Alva Nelson

Alva Nelson

Playing a pianist in hip current TV shows, “Gossip Girls” or “Lipstick Jungle”, or leading his own jazz trio, engaging in a musical conversation with his band mates�”and his audience, is what Alva Nelson does. Pianist and composer Alva Nelson has played the Montreux Jazz Festival, North Sea Festival and led his own group at NYC’s Blue Note. He has performed with Lightnin’ Hopkins, Kirk Whalum, David “Fathead” Newman, Arnett Cobb, Phyllis Hyman, Regina Belle, and Eddie Harris�”to name just a few. Nelson has traveled the globe accompanying the Boys’ Choir of Harlem, received multiple honors (from the NEA, IAJE and others) and was awarded three Meet the Composer commissions (most recently for a performance of his multidiscipline African ensemble at the Lincoln Center Out of Doors Festival.) However, despite the accolades, global experience, and wide-ranging background, Alva Nelson is most at home when he is seated at the piano.

From the beginning music had a strong spiritual pull on Nelson. The son of a Pentecostal minister, he was exposed to music at an early age�”and his dad had a profound impact: “Man, he would be in the pulpit preaching, going nuts, suddenly he’d rush back into his study, & rush back out with his bass fiddle! If the church musician didn’t show up he’d go over to the piano and play and preach,” Nelson recalls. As a youth, Nelson avoided playing in church. Instead, Nelson opted for classical music, studying vociferously, building his technique. Then, he began checking out his father’s record collection�”and that was it. Nelson was hooked, and never looked back.

Pursuing jazz seriously, Nelson was mentored by his high school teacher, the renowned Conrad O. Johnson at Houston’s Kashmere High School. Here, he studied piano & saxophone, traveling and recording with the school’s notorious Kashmere Stage Band (voted “Best High School Jazz Band in the Nation” in 1972.) Set on a career in music, Nelson enrolled in Sam Houston State University, where he won a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz/Study Fellowship to study with saxophonist Billy Harper in New York City. (He’d receive a second NEA Fellowship to study in LA with flautist Hubert Laws several years later.) Nelson went onto graduate studies at Texas Southern University, where he won the “Outstanding Pianist Award” at the Notre Dame Intercollegiate Jazz Festival.

In New York little more than a year, Nelson received his first of three “Meet the Composer” Grants. He debuted his original compositions at the Blue Note, won 1st Place in the Composers’ Guild Composition Contest with “Synonymous Dichotomy” (’83); “Buster’s Bounce” (’85) and “Tranquil Jubilation (’88.) He joined the Boy’s Choir of Harlem, where he toured Europe and Japan. And for nearly seven years he arranged and orchestrated music for the choir’s performances, including at Carnegie Hall & Alice Tully Hall with Wynton Marsalis and Kathleen Battle; with Hubert Laws and the St. Luke’s Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic with Zubin Mehta. He arranged “Amazing Grace” for the Boys’ Choir of Harlem, which was featured on Bill Moyer’s’ PBS Special, “Amazing Grace.” Yet through it all, Nelson was never hesitant to adopt a more commercial vibe, becoming Musical Director for Ms. Loretta Devine and appearing in Alisha’s “Baby Talk” music video.

Nelson’s reputation only continued to grow. He formed the Pyramyd Dance Theatre, dedicated to exploring the music and dance of West Africa. He was selected as a semifinalist in the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition, and was awarded his third grant from “Meet the Composer,” in support of his Afrykhan Knackshun Orchestra, presenting his “West Afrykhan Sweet” at the Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors Festival.

Always open to new experiences, Nelson has dabbled in the acting profession, appearing as an extra in feature films including Lucky Stiff, Jungle Fever, Boomerang, Light Sleeper, and the Whitney Houston music video, “My Name is Not Susan.” Yet, Nelson never let acting interfere with music, as he went onto play and perform with Martha Wash, The Chantells, Chuck Jackson, & Fred Ho & the Afro-Asian Music Ensemble. Nelson has been featured on BET’s Jazz Discovery.

Along the way, Nelson has worked in 20+ countries�”and soaked up a lot along the way. Nelson is “fiercely nationalistic” when it comes to music. He states, “I appreciate and support all American art forms. I have chosen to devote all my energies to the promotion of all genres of American music.” To that end, he has refocused himself to developing Pyramyd and Afrykhan Khaneckshun Orchestra, exploring not only what it means to be American, but also African-American.

Alva has been a musical director and/or arranger for theater companies nationwide; for productions including “Ain’t Misbehavin’”, “Sam Cooke, Forever Mr. Soul,” “A Brief History of White Music” and “…Love, Langston” across the country. He was the musical director for the national tour of “Black Broadway”; assistant musical director for the “If This Hat Could Talk” tour, and musical director for the upcoming “Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill”, starring Suzzanne Douglas, at the Bickford Theatre in Morristown, NJ.

But more than anything, Nelson is proud of his new CD, Soul Eyes, on his own Kilosi Keys Music Label. Over the years, after countless performances with practically every type of ensemble, music is still an extremely powerful spiritual force in Nelson’s life. “I am honored in that I feel as though I was chosen by this force to share love, spread joy, inspire hope, and motivate faith with all who are open to my conversation.” And from everything we’ve heard so far, there will certainly be quite a few people who will want to engage in this conversation.

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