Review of the first trio album that the lauded bassist, drummer, and pianist have made together

The editors of JAZZIZ have the good fortune of being able to listen to new music before it’s officially released in stores and streaming platforms. And because we’re listening to new tunes all day every day, we know just what to recommend when new albums are released every Friday. That’s why, each Monday, we’ll be bringing you a roundup of our 10 favorite songs from the weekend courtesy of our Editors’ Choice playlists, which will feature our favorite new albums, singles and other tunes that may have flown under your radar.

It’s almost impossible to think up a stronger trio than the one Grammy winning pianist composer Bill Cunliffe has put together for this album. Always lyrical and melodic with a perfect sense of swing, he brings together two of the finest in bassist John Patitucci and drummer Vinnie Colaiuta, both who grew up together, and you can hear the benefits of a long standing symbiotic relationship. All three of these gents have resumes that are encyclopedic, so to get them all together is a real treat-don’t expect any gigs, but if there is one, GO!

Again new label Le Coq Records takes a page out of the fabled Blue Note history, creating an in-the-moment recording session in just one day amongst three of its core musicians, three of the biggest names in jazz. Pianist Bill Cunliffe, bassist John Patitucci, and drummer Vinnie Colaiuta. If you’ve been following, label founder/producer Piero Pata just established his label last month, beginning with a release by The Le Coq All Stars followed by vocal album from his wife, Andy James (Tu Amor) where these three were prominently featured in the respective rhythm sections. During these various recording sessions at Capitol Studios, Pata had the notion of having the three do a spontaneous recording session. As stated, they had played together on sessions before, both for Le Coq and previously, but never together as a trio.

A SELF-INDULGENT EXERCISE IN NOSTALGIA?

This digging up of the great shows I saw in the last year of it, 2019?

Maybe. Nostalgia for the long-ago world of a year ago, when we were still able to hear live music and mostly took that for granted?

Well, who could have known? Live music has been around for millenia. Hmmm — I wonder if Caruso stopped performing during the great flu pandemic? He died in 1921, so, probably. Before that, black plague and so on, they didn’t know much about disease transmission so kept going to the theater and gathering for wandering minstrels, and so, died happy with a song in their hearts.

We’re modern and resourceful, so bands perform with each player six feet from the others, but still, not live, usually. And streamed. So it’s kind of like a video.

The editors of JAZZIZ have the good fortune of being able to listen to new music before it’s officially released in stores and streaming platforms. And because we’re listening to new tunes all day every day, we know just what to recommend when new albums are released every Friday. That’s why, each Monday, we’ll be bringing you a roundup of our favorite songs from the weekend courtesy of our Editors’ Choice playlists, which will feature our favorite new albums, singles and other tunes that may have flown under your radar. This is music recommendation the old-fashioned way: No algorithms, no computer profiles. Just jazz fans connecting with other jazz fans through the music we love.

Our Editors’ Choice playlist for the week of January 4 features music from a new supergroup called The Le Coq Jazz All-Stars (featuring John Patitucci, Bill Cunlife, Vinnie Colaiuta, Andy James, Alex Acuña and more), as well as hot-off-the-press tunes from Miguel Zenón and Luis Perdomo, the 8-bit Big Band and others! Listen via the player below and follow our playlists on Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer and Qobuz.

The Cincinnati Jazz Hall of Fame 2020 induction has been postponed until May or June, but the new class is an impressive lineup of local jazz legends. One of those inductees, pianist and Grammy-winning arranger Bill Cunliffe, joins Ron Esposito for a conversation about his music and career.

Since winning the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Piano Award in 1989, Los Angeles-based pianist-composer-arranger Bill Cunliffe has performed and recorded prolifically. Imaginacion features a collection of his eclectic Latin/Caribbean-style arrangements of originals (mostly his) and a few standards.

The focus is on Cunliffe as an arranger, since he does not solo on half the tracks. When he does play, however, he displays his usual sparkling inventiveness. But he doesn’t need to improvise on every tune thanks to such superb cohorts as tenorist/flutist Bob Sheppard, trumpeter Bobby Shew and trombonist Arturo Velasco. Cunliffe’s engaging charts are scored for a smallish ensemble that also includes a second trumpet and trombone and a rhythm section augmented by two percussionists.

