jazz Archives - Scott Healy

Stride Piano [not a] Master Class

November 22, 2014 by Scott Healy No Comment

Here’s a reprint of a lesson from 2009 published in Keyboard Magazine. I did NOT, repeat NOT name it “…Master Class..” as I am far from a stride master. Nothing strikes fear into the hearts of piano players like the mention of stride piano. This seemingly impossible old style is like ragtime on steroids, and pushes jazz pianists to the limit. The left hand alternates a low bass, frequently played in tenths, with close position midrange chords, while the right hand provides melody, syncopations, lines, and runs. The total effect is a relentless, locked-down swing eighth-note feel. Even if you…

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April 14, 2013 by Scott Healy

The music Healy wrote for Hudson City Suite is a nine-part depiction of a mythological place, a city that might be if it hadn’t gone extinct more than a century ago. It unites past and present musically as well as conceptually, bridging traditional big-band swing with lithe jazz modernism.
Downbeat Magazine, March 2013

Downbeat Magazine – March, 2013 Wow! An profile article in Downbeat. I’ve been reading this mag since I was 14, I remember the transcribed solos in the back (“Spain” by Chick Corea from Light as a Feather, Zawinul’s “Euridice” from Weather Report), and of course all the feature articles and record reviews. I’m honored and frankly blown away. Writer Shaun Brady hits all the points, and took my hour-long, typically rambling interview and made it somehow work and make sense. Click for original article… Coastal Composer by Shaun Brady Conan O’Brien’s very public firing from “The Tonight Show” in 2010 not…

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March 18, 2013 by Scott Healy No Comment

The first time I listened to "Hudson City Suite", the latest recording from pianist/composer Scott Healy, the music blew me away....one can hear the influence of Duke Ellington on the melodies and arrangements of Scott Healy but there is so much more to be heard in the voicings, the counterpoint and the inventive manner in which the composer writes for the sections of his talented ensemble. Positively smashing music
Richard B. Kamens - Step Tempest

The first time I listened to “Hudson City Suite“, the latest recording from pianist/composer Scott Healy, the music blew me away. Haven’t changed my opinion in the 4+ months the CD has been in rotation but am not sure why this review has taken so long (the word “laziness” comes to mind.) Healy, who worked in Conan O’Brien’s “show” band when he started at NBC and his subsequent move to TBS, admits to being greatly influenced by Duke Ellington. There are moments on the 9 tracks that make up the “..Suite” where one can notice that influence but what is…

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February 26, 2013 by Scott Healy No Comment

Scott Healy and Glenn Alexander's "Northern Light" is one of those rare recordings that thankfully, after being buried for over twenty years, made its way out of the vault and into the light.
Ralph Miriello–Notes on Jazz

Twenty Years in the Vault: Scott Healy – Glenn Alexander Quartet’s Northern Light For an album that has been stowed away in the vault for over twenty years Scott Healy and Glenn Alexander’s Northern Light has a taut, modern sound and sensibility. This enjoyable recording was taped by these two talented musicians back in December of 1991, along with the tight and elastic rhythm section of Kermit Driscoll on bass and Jeff Hirshfield on drums. You would be hard pressed to believe it isn’t a current offering. After this quartet disbanded, Alexander went on to some of his own…

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