music And Dance Presents A One-Night Only Classical-Jazz Concert April 16 At Jazz At Lincoln Center With Orchestral Premieres By Billy Childs And Bill Cunliffe

Temple University’s Boyer College Of Music And Dance Presents A One-Night Only Classical-Jazz Concert April 16 At Jazz At Lincoln Center With Orchestral Premieres  By Billy Childs And Bill Cunliffe

Source: AMT Public Relations

Featuring Performances by 100+ Student and Faculty Artists including Temple University’s Symphony Orchestra, Studio Orchestra, and Faculty Jazz Sextet: Terell Stafford, Dick Oatts, Bruce Barth, Tim Warfield, Mike Boone, and Justin Faulkner. In Celebration of TU’s Faculty Jazz Sextet’s Album Release Fly With the Wind The award-winning Temple University Jazz Band (TUJB) today announced its return to Jazz at Lincoln Center in a one-night only concert April 16th at 8:00 p.m. Hailed as one of today’s leading jazz student ensembles, ...

Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Bill Cunliffe

Jazz Musician of the Day: Bill Cunliffe

Source: Michael Ricci

All About Jazz is celebrating Bill Cunliffe's birthday today!

Jazz pianist, composer and Grammy Award-winning arranger Bill Cunliffe is known for his innovative and swinging recordings and compositions. Bill began his career as pianist and arranger with the Buddy Rich Big Band and worked with Frank Sinatra, Joe Henderson, Freddie Hubbard, Benny Golson and James Moody. He has since established himself as a solo artist and bandleader, with more than a dozen albums under his name. Bill currently plays with ...

Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Bill Cunliffe

Jazz Musician of the Day: Bill Cunliffe

Source: Michael Ricci

All About Jazz is celebrating Bill Cunliffe's birthday today!

Jazz pianist, composer and Grammy Award-winning arranger Bill Cunliffe is known for his innovative and swinging recordings and compositions. Bill began his career as pianist and arranger with the Buddy Rich Big Band and worked with Frank Sinatra, Joe Henderson, Freddie Hubbard, Benny Golson and James Moody. He has since established himself as a solo artist and bandleader, with more than a dozen albums under his name. Bill currently plays with ...

Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Bill Cunliffe

Jazz Musician of the Day: Bill Cunliffe

Source: Michael Ricci

All About Jazz is celebrating Bill Cunliffe's birthday today!

Jazz pianist, composer and Grammy Award-winning arranger Bill Cunliffe is known for his innovative and swinging recordings and compositions. Bill began his career as pianist and arranger with the Buddy Rich Big Band and worked with Frank Sinatra, Joe Henderson, Freddie Hubbard, Benny Golson and James Moody. He has since established himself as a solo artist and bandleader, with more than a dozen albums under his name... Read more.

Place our ...

Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Bill Cunliffe

Jazz Musician of the Day: Bill Cunliffe

Source: Michael Ricci

All About Jazz is celebrating Bill Cunliffe's birthday today!

Jazz pianist, composer and Grammy Award-winning arranger Bill Cunliffe is known for his innovative and swinging recordings and compositions. Bill began his career as pianist and arranger with the Buddy Rich Big Band and worked with Frank Sinatra, Joe Henderson, Freddie Hubbard, Benny Golson and James Moody. He has since established himself as a solo artist and bandleader, with more than a dozen albums under his name... Read more.

Place our ...

1

Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Bill Cunliffe

Jazz Musician of the Day: Bill Cunliffe

Source: Michael Ricci

All About Jazz is celebrating Bill Cunliffe's birthday today!

Jazz pianist, composer and Grammy Award-winning arranger Bill Cunliffe is known for his innovative and swinging recordings and compositions. Bill began his career as pianist and arranger with the Buddy Rich Big Band and worked with Frank Sinatra, Joe Henderson, Freddie Hubbard, Benny Golson and James Moody. He has since established himself as a solo artist and bandleader, with more than a dozen albums under his name... Read more.

Place our ...

1

Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Bill Cunliffe

Jazz Musician of the Day: Bill Cunliffe

Source: Michael Ricci

All About Jazz is celebrating Bill Cunliffe's birthday today!

Grammy nominated composer, arranger and jazz pianist Bill Cunliffe is gathering nationwide attention with his innovative and swinging recordings and compositions He first fell under the influence of jazz by studying at Duke University with the great pianist Mary Lou Williams. He received his masters from the Eastman School of Music, and won several Down Beat Awards for his big band and orchestral pieces... Read more.

Place our Musician of the ...

1

Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Bill Cunliffe

Jazz Musician of the Day: Bill Cunliffe

Source: Michael Ricci

All About Jazz is celebrating Bill Cunliffe's birthday today! Grammy nominated composer, arranger and jazz pianist Bill Cunliffe is gathering nationwide attention with his innovative and swinging recordings and compositions He first fell under the influence of jazz by studying at Duke University with the great pianist Mary Lou Williams. He received his masters from the Eastman School of Music, and won several Down Beat Awards for his big band and orchestral pieces... Read more. Place our Musician of the ...

Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Bill Cunliffe

Jazz Musician of the Day: Bill Cunliffe

Source: Michael Ricci

All About Jazz is celebrating Bill Cunliffe's birthday today! Grammy nominated composer, arranger and jazz pianist Bill Cunliffe is gathering nationwide attention with his innovative and swinging recordings and compositions He first fell under the influence of jazz by studying at Duke University with the great pianist Mary Lou Williams. He received his masters from the Eastman School of Music, and won several Down Beat Awards for his big band and orchestral pieces... Read more. Place our Musician of the ...

Recording

Bill Cunliffe: Abstract Truth 2

Bill Cunliffe: Abstract Truth 2

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers

Bill Cunliffe is a jazz pianist who teaches at California State Uuniversity at Fullerton. Originally from Massachusetts, Cunliffe attended Duke University and studied with Mary Lou Williams while she was there between 1977 and 1981. He toured with Buddy Rich, performed behind Frank Sinatra and worked with Woody Shaw, Joe Henderson, Freddie Hubbard, Benny Golson and James Moody. Cunliffe won the 1989 Thelonious Monk Jazz Piano Competition—winning the approval of tough judges, pianists Hal Galper, Ahmad Jamal and Barry Harris. ...

"Our audience loved the show; several folks thought that the chemistry of the trio was the best they've ever heard." Doug Moody, North Coast Brewing Company

"BIll Cunliffe (and his trio) shared his genius with us in Roswell, with some of the most brilliant piano playing we've heard!" Michael Francis, Executive Director, Roswell Jazz Festival

Photos

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Overtones

Self Produced
2023

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My America 2:...

Bassett Hound Records
2023

buy

World Travelers

Sam First Records
2023

buy

My Story In Song

Herron Song Records
2023

buy

Big Band Extravaganza

Self Produced
2023

buy

The Jazz All Stars...

Le Coq Records
2021

buy

Sleepers Wake

From: BACHanalia
By Bill Cunliffe

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