We spend an hour with Grammy Award winning pianist, composer & arranger Bill Cunliffe. At the time of this program (1994) Bill Cunliffe’s career as a serious jazz musician was beginning to pay dividends. His studies with the great Mary Lou Williams, tours with Buddy Rich, Frank Sinatra, Joe Henderson, Freddie Hubbard and Joshua Redman & his winning of the 1989 Thelonious Monk Piano Competition all helped in making him a much sought after artist.

We visit this Los Angeles-based musician and sample his 1993 Discovery Records release, A Rare Connection. The CD includes 7 Cunliffe originals & utilizes some of L.A.'s top musicians (Bob Sheppard on tenor and bass clarinet, trumpeter Clay Jenkins, trombonist Bruce Paulson, bassist Dave Carpenter, drummer Peter Erskine, and percussionist Kurt Rasmussen).

The economy and the state of the nation wax and wane, but through it all, Americans still find meaning in the December holidays. That includes reconnecting with our favorite music and looking for new musical expressions of Christmas and Hanukkah. For recording artists, the Holy Grail is a Christmas release that the public will return to in coming years. There may not be a new “White Christmas” this season, but the 2011 season gives us some fine new jazz and vocal albums.

**** That Time of Year,’ Bill Cunliffe, Metre
The material may be common to the season, but pianist Bill Cunliffe’s probing solo jazz renditions are anything but standard, and they amount to a tour de force. He taps into the spiritual with “Angels From the Realms of Glory” and “Lo, How a Rose e’er Blooming,” while showing us how Bud Powell might handle “O Little Town of Bethlehem.”

West Coast pianist Bill Cunliffe has released a most welcome holiday disc in That Time of Year. With Christmas coming commercially before Halloween in bigger and more brazen waves each year, having the music of the season reduced to its sheer elements by a well-versed master is refreshing, if not spiritually reviving. Cunliffe's pianoism is urbane and lyrical, perfectly suited for interpreting a well- worn and loved repertoire. Cunliffe has previously demonstrated his knack for freshly focused concepts for old songs on Bill Plays Bud (Naxos, 1998) and The Blues and the Abstract Truth, Take 2 (Resonance, 2008). He transfers this knack to seasonal fare seamlessly, painting with a much finer brush than that used by holiday piano mavens like George Winston and David Lanz while still retaining their dedication to simplicity.

Which is not to say that Cunliffe is new age. To the contrary, Cunliffe transcends these categorizations by the sheer information of his talent and experience. Cunliffe easily casts each carol in its own universe, cleverly moving among genera. "Angels From The Realms of Glory" a Christmas hymn from Cunliffe's Episcopal childhood is played gently with neither too much nor too little ornamentation. Cunliffe's left hand provides a soft undulation over which his right weaves the Christmas spell. If songs could have aromas, Cunliffes "Angels" would brag of frankincense, eggnog and pipe tobacco in a wood fire-warmed room. "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen" is given a solid Ray Charles by way of Dave Franks treatment. With an introduction full of soul and rhythm and blues, the pianists warms up to walking-bass solo section that swings hard before dissolving back into a more traditional treatment. Cunliffe buffs all of the R&B rough edges to a high sheen of elegance.

Two carols that lend themselves to improvisation are "Coventry Carol" and "Carol of the Bells." Cunliffe handles both darkly, exposing a gravity in the pieces not often heard. Nothing ominous, merely respectful and reverent. He properly ornaments both pieces with thoughtful filigree and flattering tempi. "Coventry Carol" is a rumination pinned with a Lisztian left hand bubbling beneath the melody. He leaves plenty of space for consideration and and idea expansion. "Carol of the Bells," with its four-note repeating motif, sets up a hypnotic atmosphere sustained by Cunliffe's ethereal playing.

The real treat here is Cunliffe's duet with vocalist Denise Donatelli, whose When Lights are Low (Savant, 2010) was nominated for two Grammy Awards. Donatelli gives a creamy, rich reading of "I'll Be Home for Christmas." Her inclusion here, a last minute decision by her and Cunliffe, begs for a full-scale holiday offering from Donatelli. Hopefully Donatelli will choose Cunliffe as her accompaniment and her full-scale holiday recital will be a simple duet. Should that happen, all will be well and welcome. Until then, it is clear That Time of Year is the holiday release of the year.

