Judy Carmichael

Judy Carmichael is a Grammy®-nominated Jazz pianist and vocalist who is one of the few jazz pianists honored as a Steinway Artist.

She specializes in a rare form of pre-1950's jazz, stride piano, where the pianist plays the bass line of the music with their left hand. and swing jazz.


 * "What made me unusual when I started doing that was that all the people playing stride were big men, and I was a surfer girl from California," she told the New York Times.

She is listed in American Women in Jazz, Who’s Who in American Woman, Who’s Who in the East, Who’s Who in Finance and Industry in America, Who’s Who in the World and in the “Encyclopedia of Jazz”.

On radio, Ms. Carmichael has been a guest performer on Garrison Keillor’s A Prairie Home Companion, and also made radio appearances on NPR’s Morning Edition. She primarily appears on radio as the host of Public Radio's Judy Carmichael's Jazz Inspired, a radio program that interviews creative people from all walks of life who talk about their creative process, and how their interest in jazz has affected that process.

On television, she has appeared on Entertainment Tonight and CBS’ Sunday Morning, both with host Charles Kuralt and with Charles Osgood.

Her show appears on American public radio, as well as Sirius/XM's NPR Now channel. She also writes articles for JazzTimes. She also produced and hosted a fifteen-part series for public radio: “Pet Style Radio with Judy Carmichael.”

Biography
Carmichael was born Judith Lea Hohenstein in suburban Southern California in 1952.

She began playing piano as a child. Her love of Ragtime began when her grandfather offered $50 to his first grandchild who could play "Maple Leaf Rag." Her first professional gig happened at age 19. She became a Ragtime pianist in her mid 20's, playing at Disneyland for five summers.

She was a protégé of jazz legends Sarah Vaughan and Count Basie. Basie met her when she was playing Ragtime piano at Casey's Corner, the Disneyland's Roaring '20s hot dog restaurant. where she met Count Basie. He encouraged her to look deeper into jazz history and take up stride. Basie dubbed her "Stride" for her unique mastery of one of Jazz's most difficult piano techniques.

Carmichael tried to break into the Jazz scene in Los Angeles, but most of the jazz clubs she found were male-dominated, intimidating, and a little unsafe to be a female musician. Count Basie urged her to move to New York City.

She did, in the 1980s and established herself as one of the few artists playing Stride and Ragtime, most often in small clubs or restaurants. She settled in Sag Harbor in 1992.

Carmichael has toured the world on major tours and on cruise ships. A trip sponsored by the United States Information Agency sent her to India, Portugal, Brazil and Singapore. In 1992, the United States Government sponsored her as the first jazz musician to tour China.

With traditionalist saxophonist Michael Hashim she performed a unique jazz duet of piano and saxophone without a rhythm section.

She made her debut as a vocalist on September 10th, 1996 at the Tavern on the Green restaurant in New York City.

Ms. Carmichael has served on a variety of music panels at the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). She has spoken before the National Council on the Arts and she hs been a tireless advocate for fellowship grants for individual performers. She oversaw music education activities for the Port Jeff Education and Arts Conservancy, a community center in Port Jefferson, New York, near her home of Sag Harbor.

She is mentioned in a Haughton Murphy mystery story, "Murder Times Two" as “the stride pianist Judy Carmichael,” the favorite piano player of the chief suspect.

Carmichael, particularly as ambassador and revivalist of a form of jazz that peaked in its mainstream popularity with artists with colorful names like Fats Waller, James P. Johnson, Maceo Pinkard and Willie "The Lion" Smith and Jelly Roll Morton, faded in the memory of all but the most dedicated of jazz aficionados, is known for being one of the most accessible jazz pianists in the business.


 * "I pride myself in making my concerts user-friendly," she told the New York Times. "I want to make the concert seem like I'm playing in their living room. I don't think welcoming means a smoky club atmosphere with dishes crashing in the background."

Discography
In 1980, Carmichael made her recording debut on Progressive and has gone on to record eleven albums to date. She released four albums in the 1980s, five in the 1990s. Two have been for larger labels. The majority are released on her private C&D PRODUCTIONS label.

Her Southern Swing in 2008 was recorded live at the Wangaratta Festival of Jazz.

1980s

 * Two Handed Stride, (Progressive), 1980
 * Jazz Piano, 1983
 * Old Friends (C&D PRODUCTIONS), 1985
 * Pearls, (Jazzology	) 1985

1990s

 * Trio (C&D PRODUCTIONS), 1993
 * Basie Called Her Stride (C&D PRODUCTIONS),	1994
 * Chops (C&D PRODUCTIONS), 1994
 * Judy (C&D PRODUCTIONS), 1994
 * High on Fats and Other Stuff (C&D PRODUCTIONS), 1997

2000s

 * Southern Swing (Australian Broadcasting Corporation/C&D PRODUCTIONS) ,2008
 * Come and Get It (C&D PRODUCTIONS / CD Baby), 2008

Major Performances

 * Carnegie Hall, New York City
 * Jazz Festival 2008 Brazil
 * Jazz at Lincoln Center's Fats Waller Festival
 * Peggy Guggenheim Museum, Venice, Italy
 * Tanglewood Jazz Festival
 * 92d Street Y's Jazz in July

Private Recitals for

 * Rod Stewart
 * Robert Redford
 * President Bill Clinton
 * Gianni Agnelli

Appearances with

 * Joel Grey
 * Michael Feinstein
 * Dick Hyman
 * Marcus Roberts
 * Steve Ross
 * The Smothers Brothers

Sidemen
Carmichael has performed most often with jazz traditionalist saxophonist Michael Hashim of the Widespread Jazz Orchestra, and guitarist Chris Flory, a member of Scott Hamilton's jazz combo. Other sidemen who have appeared with her:


 * Freddie Greene
 * Marshall Royal
 * Jeff Rupert

Music Books
Carmichael has authored two books on stride piano:


 * You Can Play Authentic Stride Piano
 * Introduction to Stride Piano

Her arrangement of "Ain't Misbehaving" also appears in an anthology of Jazz Standards :


 * Steinway & Sons VOL 4: Piano Stylings of the Great Standards - Ain't Misbehaving

Articles
Judy Carmichael is a prolific author, with numerous articles about jazz music, history, and culture that appear in JazzWeek and elsewhere.

Radio Host
Carmichael is also the nationally-syndicated host of Judy Carmichael’s Jazz Inspired, a National Public Radio show that debuted in 1993 and broadcast on over 170 stations throughout North America. It is also broadcast on Sirius Radio|Sirius/XM Satellite Radio's NPR NOW Channel and abroad. The show celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2013. She has interviewed numerous celebrities, including an interview with Raiders of the Lost Ark actress Karen Allen, actor Chevy Chase, singer Tony Bennett, rock pianist Billy Joel, actors John Lithgow, Robert Redford, F. Murray Abraham, and many more.