Interview with pianist and living legend Bill Charlap discussing his career in music and approach to the instrument. Interviewer: Jazz Is: NOW! Curatorial Fellow, Luther S. Allison
This program is made possible with funding from the New York Community Trust Van Lier Fellowship
About Luther Allison
Hailing from Charlotte, North Carolina Luther Allison is a multi-instrumentalist specializing in both piano and drum set. In 2017 Allison earned his Bachelors of Music in Studio Music & Jazz from The University of Tennessee and his Masters of Music in Jazz Studies from Michigan State University in 2019. Allison is a Grammy Award Winning Pianist with Samara Joy on her 2023 release “Tight.” He has recorded as a “sideman” on numerous projects including including Diego Rivera’s Connections (piano), Michael Dease’s Reaching Out (piano), Dease’s Give It All You Got(drums), Dease’s Never More Here (piano), and Markus Howell’s Get Right (drums). Allison has performed nationally and internationally alongside the likes of Rodney Whitaker, Jazzmeia Horn, The Baylor Project, Samara Joy, Gregory Tardy, Ulysses Owens Jr. and many more.
About Bill Charlap
Grammy award winning pianist Bill Charlap has performed with many of the leading artists of our time, from Wynton Marsalis and Tony Bennett to Phil Woods and Ron Carter. He is acclaimed for his interpretations of the American Popular Songbook and has recorded albums featuring the music of Hoagy Carmichael, Leonard Bernstein, George Gershwin, Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, Richard Rodgers and Duke Ellington.
Since 1997, he has led the Bill Charlap Trio with bassist Peter Washington and drummer Kenny Washington, recognized as one of the leading groups in jazz. The trio earned Grammy nominations for Uptown Downtown (Impulse!/Verve), Somewhere: The Songs of Leonard Bernstein (Blue Note) and The Bill Charlap Trio: Live at the Village Vanguard (Blue Note). Their 2016 recording, Notes from New York (Impulse!/Verve) earned a five-star review in Downbeat, which hailed it as “a masterclass in class.”
Mr. Charlap and his wife, renowned jazz pianist and composer, Renee Rosnes frequently perform two piano concerts. Of their recording, Double Portrait (Blue Note), Downbeat wrote: “The counterpoint and compatibilities are so perfectly balanced, the selections and arrangements so handsome, that ‘Double Portrait’ is a prize.”
About the Jazz Is: Now Curatorial Fellowships
Since its founding, the National Jazz Museum in Harlem has provided young artists with opportunities to perform as well as curate concerts and events. NJMH Artistic Director Christian McBride started curating performances and presentations at the Museum in 2006, and Artistic Director Jon Batiste began in 2010 while a student at Juilliard. The excitement and energy those events brought to our community inform our current programming and creative vision. As Christian and Jon became globally recognized jazz ambassadors, the Museum continued to provide emerging artists with career-enhancing opportunities to curate events at the Museum. In 2022, we formalized this initiative as theJazz Is: Now Curatorial Fellowships, with generous funding from the New York Community Trust’s Edward and Sally Van Lier Fellowship Program. Our third cohort of Jazz Is: Now Curatorial Fellows includes bassist Liany Mateo and pianist Luther Allison.
Liany and Luther will be performing and curating a variety of events at the National Jazz Museum in Harlem throughout 2024.
National Jazz Museum in Harlem
We are your go-to venue for off-site meetings, receptions, film screenings, workshops, networking events, socials and more. Located in the heart of Central Harlem’s thriving culinary and entertainment district, The National Jazz Museum in Harlem is the perfect place to hold your next gathering.