Art Lillard is a musician with many gifts. In each of his musical roles - drummer, composer, arranger, bandleader, and educator - he shares with us his unique and refreshing contribution to our musical culture.
He has been leading his own jazz big band, Art Lillard's Heavenly Big Band, since 1987, playing in many New York area nightclubs and concert spaces. In 1995 he produced “First Flight,” a recording of this 16-piece band with vocals, featuring ten of his own compositions. The band’s first compact disc recording, “Reasons to be Thankful,” another vibrant compilation of originals, was released on the Summit Records label in 2006; a new recording is due to be released soon. The band's repertoire consists of standards and original compositions, with styles including bebop, Latin jazz, blues, and numbers which defy category altogether. Whatever the style, the music swings. The Heavenly Band enjoys a special relationship with Brooklyn’s Spoke the Hub Dancing, regularly providing live dance music for its community events.
A professional drummer since 1970, Art has had a rich performing career, leading and co-leading several smaller jazz ensembles, and as a sideman in groups of various musical genres, including jazz, country & western, cabaret, rock, and show music. He has recorded with swing/blues band Groovalaya (“Groovalaya '92”), with vocalist Cleve Douglass (“Duke Ellington Boulevard”), and with flutist Jan Leder (“Passage to Freedom” on Monad Records and “Nonchalant” on A-Records). He performed at the Greenwich Village jazz Festival in 1983 with the Amy Duncan Trio (at the Blue Note), at Finland's Pori Jazz Festival in 1993 with the New York All-Stars, and at the Hunter Mountain Festival with Slicker, a country & western group, in 1993, '94 and '95. During the 1990's he also played at the Hudson Riverfest in Yonkers with his Heavenly Big Band, with the Dixieland band the 9th Street Stompers, and several times with the Jan Leder Quartet. In 1998, Art's seven-piece swing band, Blue Heaven, appeared on international television, performing original compositions on two episodes of CBS's “Guiding Light” series.
Art's theater background includes productions by the Amas Repertory Theater under the leadership of the late Rosetta Lenoire and several years with the Theater for the New City. In 1992 and '94 Art toured Europe with the Broadway show “Ain't Misbehavin'”, including performances at the Umbria Jazz Festival in Italy and the Pori Festival in Finland, and in 1995, '96, '98, 2008, and 2010 he toured Europe and South America with an original production of “Phantom of the Opera.”
Art has written hundreds of compositions in a wide range of musical genres. Regularly commissioned by performers, producers and other composers to arrange music for vocalists and instrumental groups, his works have been recorded on compact disc by vibraphonist Gust Tsilis (“Sequestered Days” on Enja Records), vocalist Larry Browne (“Larry Browne Sings Swing Bean”), saxophonist Claire Daly (“Heaven Help Us All” on Daly Bread Records), flutist Jan Leder (as noted above), the band Groovalaya (as noted above), and the jazz group led by Pere Soto and David Valdez (“Oasis” on Diatic Records). Lillard also wrote and scored the soundtrack for a film, “The Wannabees.” Some of his compositions can be heard on episodes of the MTV productions, “Jackass” and “Cat House,” and of HBO’s “True Blood,” as well as in an online commercial for Mercedes Benz.
Over the years Art has played professionally with such notables as Harry Allen, Billy Bang, Tom Bergeron, Don Braden, Cameron Brown, Bud Burridge, Jaki Byard, Tony Castellano, Thomas Chapin, Gilly Coggins, Joe Cohn, Junior Cook, Jay Corree, Bill Crow, Claire Daly, Kenny Davern, Jon Davis, Santi Debriano, Rick Dellaratta and Jazz for Peace, Joe Diorio, Dave Douglas, Billy Drewes, Dominique Eade, Mark Feldman, Bobby Forrester, Joel Forrester, Keith Ganz, George Garzone, Miles Griffith, Eric Gunnison,Ratzo B. Harris, John Hart, John Hicks, Patience Higgins, Jimmy Hill, Greg Hopkins, Paul Horn, Jack Jeffers, Dave Kikoski, Frank Kimbrough, Nancy King, Mark Ledford, Mike Longo, John Marshall, Cecil McBee, Donnie McCaslin, George Mesterhazy, Dom Minasi, Charles Moffett, Wilbur Morris, Bob Mover, Zaid Nasser, Wayne Naus, Arturo O'Farrill, Sasha Perry, Bob Porcelli, Emily Remler, Perry Robinson, Ari Roland, Saul Rubin, Harvey S, Coy Shockley, Jack Six, Mauricio Smith, Sean Smith, Warren Smith, James Spaulding, Michael Jefry Stevens, Stan Strickland, Carol Sudhalter, Ira Sullivan, Helen Sung, Buddy Terry, Bob Thoesen Big Band, James Weidman, Mark Whitecage, Deanna Witkowski, and Anthony Wonsey.
A native of Florida, where his musical studies began, Lillard relocated to Boston to study at the Berklee College of Music. There he earned merit scholarships, a Faculty Association Award for Performance, and, in 1981, his bachelor's degree in jazz composition and arranging. In addition, he studied privately with Dean Anderson, percussionist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra; drummer Joe Hunt; jazz educator/composer Karl Berger; classical composer/conductor Michael Rosenzweig; Brazilian percussionist Portinho; the late Tom Boras of New York University's Jazz Department; jazz composer/pianist Kenny Werner; acclaimed big-band leaders/composers Maria Schneider, Mike Holober, and Jim McNeely; and, for harmony and counterpoint, respected music educator Paul Caputo.
Art is also a respected teacher and mentor of many years to his own students. He has taught privately, at several community music schools, and at Long Island University.
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