Justin Clay Perry
Justin Clay Perry (born August 20, 1974 in St Petersburg, Florida) is an American jazz, pop, and Latin pianist best known for his arrangements heard behind numerous recording artists. He is a graduate of the Pinellas County Center for the Arts at Gibbs High School in Tampa Bay where he studied classical and jazz piano and composition. He obtained a Bachelor of Music (B.M.) in Jazz Composition from the University of South Florida in Tampa, a Master of Music (M.M.) in Studio Jazz Writing and a Doctor of Musical Arts (D.M.A.) in Jazz Performance from the University of Miami.
Perry's doctoral essay A Comparative Analysis of Selected Piano Solos by Red Garland, Bill Evans, Wynton Kelly, and Herbie Hancock from their Recordings with the Miles Davis Groups, 1955–1968 is being edited for the commercial market under the name The Jazz Pianist: The First 75 Years and will contain bios of 200 jazz pianists from 1890 to 1965 during the periods known as Ragtime, Dixieland, Swing, Bebop, and beyond.
In 1998, Perry was selected Best Jazz Instrumentalist in the U. S. and Canada for Down Beat magazine's 21st Annual Student Music Awards.
As a youngster, Perry studied privately from numerous jazz pianists around the Tampa Bay area including Bossa Nova pioneer Manfredo Fest and Kamau Kenyetta He was inspired by the playing of Herbie Hancock, Bill Evans, and Chick Corea.
As a pianist, Perry has toured with the Maynard Ferguson Big Bop Nouveau band and played professionally with Ira Sullivan, Red Rodney, Othello Molineaux and Nat Adderley. But he is most known as an arranger for pop, Latin, and jazz recording artists, many of which were Grammy Award nominees and winners. He has been a pianist/keyboardist, arranger, programmer and appeared on the albums of such notables as Christina Aguilera, Julio Iglesias, Michael Bolton, Gladys Knight, Beyoncé, José Feliciano, Chayanne, Cristian Castro, Cindy Morgan, Oscar De La Hoya, Jennifer Peña, Luis Fonsi, Alejandro Fernández, Betzaida, Los Temerarios, Belinda, Pilar Montenegro, Area 305, Victoria, Jencarlos, and under his own name, has recorded with Arturo Sandoval and Vikki Carr.
In 2007 and early 2008 Perry toured South America, Spain and Mexico as keyboardist for Chayanne's Mi Tiempo tour. Perry currently resides in Nashville, Tennessee and is touring eastern and western Europe, the Middle East, and the Americas as keyboardist for Julio Iglesias's 40th anniversary tour.