by Clark Griffin

Christmas music and Christmas albums are usually a win-win situation for the artist and for the listeners. The artist experiences the joy of creating new songs and/or arrangements and performances and the possibility of evergreen returns - and listeners get the gift of timeless music to be enjoyed in perpetuity. After numerous accomplishments, well hones skills as a piano player, composer and arranger, Bill Cunliffe has created a noteworthy and memorable album full of music for the season, with his release of “That Time of Year”.
For those unfamiliar with his work, Bill Cunliffe began developing his name on the national scene in the 1980s as the pianist in the Buddy Rich Big Band. Among the many influential artists Cunliffe has performed and/or recorded are Frank Sinatra, Ray Brown, Joe Henderson, Freddie Hubbard and others. With a degree from the Eastman School of Music, he is a jazz educator at the university level as well. Among his many awards, he won a Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Arrangement for his “West Side Story Medley” on the Resonance Big Band Plays Tribute to Oscar Peterson.
With that introduction, you’d expect that a Christmas album from Bill would be a compelling listen, replete with compelling arrangements and superb playing - and indeed that’s exactly what it is. Bill commented that in the tradition of Mel Torme, this Christmas album was recorded on a hot day in July and that somehow Christmas tunes sound better in summer.
The album opens gently with Cunliffe in a pensive mood, delivering a lovely ballad rendition - solo piano throughout - with rich and sonorous voicings to complement the melody on “Angels From the Realms.” This is an ideal antidote to the hit you over the head cliché Christmas stuff we all experience this time of year. Cunliffe picks up the pace on “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen.” The track opens with a magnificent exposition of this well known theme, with some bluesy grinds to spice it up. He takes things into a toe-tapping, relaxed swing groove - and colors this chestnut with a solo demonstrating his ample and harmonically sophisticated technique. It’s clear that Cunliffe has thoughtfully programmed this holiday set, as the next track “On Christmas Day” moves delightfully into a jazz waltz groove. For his solo, he takes the festivities into a two beat swing groove. Bill’s deep understanding of the groove and his bebop roots are woven into this creative tapestry - momentarily tipping the hat to a potpourri of stylists from Bud Powell to Vince Guaraldi. Cunliffe delivers a clever syncopated introduction to “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies.” You’ve never heard a rendition like this one - swinging, cycling - fabulously swinging medium groove solo heavily laden with bebop ideas and some McCoy Tyner quartal-type harmoniy surfacing to make it clear that this is an amalgam of sounds by a mature jazz solo artist. Among the many highlights on this extraordinary set is “O Little Town of Bethlehem” which Cunliffe takes up tempo - delivering another wonderfully swinging, harmonically developed articulated with crystal clarity - at once thoroughly improvised, and a textbook study into the bop vocabulary. If you had tired of “Jingle Bells,” Bill’s swinging rendition will rejuvenate your appreciation for this classic. If you’re not one of those listeners who is pre-conditioned to think that listening to music associated with Christmas is only for “the season,” you’ll find yourself listening to this gem again and again throughout the year.

by Don Heckman - April 24, 2004
Special to The Times

Pianist Bill Cunliffe is one of the Southland’s most versatile musicians. His resume spans big-band playing (with the Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra) and his own small ensembles to arranging and composing as well as writing a standard book on jazz keyboard. On Thursday at the Vic in Santa Monica, he added another brightly colored entry to that resume via his Latin Jazz Big Band.

Calling an eight-piece ensemble a “big band” was a stretch in nomenclature, yet the title was fully applicable in terms of the group’s power and vitality.

The front line of two trombones (Bruce Paulson and Arturo Velasco), trumpet (Kye Palmer) and saxophone/flute (Bob Sheppard) was supported by the bass of Rene Camacho, the drums of Jose Rodriguez, the percussion of Joey DeLeon and Cunliffe’s own piano. Their sound blended aspects of both the conjunto and charanga instrumentations of Afro-Caribbean music. But what Cunliffe did with that sound was very much the product of his own jazz-driven imagination.

In a pair of numbers -- Irving Berlin’s “Heat Wave” and Anthony Newley and Leslie Bricusse’s “Pure Imagination” -- the horns were orchestrated in close, tightly moving harmony, the sumptuousness of the sound recalling textures associated with Gil Evans. Tunes such as Steely Dan’s “Do It Again” and Cunliffe’s “Bone Crusher” took a different tack, opening up plenty of space for the ensemble’s fine soloists, with Palmer making the most of the opportunity in a high-flying set of choruses on “Do It Again.”

