Bio:
Grammy award winning pianist Bill Charlap has performed with many of the leading artists of our time including Phil Woods, Tony Bennett, Gerry Mulligan, Wynton Marsalis, Freddy Cole and Houston Person.
Born in New York City, Charlap began playing the piano at age three. His father was Broadway composer Moose Charlap, whose credits include Peter Pan, and his mother is singer Sandy Stewart, who toured with Benny Goodman, and was a regular on the Perry Como show. She earned a 1963 Grammy nomination for her recording of “My Coloring Book." In 2005, Charlap and Stewart released the acclaimed CD, Love Is Here To Stay (Blue Note).
In 1997, Charlap formed his trio with bassist Peter Washington and drummer Kenny Washington, now recognized as one of the leading groups in jazz. In 2000, he was signed to Blue Note Records and received two Grammy Award nominations, for Somewhere: The Songs of Leonard Bernstein and The Bill Charlap Trio: Live at the Village Vanguard. He is known for his interpretations of American popular song.. Time magazine wrote, “Bill Charlap approaches a song the way a lover approaches his beloved…no matter how imaginative or surprising his take on a song is, he invariably zeroes in on its essence.”
In 2016, Tony Bennett & Bill Charlap: The Silver Lining, The Songs of Jerome Kern, was awarded a Grammy for Best Traditional Pop Album. In April, the Bill Charlap Trio released, Notes from New York, their debut recording for the Impulse label. Alan Morrison's five-star review in Down Beat stated that the new recording is "a masterclass in class."
In 2019 Charlap celebrated his 15th year as Artistic Director of New York City’s Jazz in July Festival at 92Y. He has produced concerts for Jazz at Lincoln Center, New Jersey Performing Arts Center, Chicago Symphony Center and the Hollywood Bowl. Charlap is married to renowned jazz pianist and composer Renee Rosnes, and the two artists often collaborate in a duo piano setting.
In 2010 Charlap and Rosnes released Double Portrait (Blue Note). Bill Charlap is currently the Director of Jazz Studies at William Paterson University in Wayne, New Jersey.
Discography:
Bill Charlap & Sean Smith (Progressive) 1993
Bill Charlap & Sean Smith: Along With Me (Chiaroscuro) 1994
Bill Charlap: Souvenir (Criss Cross) 1995
with Scott Colley, Dennis Mackrel
Bill Charlap: Distant Star (Criss Cross) 1997
with Sean Smith, Bill Stewart
Bill Charlap: All Through The Night (Criss Cross) 1998
with Peter Washington, Kenny Washington
Bill Charlap: S’Wonderful (Venus) 1999
with Peter Washington, Kenny Washington
Bill Charlap: Written In The Stars (Blue Note) 2000
with Peter Washington, Kenny Washington
Bill Charlap: Stardust (Blue Note) 2002
With Peter Washington, Kenny Washington, Tony Bennett, Shirley Horn
Bill Charlap: Somewhere - The Songs of Leonard Bernstein (Blue Note) 2004
with Peter Washington, Kenny Washington
Bill Charlap Plays George Gershwin: The American Soul (Blue Note) 2005
with Phil Woods, Frank Wess, Slide Hampton, Nicholas Payton,
Peter Washington, Kenny Washington
Love Is Here To Stay (Blue Note) 2005
Sandy Stewart & Bill Charlap
Bill Charlap Trio: Live At The Village Vanguard (Blue Note) 2007
with Peter Washington, Kenny Washington
Double Portrait (Blue Note) 2010
Bill Charlap & Renee Rosnes
Something To Remember (Ghostlight) 2013
Sandy Stewart & Bill Charlap
Tony Bennett & BIll Charlap: The Silver Lining: The Songs of Jerome Kern (2015)
with Renee Rosnes, Peter Washington & Kenny Washington
Bill Charlap Trio: Notes from New York (Impulse!) 2016
with Peter Washington, Kenny Washington
Bill Charlap Trio: Uptown Downtown (Impulse!) 2017
with Peter Washington, Kenny Washington
Tony Bennett & Diana Krall: Love is Here to Stay (Verve) 2018
with the Bill Charlap Trio with Peter Washington, Kenny Washington
THE NEW YORK TRIO
Blues In The Night (Venus) 2001
Bill Charlap, Jay Leonhart, Bill Stewart
The Things We Did Last Summer (Venus) 2002
Bill Charlap, Jay Leonhart, Bill Stewart
Love You Madly (Venus) 2003
Bill Charlap, Jay Leonhart, Bill Stewart
Stairway To The Stars (Venus) 2004
Bill Charlap, Jay Leonhart, Bill Stewart
Begin The Beguine (Venus) 2005
Bill Charlap, Jay Leonhart, Bill Stewart
Always (Venus) 2008
Bill Charlap, Jay Leonhart, Bill Stewart
Thou Swell (Venus) 2009
Bill Charlap, Jay Leonhart, Bill Stewart
I’m Old Fashioned (Venus) 2010
Bill Charlap, Jay Leonhart, Bill Stewart
AS A SIDEMAN
Spark (Chiaroscuro) 1995
Jon Gordon Quartet
with Bill Charlap, Sean Smith, Tim Horner, Benny Carter, Phil Woods
The Gerry Mulligan Songbook (Chiaroscuro) 1996
with Bill Charlap, Ted Rosenthal, Dean Johnson, Ron Vincent
Phil Woods: For Astor & Elis (Chesky) 1996
Phil Woods, Bill Charlap, and others
Harry Allen Plays Ellington Songs (RCA Victor) 1999
with The Bill Charlap Trio with Peter Washington, Kenny Washington
You Taught My Heart To Sing (HighNote) 2006
Houston Person & Bill Charlap
Gene Bertoncini with Bill Charlap & Sean Smith: LIVE (Chiaroscuro) 1999
