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The George Maurer Jazz Group

Biography

George Maurer credits his parents’ act of rescuing an old upright piano from a barn as his earliest intimate experience with a piano. The instrument had been misused to seduce chickens and cows. Thus the attraction. That piano is now being restored by George Maurer, “Minnesota’s premiere jazz pianist” (KARE-11 TV, Minneapolis). “Maurer has a feel for his instrument that makes for an immediate emotional response...” (Minneapolis Star Tribune).

George Maurer has performed across the USA as a solo performer with performances for the United Nations, Congress, and the Clinton White House to Orchestra Hall in Minneapolis, MN, his hometown. His gentle humor and storytelling abilities, woven with original music, have garnered him several nominations for “Jazz Entertainer of the Year” nationwide on college campuses.

When George isn’t performing solo, he arranges for and music directs the George Maurer Jazz Group, a “rambunctious” (The City Pages/Minneapolis), irreverent gathering of nine jazz musicians, “one of Central Minnesota’s sparkling contributions to the arts.” (Dale Connelly/Jim Ed Poole/ MPR’s The Morning Program).

These “genre-bending eclectites” (Jazz 88 FM), are known for their "irreverent style and sly musical humor" (the Dakota Bar & Grill, Minneapolis). They hail from various locales from the outer backwashes of Central Minnesota, and their musical style is touted as “jazz beyond suburbia…..then way out.” (Leigh Kamman, The Jazz Image, MPR). They bend tradition whenever they can, even as live performers, and are featured regularly on Minneapolis’ KARE-11 TV’s Saturday Morning Program, and MPR’s Morning Program. See www.gmjazz.com.

He’s compiled a discography of 15 innovative solo piano and jazz cds under his independent record label, Pine Curtain Records , and has scored original orchestral music for numerous theater productions, audio books, ballet companies, and documentary productions, including original string scores for Bobby Vee’s Up North December and for several rock groups in the Twin Cities.

In addition to performing since 2003 with Bobby Vee and the Vees and numerous legends of rock and roll, from Dick Clark to the Chiffons, Fabian to The Crickets, Maurer has also music directed and performed with Eric Clapton at the House of Blues, Los Angeles. He also performs with the group, Collective Unconscious (www.collectiveunconscious.net), including on their recent performances re-creating the Beatles’ Abbey Road, and the Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds masterpieces.

George would like to credit his piano-pounding grandfather, George John Maurer, who came to the US from Barmouth, Wales, for inspiring him to approach his instrument with gentle humor. George will be traveling throughout Europe in January 2006 to complete a 6 song cycle based on the poetry of the German poet, Rainer Maria Rilke.