It there was anything missing from an otherwise scintillating evening, it was more of Cunliffe’s piano work. Playing leader and orchestrator understandably minimized his opportunities to solo, but the music would have benefited from a larger dose of his far-ranging improvisational imagination.

Interestingly, a performance by a horn-heavy, percussively vigorous ensemble might have seemed a bit outsized for the intimate environment of the Vic. But that was far from the case, with this attractive, acoustically adaptable venue again demonstrating its capacity to present jazz in all its infinite variety.

By AAJ STAFF
February 29, 2004

Singers are as much a visual experience as they are an auditory experience. I think that is why vocals are popular now.

There is a tendency to be indifferent to the familiar -an absence of appreciation with an assumption of the routine. But there is a wisdom in nothing lasts forever. So perhaps, it would behoove us to be grateful that we have musicians locally like Bill Cunliffe (unedited and in his own words), who too yearns for a renewed sense of community. With harmonic and lyrical sensibilities rivaling certified headliners in celebrated New York, Cunliffe has certainly honored Los Angeles with his loyalty to the belief that jazz in Los Angeles can one day be a palace again.

All About Jazz: Let's start from the beginning.

Bill Cunliffe: My mother was a good pianist and she had a piano at home. My dad played the phonograph all the time. So there was music in the house all the time. I started just copying little things that I would hear my mom play and I would sit next to her and listen. I was very fascinated with it. When I was in school, I was thinking about other types of careers. I was pre-med for a few months. I was a psych major for two years. It wasn't until junior year of college that I finally said that music was it and I wasn't going to do anything else.

AAJ: Listening pleasures?

BC: When I was a kid, I was listening mostly to classical music because my dad had a lot of it in the house. I listened to all the stuff that was on the radio in the Sixties and Seventies. The stuff I liked was really the jazz oriented stuff. I loved Burt Bacharach. I loved Sergio Mendes. I loved anything with hip harmony in it. I've always been drawn to great harmony and secondarily to great melody, not so much rock and roll, although I liked rock and roll. I didn't hate it, but it didn't really interest me as much as the piano oriented music. Herb Alpert, I really liked his music. The 5th Dimension, their harmonic concept. I loved the black vocal groups that got into hipper harmony and interesting songs.

AAJ: What is the difference between harmony and melody?

BC: Melody is kind of the top part of the harmonic chord. In other words, what you sing when you are walking along the street, that's the melody. That's the part that you heard that is usually sung by the singer or played by the instrumentalist. The harmony is kind of the background. There's two types of background. There's rhythmic background and there's harmonic background. Rhythmic background is what the drums are playing primarily. And harmonic background in jazz music is primarily what the pianist is playing. Although, what the pianist is playing is both harmonic and melodic. That's a great question. I've never had anyone ask me that and it's a great question to present to people because we just assume that everyone knows what harmony and melody is, but melody is the top part and harmony is the part underneath.

AAJ: One of your most refreshing recordings is for a classical label, Naxos, Bill Plays Bud.

BC: And at one point, they were the largest classical label in the world, in terms of the amount of titles they had. The first thing is, Bud Powell is the most important pianist in jazz and one of the most underrated because he spent over a third of his life in mental and medical hospitals. He was beaten by the police when he was twenty and he never fully recovered from that beating and as a result, he suffered pain and had to take drugs to alleviate the pain. So he never fully recovered from that and in spite of that, he created a whole lot of wonderful music. He was really the first guy, before Bud Powell, pianists were playing boom, chuck in the left hand and a lot of melodic figures in the right hand that tended to be arpeggios. But with Bud Powell, Bud Powell was imitating Charlie Parker. So Bud was the first pianist to take Charlie Parker's language and adapt it successfully to the piano. That's why he is the most important pianist in music today because everybody plays like that now.

AAJ: And Live at Rocco featuring Joe La Barbera, characteristic of many of your sophisticated ensembles.

