Jason Moran (musician)

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Jason Moran (born January 21, 1975) is a jazz pianist. Growing up in Houston, Texas, he began playing the piano when he was six, though he had no love for the instrument until, at the age of 13, he first heard the music of Thelonious Monk and switched his efforts from classical music to jazz. He attended Houston's High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, and then enrolled at the Manhattan School of Music where he studied with pianist Jaki Byard. While still in college Moran also received instruction from other avant-garde pianists including Muhal Richard Abrams and Andrew Hill.

In 1997, when Moran was a senior at Manhattan School of Music, he was invited to join the band of saxophonist Greg Osby for a European tour. Osby liked his playing, and Moran continued to play with Osby's group upon their return to the United States, making his first recorded appearance on Osby's 1997 Blue Note album Further Ado. This led to Moran signing a contract of his own with Blue Note, and his debut as a leader Soundtrack to Human Motion, was released in 1999. Moran was joined on the album by Osby, drummer Eric Harland (a classmate of Moran's at the Manhattan School), vibraphonist Stefon Harris and bassist Lonnie Plaxico.

Moran's next album, 2000's Facing Left, featured a trio of Moran, bassist Tarus Mateen and drummer Nasheet Waits. The same group, which came to be known as The Bandwagon, was joined by saxophonist and pianist Sam Rivers for their next album, Black Stars, which appeared in 2001. In 2002 Moran released a solo album, Modernistic, and followed it in 2003 with a live trio album, recorded at New York's Village Vanguard, called The Bandwagon: Live at the Village Vanguard. The band's latest album, released in 2005, is called Same Mother.

Besides his recordings under his own name, Moran has also played and recorded with a range of other artists including Cassandra Wilson, Joe Lovano, Don Byron, Steve Coleman, Lee Konitz, Von Freeman, Christian McBride and Ravi Coltrane. He has been favored with a number of awards, most notably being called The Jazz Journalists Association's "Up-n-Coming Jazz Musician" in 2003 and being voted Rising Star Jazz Artist, Rising Star Pianist, and Rising Star Composer in the Down Beat Critics Poll in 2003 and 2004. In 2005, Moran was also named Playboy Magazine's first ever Jazz Artist of the Year.