Ben Waltzer

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Ben Waltzer (* 1971 ) is an American modern jazz musician ( piano ) .

Live and act

Waltzer, who is from Lansing, Michigan , attended the Interlochen Arts Academy . He then enrolled for a double degree at the New England Conservatory of Music , where he had lessons from Geri Allen , Bevan Manson and Jimmy Giuffre ; he completed another degree at Tufts University . In 1991 he moved to Harvard University to study American history and literature. While at Harvard, he wrote a thesis on the jazz historian, essayist and novelist Albert Murray . He graduated with honors in 1993 and received the Harvard Braverman Award for outstanding artistic achievement.

Waltzer then moved to New York to devote himself to jazz and soon began working with musicians such as Bill McHenry , Reid Anderson , Jorge Rossy , Leon Parker , Chris Lightcap and Gerald Cleaver . In 1996 he recorded his debut album For Good in a trio with Rossy and Anderson for the record label Fresh Sound New Talent . He then lived in Barcelona for a while to play and teach jazz. There he recorded Jazz is Where You Find It: Live at Pipa Club with Bill McHenry, bassist Alexis Cuadrado and drummer Jo Krause. In 2000, the album In Metropolitan Motion (Fresh Sound) followed, which received honorable mention in All About Jazz and JazzTimes .

Waltzer was also the musical director of Isaac Mizrahi's weekly television program on the Oxygen Network , which also appeared on a regular basis. On the show, he starred with Jennifer Holiday, Huey Lewis , Valerie Harper , Lauren Ambrose , Dominic Chianese , Christine Ebersole , Bebe Neuwirth , Kristin Chenoweth and Lorraine Hunt-Lieberson . He also toured with the singer Madeleine Peyroux . He has also performed in New York with the Gregg August Group, the Charles Owens Quartet and his trio of Matt Penman and Eric McPherson . In the field of jazz, according to Tom Lord , he was involved in eight recording sessions between 1996 and 2019, including with Georgina Weinstein.

Waltzer is a visiting lecturer in jazz performance at Columbia University , a lecturer at Maine Jazz Camp, and has written on jazz for The New York Times , JAZZIZ, the Newark Star Ledger, and other publications. In 2004 he received the Chamber Music America New Works Grant and the CMA / ASCAP Award for Jazz Ensemble. Since 2013 he has been director of the University of Chicago Careers in Journalism, Arts, and Media program at the University of Chicago . He lives in Brooklyn with his family.

Discographic notes

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Ben Waltzer, piano. Smalls, January 1, 2020, accessed January 11, 2020 .
  2. ↑ Tom Lord : The Jazz Discography (online, accessed January 12, 2020)
  3. ^ Musicians Mine for Jazz Gems and Strike New Chords. In: The Chicago Maroon. May 5, 2017, accessed January 12, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Waltzer, Ben
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American jazz musician (piano)
DATE OF BIRTH 1971