Pianist Jason Lindner has been a fixture in the New York jazz scene (his hometown) since the mid-90s when the venerated Greenwich Village club, Smalls, became the home for a new generation of forward-thinking jazz musicians. After leading a number of quintet and sextet gigs at the club, the big band performances quickly became the focal point for critics who frequently wrote about the club, and record label representatives eagerly tried to capitalize on the buzz. Lindner regularly drew sold out crowds on Monday nights at Smalls, something more established musicians could only accomplish on weekends. This earned them their IMPULSE records debut on JAZZ UNDERGROUND/LIVE AT SMALLS, which led to their full-length release on CHICK COREA'S Stretch label, PREMONITION. "...one of the most impressive big bands to emerge in years... filled with declarative themes, recurring motifs and varying temperaments that range from elegant balladry to body-rocking grooves." - JazzTimes Magazine The arrangements [are] as full as an orchestra twice this one's size&individuals excite, even astonish&Over nine glorious tracks, everyone gets to shine. Live at the Jazz Gallery is a strong contender for 2007's TOP-10 lists. Michael J. West - Downbeat Magazine "This guy [Lindner] is tearing up the jazz scene. Easy to see why. He has enough personality to make his presence felt in the midst of a roaring big band ...Don't miss this one!" - Keyboard Magazine JASON LINDNER grew up in Brooklyn, NY, and started playing piano by ear at an early age. Seeing this, his parents enabled formal piano studies which began at age 7 and continued for about 5 years, when he began to explore rock, blues, and jazz music, and dabbling on the saxophone, electric guitar and double bass. In Music and Art High School in Manhattan Jason formed lasting ties with musical collaboratives like drummer/recording engineer Daniel Freedman (Third World Love) and saxophonist Myron Walden (Brian Blade Fellowship), and began his professional career, performing at local galleries, clubs and restaurants, as well as in the great performance halls of Carnegie and Lincoln Center with school ensembles. Soon he would find his two most important gurus. He apprenticed with Barry Harris (taking the place of what would have been his early college years), and then briefly with Chris Anderson (Herbie Hancock's harmonic guru). Always guided by the light of his mentors, Lindner explains, I've brought everything I inherited from my elders in the New York jazz community - like Barry Harris, Chris Anderson, Frank Hewitt, Jimmy Lovelace, Tommy Turrentine, C Sharpe, Junior Cook, Junior Mance - and really used the knowledge and tradition they passed on as a foundation from which to spring ahead and mix with newer rhythms and musical ideas...to really be part of the musical current, the present movement, the present moment. Jason soon was playing piano locally in Latin dance bands and playing weekly at the University Of The Streets' singers' open mike/workshop. His world travels soon began as he toured and recorded with Israeli bassist Avishai Cohen, followed by Chilean vocalist Claudia Acuña, and Lindner became obsessed with seeking out different musical cultures from around the globe in the search for intensely vital forms of musical expression. "No one music is more important than any other," he professes. "They are actually all different parts of the universal and total musical expression, the language of music. As knowing multiple verbal languages broadens your native tongue as well as your mind and your expression, so does knowing multiple musical dialects. Music from different places specializes in different detailed forms of expression and gaps can be filled in your own ability the more that is known. I believe this is what my generation is learning." Today Jason Lindner is an integral, vital part of many exciting bands and projects, including Me'shell Ndegeocello's current working band, Claudia Acuña (longtime musical director and pianist), Dafnis Prieto's Absolute Quintet (in his current band and on his Grammy nominated recording Absolute Quintet ), on trumpeter Avishai Cohen's new recording ( After The Big Rain, Anzic), also featuring Blue Note recording artist Lionel Loueke, Anat Cohen, Omer Avital, Waverly 7, Baba Israel, The New York Gypsy All Stars, and others. Jason Lindner was also musical director of Lauryn Hill's band, and he arranged music for the Jazz @ Lincoln Center Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra (for the Grammy nominated recording Noche Involvidable ). Lindner is arguably the only musician on the scene that is fully entrenched in such diverse styles as playing acoustic jazz piano with various small groups, analogue modular synths with Me'shell Ndegeocello, and leading one of the most electrifying big bands around. Others Jason has performed with also include Amel Larrieux, Roy Haynes, Chick Corea, Junior Cook, Elvin Jones, Wynton Marsalis, Paquito D'Rivera, Jon Hendricks, James Moody, Graciella (Machito Orchestra), Mark Turner, Lou Donalson, Dakota Staton, Randy Brecker, Arnie Lawrence, Jimmy Lovelace, Jimmy Cobb, Lou Donalson, The Henry Mancini Orchestra, Christian McBride, Clarence "C" Sharpe, and Vernel Fournier. Weblinks: www.jasonlindner.net
