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Gerard D'Angelo

Jazz pianist and educator Gerard D’Angelo has worked and toured with many jazz icons such as Anat Cohen, Gary Smulyan, Steve LaSpina, Joey Baron, Vincent Herring, Nat Adderley, John Patitucci, Chris Potter, Dick Oats, Lou Marini, Victor Jones, Buddy Williams, Mark Murphy, Jeff Hirshfield, Victor Lewis, Elliot Zigmund, Jay Anderson, Hilary Cole, Lainie Kazan, George Anders, Bucky Pizzarelli, Red Rodney, Mel Lewis, Ira Sullivan, Zoot Sims, Ira Sullivan, Georgie Auld, the Glenn Miller Orchestra, and many more. His compositions have been recorded by Nat Adderley, Vincent Herring, Ted Shumate, and Larry Willis. And interestingly enough, he also worked with famed American actor and comedian Billy Crystal in 1974.

D’Angelo was born and raised on Long Island, New York. He studied with Charlie Banacos, Lennie Tristano, Sophia Rosoff, Jaki Byard, and John Kamitsuka at Five Towns College where he received his Bachelor of Music (BM) degree in Composition and Performance.

From 2004 to 2009, D'Angelo was musical director and pianist for Tony Award winning Broadway Theatre actor Brian Stokes Mitchell. During their time working together, D'Angelo performed alongside the National Symphony Orchestra and the San Diego Symphony, under the direction of Marvin Hamlisch, and with the Boston Pops, under the direction of Keith Lockhart. Most recently, D’Angelo’s arrangement was featured in the New York Philharmonic’s “A Broadway Christmas with Brian Stokes Mitchell” in December 2013.

D’Angelo currently teaches privately and as a core faculty member at The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music and Manhattan School of Music. His impressive teaching roster boasts many notable musicians (both privately and in the classroom environment) including Robert Glasper, Manuel Valera, Anat Cohen, Ambrose Akinmusire, Becca Stevens, Marcus Strickland, EJ Strickland, Fabian Almazan, and Christian Sands, among others.

D’Angelo’s teaching career reaches far beyond the conventional music scene. In 2011, he taught acclaimed American actor Ben Stiller for his lead role as a pianist in the Broadway revival of John Guare's “House of Blue Leaves”.

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11
Interview

Gerard D'Angelo: Who's Kidding Who?

Read "Gerard D'Angelo: Who's Kidding Who?" reviewed by DanMichael Reyes


The old adage about those who can do and those who can't teach doesn't fit nicely into any music tradition. If this fallacy were to hold true, then it would be best for music history books to write off Joseph Haydn for taking on pupils--Beethoven being one of the more famous ones. That old idiom penned by George Bernard Shaw doesn't hold up for traditional Western music, it doesn't hold up for other musical traditions where practitioners are required to ...

109
Album Review

Gerard D'Angelo Trio: Not What My Hands Have Done

Read "Not What My Hands Have Done" reviewed by Dave Nathan


This album recorded in May of 1993 has finally emerged from the Mapleshade label's vaults to be released eight years later in 2001. Why it took so long to see the light of day is a puzzler. Brooklyn born pianist Gerard D'Angelo has been on the jazz scene since 1988 when he teamed with Dave Meade and Frank Wagoner to form Primary Colors. He made an album or two with the group. But until this release, D'Angelo has been pretty ...

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Primary Instrument

Piano

Credentials/Background

Teaches privately and is a core faculty member at The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music and Manhattan School of Music.

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Keep Swingin'

Outside in Music
2024

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Not What My Hands...

Mapleshade Recordings
2002

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