BC: Yeah, there are many things I love about Joe, but philosophically, he is a traditionalist. He's very, very open to anything that is innovative and stretches the tradition. So in that way, when he worked with Bill Evans, he was able to swing very, very hard in a conventional bebop setting, yet he was able to work with Bill and Bill's ideas were very creative and avant-garde within the tradition. Joe was able to adapt to that and I feel that Joe was able to give me a traditional rhythmic approach, which I sometimes really love and then other times, he is able to be very avant-garde rhythmically, not play rhythms, maybe play colors, lose the time, get it back, and be very innovative. In the sextet, that is really important because there are times in the band that we will actually play free for a little while. We won't have any tempo or any format. We're playing songs, but sometimes we stop playing the songs all together and just play whatever we want. Joe has the maturity to do both of those things and know to splice them together. There are many great musicians that when they play free, they don't know how to get out of it and back to the music. Joe is very orchestrational. He knows how long things should be. A drummer needs to be an orchestrator. If he sees that I'm going somewhere, he needs, not only to go with me, but he needs to make it feel like the music is designed that way. That is what Joe does so well. I do projects producing singers and I always use Joe because he will give me absolutely, the basic, perfect sound that I want for anything that I want to do.

AAJ: Your latest recording, How My Heart Sings is comprised of the compositions of Earl Zindars.

BC: The idea came from the head of Torii Records. I knew a few things. I knew "How My Heart Sings," "Mother of Earl," and "Elsa." I had played "Elsa" a lot. I love that tune. Earl sent me fifty or sixty tunes. There was an awful lot there that was interesting to work with. He was an interesting composer in that he was one of the first, along with Brubeck, to write songs where the time signature changes. For example, on "How My Heart Sings," the first part of the song is in a waltz feel, but the middle part of the tune is in a 4/4, medium, swing jazz feel. That was very, very innovative for the Fifties. Very few guys were doing that. His music is very interesting harmonically as well and he has a really strong melodic sense. He's a very good composer.

AAJ: Producing vocalists, are singers benefiting from the respect that comes with sales?

BC: I think the pendulum swings. I think that good singers were underrated for a while and then I think we're in it right now, where vocalists are getting a whole lot of attention. In fact, there was an article in a magazine saying if vocalists saved jazz and all my friends were saying that vocalists killed jazz. I think that vocals are getting attention because modern people like to look at things. They like to look at something rather than just listen. I think that is kind of a shame. When I was a kid, we would sit on the sofa and put records on the phonograph and sit and listen to them. We don't do it now because we're all really busy and I think it is a visual era. Singers are as much a visual experience as they are an auditory experience. I think that is why vocals are popular now. The standard tune as really established itself once again. I just heard Rod Stewart singing a standard in a Starbucks the other day. They are all doing standards albums, which I think is a great thing. I'm really happy about that.

AAJ: What is the state of jazz in Los Angeles?

BC: It's not very good, except for everywhere else. Given all that we have, it's not bad. There's radio support for it. There are clubs. There's not that many clubs, but there are a few really good places to play here. I've spent a lot of time in New York and it is getting rough back there. The super high real estate has eliminated a lot of clubs. San Francisco has this really intense interest in jazz, but there is nowhere to play there. L.A., because it is spread out and real estate isn't quite as expensive, there are all these little joints. Everyone I know is working and I think that is really great. In that way, L.A. is fairly strong. What L.A. isn't strong at is guys getting together. It is geographically far apart and there is not as much interaction and synergy as I would like. It is a mixed report. We have good jazz radio here. We have a great talent pool here. We have a few good places to play. We don't have the collaborative nature we should.

AAJ: And the future?

BC: In February, I am recording an album of salsa/Latin based music. I am using Ramon Banda and Papo Rodriguez, and some of regular guys in my band, Bobby Shew, Bob Sheppard. I am working on that. I am working right now on a commission for the Eastman School of Music. I am writing a jazz version of the Prokofiev Concerto for Piano no. 3 for big band and piano. I've loved this piece since I was a kid. It really works well in jazz. It is really a jazzy piece anyway. I just finished a DVD of beginning jazz and blues piano. I will be playing at the Jazz Bakery with a singer names Melissa Sweeney. I produced her first album. She is a really good singer.

February 29, 2004 - LA Jazz Scene

LAJS : What is a typical week like for you? Are you highly scheduled or do you have enough free time for yourself?

Bill : I teach at Cal State Fullerton from Tues through Thurs, so those days are packed. I have to be there by 10, and living in Studio City, that can be a challenge just getting there. My iPhone has a great GPS program on it, though, so I can usually figure out the best way to get there in under an hour. I get out of school around 7, and might just do homework, grade papers, etc, until 8. Then I'm home in about 50 minutes. Often I stay down there one night a week... there are many good cheap hotels down there.
I teach improvisation, direct four combos, a big band, have five piano students and teach arranging or jazz history. It's a lot crammed into three days, but I really enjoy my students.

