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Rick Germanson

Rick Germanson has been a highly in-demand pianist on the New York City Jazz scene for nearly a decade now. Born May 29, 1972, Rick left his native Milwaukee, Wisconsin on the heels of winning the Grand Prize at The American Pianists' Association Jazz Piano Competition in 1996. His recent accomplishments have garnered much adoration from the media and led to him to being chosen as Best of New Talent in 2004 by All About Jazz.

The Rick Germanson Trio has performed at Smoke, Smalls, The Kitano and Fat Cat in N.Y.C., Blues Alley in D.C., The Indianapolis Jazz Festival and The Artists' Quarter in Minneapolis. Currently, the Rick Germanson Duo can be heard every Wednesday and Thursday evening at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse in Manhattan. As a solo pianist, Rick performed five nights a week during a year long residency at the acclaimed Four Seasons Restaurant in 2001, the only musician to ever do so.

Rick has two recordings out as a leader on Fresh Sound New Talent: "HEIGHTS" (FSNT 155, 2003) and "YOU TELL ME" (FSNT 217, 2005). Downbeat and JazzTimes magazines have given both recordings rave reviews. Rick has also been documented on over two dozen sessions as a sideman with many of the top musicians in jazz today.

Since 2001, Rick has been touring with the Cannonball Legacy Band; a group that features the original Cannonball Adderley Quintet legendary drummer Louis Hayes. For over a year now, Rick has also been holding down the piano chair for grammy nominated guitarist Pat Martino, touring the world paying tribute to Wes Montgomery.

In addition to the aforementioned, Rick has toured throughout the world, performing at many of the top jazz festivals, venues and concert halls with the following jazz artists: Elvin Jones' Jazz Machine; Regina Carter; Tom Harrell; Slide Hampton; Frank Morgan; Eric Alexander; Frank Lacy; Marlena Shaw; Kevin Mohagany; Donald Harrison; Brian Lynch; Jeremy Pelt; Jim Rotondi; Duane Eubanks; Charles McPherson, Charles Davis; Craig Handy; Cecil Payne; Lance Bryant; Gerald Cannon; Carolyn Leonhart; George Gee Orchestra and many others.

Rick is also an experienced educator, having given clinics and/or taught master classes at such institutes as New York University; The Julliard School; Jazz at Lincoln Center Outreach Program; New Jersey Performing Arts Center Jazz for Teens Program; The Jazz Standard Jazz Discovery Program and the McNally-Smith College of Music in St. Paul, MN.


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10
Album Review

Joe Chambers: Dance Kobina

Read "Dance Kobina" reviewed by Chris May


Drummer, composer and sometime vibraphonist Joe Chambers secured his place in jazz history going on six decades ago, though you might not guess it from listening to this album. In the mid-1960s, he was the drummer on a string of historic Blue Note albums recorded by Joe Henderson, Freddie Hubbard, Wayne Shorter and Bobby Hutcherson, among others, and also on a series of important albums Archie Shepp made for Impulse!, including the landmark Fire Music (1965). Given the ...

14
Album Review

Gemma Sherry: Music To Dream To

Read "Music To Dream To" reviewed by Jack Bowers


Vocalist Gemma Sherry's fourth album, Music to Dream To, recorded in July 2020, closely follows her third, Let's Get Serious, released less than a year earlier. This latest album expresses Sherry's love for the music of South America in general and Brazilian bossa nova in particular, with half a dozen engaging songs that sway to an irresistible bossa (or samba) beat. Two numbers—"The Telephone Song" and “Keep Talking"—are repeated ("acoustic version," the track listing points out), and even counting the ...

6
Album Review

Ian Hendrickson-Smith: The Lowdown

Read "The Lowdown" reviewed by Jack Bowers


American alto saxophonist Ian Hendrickson-Smith and Canadian tenor saxophonist Cory Weeds had been gigging together for almost two decades, mostly in Canada, but hadn't preserved any of their encounters on record until Hendrickson-Smith invited his companion to join him for a studio date in November 2019 at the renowned Rudy Van Gelder Studios in Englewood Cliffs, NJ. The album was planned as a tribute to drummer Lawrence Leathers who died in June of that year, age thirty-seven. Leathers' nickname was ...

5
Album Review

Gemma Sherry: Let's Get Serious

Read "Let's Get Serious" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey


A perfect response to challenge and change. In the parlance of the agrarian American South, Gemma Sherry is “makin' hay while the sun shines. Let's Get Serious is the singer's light-as-air, coquettishly coy wink at the COVID-19 pandemic—a wink as opposed to any other response, as Sherry is a true Lady. The title of her third full-length (in 2020 alone) recording is deliciously ironic as the tone is anything but. Globally, this release is best defined in the ...

8
Album Review

Ian Hendrickson-Smith: The Lowdown

Read "The Lowdown" reviewed by Pierre Giroux


Those who thought that the re-emergence of vinyl records might be a passing fad as a saleable medium in this era of CDs, streaming and MP3 downloads, are proving to be wrong. The latest sales figures produced by RIAA for the first half of this year show vinyl sales at $232 million compared to CD sales at $130 million. This is the the first time in 34 years that this happened.So with the wind in his sales (sic), ...

