Phil Markowitz
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Phil Markowitz is a jazz pianist and educator. He graduated from the Eastman School of Music and in 1979 had his "first big break" working with Chet Baker's band. He is most known as a sideman. He made a 1980 recording entitled Sno' Peas with Eddie Gomez and Al Foster. He recorded two live duo albums with Dave Liebman and was a member of the Dave Liebman group.[1] He calls his work with him the "biggest break of all" and they have worked together on and off for fifteen years. He has also served as a pianist in Bob Mintzer's Big Band as well.
[edit] External links
Phil Markowitz, 30-year veteran of the NY Jazz scene is dedicated to realizing the full potential of improvisational music within the jazz idiom. He performs original compositions, which range from hard-cutting chromaticism to the most lyrical post-romantic ballads. Inventive, virtuostic, and accessible, Markowitz presents a forward-looking vision for contemporary music. His recordings as leader include "Taxi Ride" (which features an incredible reunion with his lifelong friend, Toots Thielemans), "In the Woods", "Sno' Peas", "Restless Dreams" (with vibraphonist Joe Locke) and "7 plus 8", with saxophonist Maurizio Giammarco.
Phil has recently been heard with the all-star group "Saxophone Summit" (with Michael Brecker, Joe Lovano and David Liebman), but his credentials span a cornucopia of jazz; from the traditional to the avant-garde; from his early associations with Chet Baker and Toots Thielemans, through his respective twenty and fifteen-year affiliations with Bob Mintzer and David Liebman.
In 1979, he joined Chet Baker's band. That four-year association took him around the world and back again, and yielded such recordings as "Broken Wing", "Live at Nick's Place", "Two A Day", "Live at Chateauvalion", and "Live at The Rising Sun". Phil has performed and/or recorded with such notables as Mel Lewis, Marion McPartland, Phil Woods, Lionel Hampton, Nick Brignola, Joe Chambers, Miroslav Vitous, Joe Williams and, an association that continues to this day, Bob Mintzer. Phil is the pianist in Bob's quartet and big band, and can be heard on such recordings as "In The Moment", "Live at MCG", the Grammy Award-winning "Homage to Count Basie", "Quality Time", "Latin in Manhattan", "Big Band Trane", "Only in New York", "Departure", "Art of the Big Band", and "Spectrum".
Phil's notoriety as a composer came in the late 1970's when he was playing in a NYC club with legendary jazz harmonica player, Toots Thielemans As they were playing Phil's composition, "Sno' Peas", pianist Bill Evans walked in, loved the song, and asked Toots to bring it to their upcoming recording session. Evans' and Thielemans' subsequent recording of "Sno' Peas" on the classic Grammy-nominated album, "Affinity", put Markowitz on the map as a venerable jazz composer.
For the past 16 years Phil has been playing, touring, and recording with saxophone master Dave Liebman. Phil has served as pianist, composer, and/or producer on such albums as "A Walk in the Clouds", "Meditations", "New Vista", "Voyage", "Return of the Tenor", "Songs for My Daughter", "Miles Away", "Turn It Around", and "Classique". They have also recorded two duo albums, "But Beautiful" and "Manhattan Dialogues" on ZOHO records.
Also with Liebman, Phil is the pianist with the all-star group "Saxophone Summit", with Michael Brecker, Joe Lovano, (Lieb), Billy Hart, and Cecil McBee. The CD, "Gathering of the Spirits" has received wide critical acclaim. The group, now reformed as "Saxophone Summit II", with Ravi Coltrane, will do a new recording for Telarc and depart on a major international tour in 2008.
As well as performing around the globe, Phil has served as guest artist and clinician in major conservatories and universities throughout the world. Academically speaking, however, his home base is the Manhattan School of Music, where he is a professor in the graduate and doctoral divisions.
Phil has received endowments and grants from The Howard Foundation, Chamber Music America-The Doris Duke Foundation, The National Endowment for the Arts and The New York Foundation for the Arts.
