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Biography

Grammy nominated composer, arranger and jazz pianist Bill Cunliffe is gathering nationwide attention with his innovative and swinging recordings and compositions He first fell under the influence of jazz by studying at Duke University with the great pianist Mary Lou Williams. He received his masters from the Eastman School of Music, and won several Down Beat Awards for his big band and orchestral pieces.

After teaching at Central State University, in Wilberforce, Ohio, he toured as pianist and arranger with the Buddy Rich Big Band, and working with Frank Sinatra. He then played and toured with many legends of jazz, including Ray Brown, Joe Henderson, Freddie Hubbard, Benny Golson, James Moody, and Joshua Redman. Currently, he plays with his own trio, his group Imaginacion, and duets with the great jazz flutist Holly Hofmann, with whom he has recorded five CD's.

Bill was the 1989 winner of the $10,000 Thelonious Monk International Jazz Piano Award, and has received stipends from the National Endowment for the Arts. His three albums for Warner/Discovery Records all charted in nationwide jazz polls. His books "Jazz Keyboard Toolbox, " and "Jazz Piano Inventions" published by Alfred Publications, are fast becoming standard reference books in jazz, and his big band compositions are published by Kendor Music, and the University of Northern Colorado Jazz Press. His choral music is published by Santa Barbera Music Publishers. Bill is a Baldwin Pianos artist, and was Marian McPartland's guest on her famed "Piano Jazz" radio show in June '98.

As a composer and arranger, Bill has been performed by many orchestras, including the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra, the Illinois Philharmonic, the Reading (PA) Symphony, and the Henry Mancini Institute Orchestra. Among his works are a three movement "Romantic" Fantasy for piano and orchestra, a festive overture, "Viva Mexico," and numerous works for big band, orchestra, and choir. Recently, the Rodger Fox Big Band of New Zealand released a CD of Bill's jazz orchestra compositions. He is currently composer in residence at All Saints Episcopal Church, in Pasadena, California, and Associate Professor of Music at Cal State Fullerton.

On the classical side, he performs his own distinctive arrangement of Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue,” with orchestras, and performs with his group Trimotif, which he co leads with oboist Phoebe Ray, and featuring David Shostac on flute, often featuring his own works.

Bill's latest projects include a groundbreaking audiophile recording, "Live at Bernies", with bassist Darek Oles and drummer Joe La Barbera done both to enhanced CD and to 12 inch/ 45 rpm vinyl (!!!) at the famous Bernie Grundman mastering facility in Hollywood for the Groove Note label. In addition, his latest, which spent a month in the #2 position in the JazzWeek radio polls is “Imaginacion” an album featuring his Latin Jazz Nonet, on Torii Records. The arrangement “Do It Again” on the CD was nominated for a Grammy in 2006.
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Press

"ACE OCTET in a LATIN GROOVE"

by Don Heckman
LA Times, April 22, 2004
"Pianist Bill Cunliffe brings his powerful "big band" to the Vic in Santa Monica.... Cunliffe added another brightly colored entry to (his) resume via his Latin Jazz Big Band. Calling an 8 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. In a pair of numbers, "Heat Wave" and "Pure Imagination" the horns were orchestrated in close, tightly moving harmony, the sumptuousness recalling textures associated with Gil Evans. Cunliffe's "Bone Crusher" opened up plenty of space for the ensemble's fine soloists with (trumpeter Kye) Palmer making most of the opportunity. If there was anything missing from an otherwise scintillating evening, it was more of Cunliffe's piano work... the music would have benefited from a larger does of his far-ranging improvisational imagination."

"Spotlight"

by Ernie Rideout
Keyboard Magazine, January 2004
"Hearing Bill Cunliffe on CD is always a major treat... for in addition to his superb piano playing you usually get his exrtemely clever arrangements, tailor-made for a hand-picked group of first-rate players... What takes this CD from great to sublime is the... compositions of Earl Zindars.... With a nod to Art Farmer's Jazztet, Cunliffe sets Zindars' tunes with an expert ear for the power and beauty of a world-class three-horn lineup. And throughout, his playing is inventive, melodic, and soulful."
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Interviews

"A Fireside Chat With Bill Cunliffe"

by Fred Jung
All About Jazz, February 29, 2004
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... [go to article]
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