LAJS : You lived in New York for some time: You sent us columns from N.Y. so we got an idea about the jazz scene there. Why did you return to L.A.? What didn’t you like about New York?

Bill : Dave, I've been torn between NY and LA for quite some time. I still have a place in NY, which is rented out a lot, and I love the people there, the scene, the energy. But it's expensive, and living there takes up a lot of energy.

LAJS : It seems that you have found enough work to satisfy you here in L.A. What makes L.A. good for musicians--the weather, connections, networking, more recording opportunities, etc. What do you think it is for you?

Bill: For me, work has been good in LA, and I have a great church here (All Saints, in Pasadena, where I'm composer in residence) and a great girlfriend, Wanda Lau, who is a copy editor for the LA Times. And the weather doesn't hurt, either! I never got into the studio scene here, just fell in with great players, such as John Clayton, Clay Jenkins, Bob Sheppard, and Joe LaBarbera, and just couldn't leave. Trombonist Bruce Paulson, who now lives in New Zealand, had a great weekly jam session at his house... that's where I met a lot of my friends. I do feel that because I travel a lot, LA is cool. If I were dependent on the LA jazz scene for my happiness, it wouldn't be enough. It's a very good scene, don't get me wrong, and very underrated, but one night in NY or even Chicago tells you there's a lot more out there.
These days, I'm as much a composer as a player, and LA is good for that. Excellent engineers, and recording studios, and plenty of great players on every instrument. As the industry recording thing declines, it's actually better for composers now, because you can get your stuff played and recorded, and these amazing players are available and interested in new things.

LAJS : You were nominated for a Grammy and won. Tell me about the recording and how it came about. What made it special for you?

Bill: George Klabin, a fine studio engineer (and owner of a health food supply company) recently started a record label, Resonance Records. We had done a record, Blues and the Abstract Truth, Take 2, (the music of Oliver Nelson) and we were very pleased with it. He knew I was an arranger, and he wanted me to help him do a tribute album to the music of Oscar Peterson. He knew of a Romanian pianist, Marian Petrescu, now living in Finland, who he said was the perfect guy. Boy he was right on that one. Marian is amazing... really can do Oscar, technically. And a beautiful cat, easy to work with, and a lovely spirit. Growing up, Oscar was my favorite player, and even though I had to get away from him, somewhat, to find myself, I thought it would be a lot of fun. We picked out some of the repertoire together, and I really wanted to do some things from the Oscar "West Side Story," album. George was like, I don't know, it's a lot of stuff, too much music, and I reminded him of the classic Buddy Rich arrangement of West Side that I played every night for a year and a half. I thought we could do a 13-14 minute medley of the stuff, and it would be a real big hit, especially on live gigs. He agreed, and we did it, and it came out great. In fact, he said, "this is a Grammy winner," and I poo-pooed him. But he was right!

LAJS : Tell me what the whole Grammy timeline is: How are you nominated, by mail or a phone call? Then what happens? What’s the time element here, weeks, months? How did you feel when you were nominated? Who was the first person you called with the news?

Bill: Grammy submissions are due in the fall. If you're a member, you can nominate yourself, or someone else who is a member can nominate you. To be a member, you have to have recorded or participated in an album that's available nationwide, which means it's primarily musicians, engineers and producers who vote. There are three levels, a call for ballot submissions, a call for final nominations in each category, and a final vote for the winner, which is announced in the end of January. The members vote, as far as I can tell, for the final nominations, and the winner. There are committees of respected experts, in each chapter, there are 12 or 13 of them. They are also a factor in the voting, which is great, because the Grammy, to win, your peers have to vote for you. From what I can tell, and I'm not an expert, it's a combination of the chapters, and the popular vote.
I'm savvy enough to know that as a jazz player I'm competing with the universe, but the arranging category is a bit smaller, so the odds of recognition are a little better.
This was my third nomination. I really didn't expect to win, there were some great entrants in my area, Jeremy Lubbock, Michael, Giaccino, and Vince Mendoza, one of my personal heroes. But it was a real thrill.

LAJS :Tell me what its like to actually stand on the stage and accept the Grammy. What were you feeling?