401
Album Review

Rick Germanson Trio: Off the Cuff

Read "Off the Cuff" reviewed by John Kelman


With so many mainstream piano trios flooding the market, it's increasingly difficult to separate the wheat from the chaff. It's easier when, in the instance of a Brad Mehldau, John Taylor or Enrico Pieranunzi, the artist's voice is so distinctive and approach so readily identifiable that there can be little doubt of its relevance. It becomes a greater challenge with pianists working this space who combine original composition with the Great American Songbook and, occasionally, more contemporary popular sources. Still, ...

110
Album Review

Rick Germanson: You Tell Me

Read "You Tell Me" reviewed by Brian P. Lonergan


Pianist Rick Germanson was named one of AAJ-NY's Best New Talents of 2004. If there were any questions as to why, You Tell Me should help answer them. Germanson's sophomore recording is a solid piano trio outing in which he peppers his original compositions with a few lesser-played standards, mixing ballads and a fine blues with the up-tempo tracks. As a pianist, Germanson uses traditional voicings and textures, but it's apparent that he's studied and absorbed that tradition ...

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93

Festival

The Second Annual "Remembering Bud" Festival in New York, September 2011

The Second Annual "Remembering Bud" Festival in New York, September 2011

Source: Seton Hawkins

On September 26-28, 2011, the Bar on Fifth at the Setai Hotel will host the Second Annual “Remembering Bud" Festival, presented by Earl John Powell to honor the musical legacy of his father, Bud Powell. This year, featured performers include Rick Germanson, Alex Hoffman, and Luke Celenza. “This year's lineup promises to be a fitting tribute to my father's musical legacy," notes Mr. Powell, the festival's artistic director. “Bud was one of the architects of the bebop idiom, a style ...

111

Performance / Tour

Rick Germanson Trio at Smalls Jazz Club, Thursday November 15th

Rick Germanson Trio at Smalls Jazz Club, Thursday November 15th

Source: All About Jazz

The Rick Germanson Trio has performed at Smoke, Smalls, The Kitano and Fat Cat in N.Y.C., Blues Alley in D.C., The Indianapolis Jazz Festival and The Artists' Quarter in Minneapolis. Currently, the RICK GERMANSON DUO can be heard every Wednesday and Thursday evening at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse in Manhattan. As a solo pianist, Rick performed five nights a week during a year long residency at the acclaimed Four Seasons Restaurant in 2001, the only musician to ever do so.

RICK ...

105

Performance / Tour

Tonight: Rick Germanson and Sarah Lynch at Kavehaz

Tonight: Rick Germanson and Sarah Lynch at Kavehaz

Source: All About Jazz

New York City-based vocalist Sarah Lynch will perform with Rick Germanson on piano at the 9pm set tonight, August 8th, at Kavehaz Jazz Café (37 West 26th Street between Broadway and Sixth Avenue).

Rick Germanson has been highly in demand as a pianist on the New York City jazz scene for several years now. Rick left his native Milwaukee, Wisconsin on the heels of winning the Grand Prize at The American Pianists’ Association Jazz Piano Competition in 1996. His recent ...

179

Performance / Tour

Sarah Lynch and Rick Germanson at Kavehaz on Monday

Sarah Lynch and Rick Germanson at Kavehaz on Monday

Source: All About Jazz

New York City-based vocalist Sarah Lynch will perform with Rick Germanson on piano, this Monday, August 8th, at the 9pm set at Kavehaz Jazz Café (37 West 26th Street between Broadway and Sixth Avenue).

Rick Germanson has been highly in demand as a pianist on the New York City jazz scene for several years now. Rick left his native Milwaukee, Wisconsin on the heels of winning the Grand Prize at The American Pianists’ Association Jazz Piano Competition in 1996. His ...

120

Performance / Tour

Sarah Lynch and Rick Germanson at Kavehaz Jazz Café Monday

Sarah Lynch and Rick Germanson at Kavehaz Jazz Café Monday

Source: All About Jazz

New York City-based vocalist Sarah Lynch will mix it up with Rick Germanson on piano, this Monday, August 8th, at the 9pm set at Kavehaz Jazz Café (37 West 26th Street between Broadway and Sixth Avenue). When Phil Springer (composer, “Santa Baby”) first heard Sarah Lynch sing, he likened her vocal quality to that of a trombone; Springer was the first to call her “a young Peggy Lee.” Since then, with Springer on piano, she has ...

134

Performance / Tour

Sarah Lynch and Rick Germanson at Kavehaz

Sarah Lynch and Rick Germanson at Kavehaz

Source: All About Jazz

New York City-based vocalist Sarah Lynch, who often appears at 169 Bar with her trio, will this Monday, August 8th, sing a duo event with Rick Germanson on piano, at the 9pm set at Kavehaz (37 West 26th Street between Broadway and Sixth Avenue). When Phil Springer (composer, “Santa Baby”) first heard Sarah Lynch sing, he likened her vocal quality to that of a trombone; Springer was the first to call her “a young Peggy Lee.” ...

Photos

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Dance Kobina

Blue Note Records
2022

buy

Music To Dream To

Tunley Records
2021

buy

The Lowdown

Cellar Live
2020

buy

Let's Get Serious

Tunley Records
2020

buy

Naptown Legacy

Rubin Museum of Art
2013

buy

Off the Cuff

Unknown label
2009

buy

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