piano jazz

Born Montgomery Bernard Alexander on June 6, 1944 in Kingston, Jamaica, Monty Alexander is a jazz pianist whose style is influenced by strong Caribbean and swing feeling. A musician of a great versatility, this piano virtuoso has covered wide range of musical genres in his career from jazz to reggae, playing with either small bands or an orchestra. "My goal is to uplift", says Alexander. “The piano, to me, is a vehicle for connecting to other human beings. I'm very open to all forms of music. I'm not a bebop musician, I'm not a calypso musician, I'm not a reggae musician.

Read more about Monty Alexander on Last.fm.

Andrew McCormack was born in Roehampton, United Kingdom in 1978. He began learning the piano at the age of thirteen and, at sixteen, commenced studies at Pimlico School, where he had jazz lessons with Andrea Vicari, in their specialist music department. In 1996 Andrew received a scholarship to study at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, where he had both classical piano lessons, with Andrew Ball and Paul Roberts, as well as studying jazz piano with Simon Purcell. He also began composition lessons with Matthew King whilst he was in his final year.

Fred Hersch (born October 21, 1955 in Cincinnati, Ohio) is a contemporary American jazz pianist who has become a consistent and highly demanded performer on the international jazz scene. Hersch began playing piano at a very young age and graduated from the prestigious New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. His teachers included Sophia Rosoff. He moved to New York City in the late 1970s where he soon found a place playing with notable artists such as Stan Getz, Joe Henderson, Lee Konitz, and Charlie Haden.

Livio Minafra was born in 1982 in the land of Bari. At the age of 10, he began studying piano with Professor Francesco de Santis and in October 2004 he finally graduated from the