Jon Gordon & Bill Charlap: Contrasts (Double Time Jazz) 2001
Ken Peplowski: Stardust
with Bill Charlap, Peter Washington, Kenny Washington
Warren Vaché and Bill Charlap: 2GETHER (Nagel Heyer Records) 2002
Warren Vaché: Dream Dancing (Arbors Records) 2004
with Bill Charlap, Dennis Irwin, Eddie Locke, Harry Allen
Ruby Braff: You Brought A New Kind Of Love (Arbors Records) 2005
with Bill Charlap, Dick Hyman, Bucky Pizzarelli, Jake Hanna
Johnny Frigo’s DNA Exposed (Arbors Records) 2006
Johnny Frigo, Bill Charlap
American Songbook, Volumes 1 & 2 (Kind of Blue) 2006
Phil Woods, Bill Charlap, Brian Lynch, Steve Gilmore, Bill Goodwin
Voyage: Phil Woods with the Bill Charlap Trio at the
Floating Jazz Festival Aboard the The QEII (Chiaroscuro)
Phil Woods, Bill Charlap, Peter Washington, Kenny Washington
Brian Lynch Meets Bill Charlap (Sharp Nine) 2003
with Dwayne Burno, Joe Farnsworth
Jay Leonhart: Great Duets (Chiaroscuro) 1999
with Bill Charlap, Gene Bertoncini, Joe Williams, Mike LeDonne, Junior Mance,
Bucky Pizzarelli, John Bunch, Eddie Higgins, Norman Simmons and Richard Wyands
Gary Smulyan & Brass: Blue Suite (Criss Cross) 2000
with Bill Charlap, Christian McBride, Kenny Washington
Carol Sloane & Clark Terry: Songs Ella & Louis Sang (Concord) 1997
with Bill Charlap, Marcus McLaurine, Dennis Mackrel
Randy Sandke: Trumpet After Dark, Jazz In A Meditative Mood
(Evening Star) 2005
Randy Sandke Quartet featuring Bill Charlap
Scott Hamilton with the Bill Charlap Trio: Back In New York (Concord) 2005
with Peter Washington, Kenny Washington
Freddy Cole with The Bill Charlap Trio: Music Maestro Please (HighNote) 2008
with Peter Washington, Kenny Washington
The Blue Note 7: Mosaic (Blue Note) 2009
Bill Charlap, Nicholas Payton, Ravi Coltrane, Steve Wilson,
Peter Bernstein, Peter Washington, Lewis Nash
Blues For Pres & Teddy (Swingbros) 2011
Harry Allen Quartet with Bill Charlap, Peter Washington, Dennis Mackrel
III. AND THE MIT ECONOMIST BEHIND THE CREATION OF THE BRAZIL-BORN Integrated Global Creative Economy
Matrix team-member Darius Mans, Economist (PhD, MIT), president of Africare (largest aid organization in Africa), presents Africare award to Lula (2012). From 2000 to 2004 Darius served as the World Bank’s Country Director for Mozambique and Angola, leading a team which generated $150 million in annual lending, including support for public private partnerships in infrastructure which catalyzed over $1 billion in private investment. Darius lives between Washington D.C. and Salvador, Bahia.
IV. LET THERE BE PATHWAYS!
"I am thrilled to receive your email! Thank you for including me in this wonderful matrix."
— Susan Rogers, Personal recording engineer for Prince at Paisley Park Recording Studio; Director, Music Perception & Cognition Laboratory, Berklee College of Music
"Many thanks for this - I am touched!" — Julian Lloyd Webber
"I'm truly thankful... Sohlangana ngokuzayo :)" — Nduduzo Makhathini, Blue Note Records
"Thanks, this is a brilliant idea!!" — Alicia Svigals, Klezmer violin, Founder of The Klezmatics
"This is super impressive work ! Congratulations ! Thanks for including me :)))" — Clarice Assad
"Thank you" — Banch Abegaze, manager, Kamasi Washington
The Matrix uncoils from the Recôncavo of Bahia, final port-of-call for more enslaved human beings than any other such throughout all of human history and from where some of the most physically and spiritually uplifting music ever made evolved...
...all essentially cut off from the world at large. But after 40,000 years of artistic creation by mankind, it's finally now possible to create bridges closely interconnecting all artists everywhere (having begun with the Saturno brothers above).
By the same mathematics positioning some 8 billion human beings within some 6 or so steps of each other, people in the Matrix tend to within close, accessible steps of everybody else inside the Matrix.
Brazil is not a European nation. It's not a North American nation. It's not an East Asian nation. It straddles — jungle and desert and dense urban centers — both the equator and the Tropic of Capricorn.
Brazil absorbed over ten times the number of enslaved Africans taken to the United States of America, and is a repository of African deities (and their music) now largely forgotten in their lands of origin.
Brazil was a refuge (of sorts) for Sephardim fleeing an Inquisition which followed them across the Atlantic (that unofficial symbol of Brazil's national music — the pandeiro — the hand drum in the opening scene above — was almost certainly brought to Brazil by these people).
Across the parched savannas of the interior of Brazil's culturally fecund nordeste/northeast, where wizard Hermeto Pascoal was born in Lagoa da Canoa (Lagoon of the Canoe) and raised in Olho d'Águia (Eye of the Eagle), much of Brazil's aboriginal population was absorbed into a caboclo/quilombola culture punctuated by the Star of David.
