Home » Jazz Musicians » Randy Villars

Randy Villars

Randy villars - pianist, saxophonist, composer/producer at 20 years of age, randy was blessed with the opportunity of playing piano for legendary be-bop saxophonist sonny stitt, along with future bass legend dave carpenter and drummer steve barnes at gilly's jazz club in dayton ohio. Thus began a string of such appearances with jazz giants eddie harris, james moody, john scofield, steve turre, fred hersch, clark terry, tim hagans, conrad herwig, bernard purdy, othello molineaux, mark murphy, norris turney, mike davis, and others.

While a student and graduate teaching associate at the ohio state university, randy played and/or studied with maynard ferguson, ramsey lewis, dave samuels, andrew white, hank marr, john fedchock, jim rupp, and dick shearer.

Other brushes with great players: Bob berg, sonny rollins, bill mays, hal galper, gordie brisker, dave douglas, judy silvano, andreas weidenmueller, mark feldman, cal collins and others.

Randy worked as a session musician and found himself in demand as a pianist, synth player, saxophonist, composer/arranger and commercial music producer. In addition, he picked up some credits playing on album projects for cbs records, polygram and others.

While working in cincinnati, chicago and nashville, randy composed and/or produced original music for clients such as mcdonald's, gulf and western, kodak, and many others. He composed original scores for time-life films, broadcast on the a & e television network.

He has played pit orchestra keyboards for the touring broadway musicals victor, victoria, 42nd street, annie, and it's a wonderful life.

Randy has three internationally distributed cd projects on the leviathan and positive music records labels to his credit. Each of the cds received positive reviews and airplay on 50 plus stations. Airplay on time-warner music choice and other media.

He studied with jazz greats kenny werner and joe lovano at the banff center for the arts and is currently at work on a new piano trio cd. Featuring originals and re-worked standards, the project called “melodies” is scheduled for completion in 2012.

The current highlight for randy is the bootsy collins world tour. Randy is playing alto saxophone in bootsy's new funk u-nity band concertizing throughout the united states, europe, japan, australia, russia, and brazil.

Randy gives the deepest thanks and credit to his teachers for providing him with a solid and multifarious musical foundation upon which to build as an instrumentalist and composer: Classical piano teachers louise whyte, william walters and robert wynne; classical clarinet teachers arthur eresman, john kemp, and richard york; symphonic band directors clark haines and richard butts; symphonic band and jazz ensemble director wes haines; jazz ensemble directors ian polster and and tom battenberg; orchestral conductors charles wendelken-wilson, donald detriech and joseph ferrito; songwriting coaches molly- ann leiken and the legendary sammy cahn; jazz gurus kenny werner, joe lovano, dave pietro, michael kanan, aaron goldberg, bill cunliffe, steve barnes, dave carpenter, and tom ranier.

Read more

Tags

Primary Instrument

Saxophone

Location

Dayton

Willing to teach

Advanced only

Credentials/Background

Founder of The Dayton Jazz Institute - a private lesson studio specializing in teaching the art of jazz improvisation. Students of all ages accepted. Lessons in jazz harmony and theory as applied to all instruments. Rate: $50/hour. Lessons also available over the telephone. Call 513-680-8455 to arrange scheduling.

Clinic/Workshop Information

Registered Conn-Selmer Artist. Endorser for Jody Jazz Woodwind Mouthpieces. Available for clinics at the secondary education and college level

Read more

Photos

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

The Poor Side of Town

Brittney Records
2013

buy

Vagabond

Andara
2012

buy

It's Our Time

Studio G
2012

buy

The FUNK Capitol of...

Provogue Records
2011

buy

Denim Road

Denim Road/Denim Road
2008

buy

Second Light

Nightcast Records
2008

buy

Videos

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories, our special offers, and upcoming jazz events near you.