Bill: If you go on www.grammys.com, and scroll to minute 27 of the awards (it was taken down a few weeks later) you can see me, breathlessly running up to the front (I was sitting in the back with my girlfriend, Wanda, and friends Tierney Sutton and Alan Kaplan, her husband. I wasn't expecting to win, obviously, so I was way in the back, just talking. For whatever reason, I had sketched out my "bullet points" in the bizarre case of having to make a speech; you gotta thank George Klabin, the owner of the label, the cats in the band, your girlfriend, Oscar Peterson (since I borrowed much from him in the arrangement), and, of course, Leonard Bernstein.
When I got up there, I saw that in the band were a lot of friends, Ron King, Brandon Fields, etc, and I said, to no one in particular, "yeah, getting an award is nice, but you guys have a GIG! Get me on it!!"
I've heard from so many friends about the award, and it's been a wonderful experience, but I returned to earth very quickly. The next day, I was sitting in my living room with dozens of Cal State Fullerton student schedules sprawled around me, trying to figure out who's playing in the jazz small groups there. Sigh.
Winning the Grammy has made me a little less obsessive/compulsive about my career. I always feel like, I don't do enough, I need to study, create more, hustle more work, etc, etc. All you musicians know how that is. But I can relax a little bit more. I certainly don't have to worry about winning the Grammy ever again, or being concerned about how people think about me. And more importantly, I can really reflect that I've taken, maybe not the perfect life path, but a very good one, and I've done pretty much the best I can to make the most of myself.

LAJS : What are your future plans? What are looking forward to, more collaborations, composing, or something entirely new?

Bill: What I'm really excited about now is the NY premiere of a concerto I've written for trumpeter Terell Stafford and the Temple University Symphony Orchestra. It's called "fourth stream... La Banda," and it's a fusion of jazz, classical, and latin music. They are doing it at Lincoln Center in two weeks, and recording it next week. I have always loved the orchestra, and it was a thrill to write exactly what I wanted to write, and get it played.

LAJS : If you weren’t a musician what would you choose to do to make a living? I’m just being curious here, maybe you have other talents or skills that mean a lot to you.

Bill: I' m lucky to live in Studio City, just two blocks from a very fine Italian restaurant, Vitello's. Many of you remember it from the Robert Blake days. I used to take people on my Studio City/Hollywood tour. I take them to Robert Blake's old house, it used to have written on it, "Mata Hari Ranch." eeecchh! Then I take them to Vitellos, and show them the dumpster. Well, not THAT dumpster, but any old one. You just make up things, like the double decker bus drivers in NYC do. (According to them, Madonna lives in about 8 different apartments in New York.) Then I take them to the Brady Bunch house, on Dilling, the one they showed at the beginning of the program.
April Williams has been managing the music there for over a year now, and she's a great lady, supports the cats, does everything right. The room is acoustically excellent, and the young sound guys are cool, into the music, and do their job. She's had a few big bands in there, and it sounds fantastic. So I decided to do, perhaps, the dumbest thing, the most foolhardy thing a musician can do.
Start a big band.
Well, for one night, anyway. My old friend Bruce Paulson did this for a gig in Alaska, announcing, "this is the first AND last gig of the Bruce Paulson Big Band." And it was, too. This night, April 17, will be a little less stressful. Just an hour and a half, and we'll finish with the Grammy-winning West Side Story arrangement. I'm getting as many of the cats from the session that I can. We'll start with champagne at 7:30, and the band kicks off at 8:30 until 11. Should be fun. If you have a lot of champagne, we'll sound even better.
Future plans? I'm a little bit in transition. I've been writing so much, the piano looks lonesome over there. Gotta go give it some love!! Holly Hofmann and I have a duo, and we have a new record out, and we're going to do more with that. And I'm going to Hawaii in June with my girlfriend, Wanda. We recently celebrated a year together, to the amazement of my friends.

by Ernie Rideout (Keyboard Magazine)
Hearing Bill Cunliffe on CD is always a major treat - though all too rare - for in addition to his superb piano playing, you usually get his extremely clever arrangements, tailor-made for a hand-picked group of first-rate players. That's the case with this release, but what takes this CD from great to sublime is the source material, which are the compositions of Earl Zindars. Bill Evans favored a couple of Earl's tunes, notably, "How My Heart Sings," and the piano legend's recordings of that tune have earned Zindars a place in the Jazz Hall of Fame.