Grammy Award-winning pianist Bill Charlap, director of jazz studies at William Paterson University, will perform on campus as part of the University’s Midday Artists Series on Thursday, February 15. The concert begins at 12:30 p.m. in the Shea Center for Performing Arts; admission is free.
Considered one of the world’s premiere jazz pianists, Charlap has performed and recorded with many leading artists of our time, including Phil Woods, Gerry Mulligan, Tony Bennett, Barbra Streisand, and Wynton Marsalis, among many others. He is acclaimed for his interpretations of American popular songs, and has recorded albums featuring the music of Hoagy Carmichael, Leonard Bernstein, George Gershwin, Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, Richard Rodgers and Duke Ellington. In 1997, he formed his trio with bassist Peter Washington and drummer Kenny Washington, now recognized as one of the leading groups in jazz.
The album, Tony Bennett & Bill Charlap, The Silver Lining: The Songs of Jerome Kern (Columbia) won the 2015 Grammy Award for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album. It features Tony Bennett in collaboration with the Bill Charlap Trio and in duo piano performances with renowned jazz pianist Renee Rosnes, who is Charlap’s wife and with whom he often collaborates in a duo piano setting.
The Bill Charlap Trio has received three Grammy nominations: for Somewhere: The Songs of Leonard Bernstein, for The Bill Charlap Trio: Live at the Village Vanguard (Blue Note), and for The Bill Charlap Trio: Uptown Downtown (Impulse!).
Charlap tours all over the world, and his annual New York engagements include appearances at Jazz at Lincoln Center and the Village Vanguard. Named director of jazz studies at William Paterson in 2015, Charlap is artistic director of New York City’s Jazz in July Festival at the 92NY and has produced concerts for Jazz at Lincoln Center, New Jersey Performing Arts Center, Chicago Symphony Center, and the Hollywood Bowl.
Born in New York City, Charlap began playing the piano at age three. His father was Broadway composer Moose Charlap, whose credits include Peter Pan, and his mother is singer Sandy Stewart, who toured with Benny Goodman, was a regular on the Perry Como show, and earned a 1963 Grammy nomination for her recording of “My Coloring Book." In 2005, Charlap and Stewart released the acclaimed CD, Love Is Here to Stay (Blue Note)
For additional information, call the Shea Center for Performing Arts Box Office at 973-720-2371 or visit wp-presents.org.
William Paterson University
300 Pompton Road
Wayne, New Jersey 07470
973-720-2000
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