Bill Cunliffe


 * For the rugby league footballer, see Billy Cunliffe

Bill Cunliffe (b. June 26, 1956) is an American jazz pianist and composer based in Los Angeles He has been described by The New York Times as being in the "modern jazz mainstream" and as an "accomplished pianist and composer." Ernie Rideout of Keyboard Magazine described Cunliffe's playing as "inventive, melodic, and soulful.". He has written books on jazz for Alfred Publications, and teaches at California State University, Fullerton.

Early life
Cunliffe was born in Andover, Massachusetts. He explained in an interview with All About Jazz writer Fred Jung that he discovered music at an early age, with particular emphasis on classical music as well as jazz-oriented music from the 1960s and 1970s: My mother was a good pianist ... I started just copying little things that I would hear my mom play and I would sit next to her and listen. ––Bill Cunliffe

Cunliffe described himself as having been drawn to "anything with hip harmony in it" with great melodies, and he loved listening to artists such as The Fifth Dimension, Burt Bacharach and Herb Alpert. He attended Phillips Academy, and graduated in 1974 in the school's first co–educational class. His classmates included software financier Peter Currie, actor Dana Delany, painter Julian Hatton, poet Karl Kirchwey, writer Nate Lee, political commentator Heather Mac Donald, restauranteur Priscilla Martel, TV producer Jonathan Meath, editor Sara Nelson, and sculptor Gar Waterman. Cunliffe initially liked rock–and–roll music, particularly by groups such as Fleetwood Mac.

In college, he performed rock–and–roll gigs at the Prince Spaghetti House in Saugus, Massachusetts. Cunliffe attended Wesleyan University for several years. During this time, a friend named Michael Zaitchik introduced him to a jazz record of Oscar Peterson, and after listening to this record, Cunliffe became a "jazz player overnight", he recalled later. While in school, he considered careers in medicine and psychology, but in his junior year, he decided finally that "music was it."

After graduating from Duke University, where he studied with Mary Lou Williams, he received his masters degree from the Eastman School of Music

Career
Cunliffe taught music at Central State University in Wilberforce, Ohio. He toured as pianist and arranger with the Buddy Rich Big Band, and worked with major recording artists including Frank Sinatra. He returned to Southern Ohio for a few years, where he played piano in various hotels, and wrote jingles for several music production houses. He was the "house pianist" at the Greenwich Tavern in Ohio. He moved to Los Angeles and worked with jazz notables including Ray Brown, Joe Henderson, Freddie Hubbard, Benny Golson and James Moody.

Cunliffe commented on how a jazz piece should be structured: I like jazz to have a beginning, a middle and an end ... an arc, like a symphony that builds to a big climax. In the 1990s, Cunliffe wrote educational publications. His book Jazz Keyboard Toolbox was published by Alfred Publications and became a standard reference in jazz. He made an educational DVD and book on beginning jazz piano for Alfred. He then published Jazz Inventions for Keyboard; short pieces in the style of the Chopin Preludes and Bach Inventions, with an accompanying audio CD. Most recently, he published Uniquely Familiar, a book of through-composed arrangements of jazz standards.

Cunliffe made three jazz albums for Warner/Discovery Records which achieved recognition in nationwide jazz polls. He recorded Bill in Brazil during a stint in Rio De Janeiro which was well received. He recorded several albums for Azica Records, including several with flutist Holly Hofmann. In 2000, he recorded with Torii Records. There is a sextet session of Earl Zindars’ music, and the first recording of his Latin octet, Imaginacion, which reached No. 2 in nationwide radio jazz charts. He described Zindars as being one of the first composers along with Dave Brubeck to "write songs where the signature changes" such as on the song How My Heart Sings: The first part of the song is in a waltz feel, but the middle part of the tune is in a 4/4, medium, swing jazz feel. That was very, very innovative for the fifties. ... His music is very interesting harmonically as well and he has a really strong melodic sense. ––Bill Cunliffe Bill documented his working trio of ten years with Live at Bernies which was released on both CD and vinyl, and which highlighted his work with bassist Darek Oleszkiewicz and former Bill Evans drummer Joe LaBarbera. He commented that LaBarbera was able to impart "a traditional rhythmic approach" which was "avant-garde".

Cunliffe played with bassist Martin Wind and drummer Tim Horner in New York City in 2008. He played with Martin Wind as well as saxophonist Scott Robinson in 2007 at the Kitano Hotel in Manhattan. He played at the Vail Jazz Festival in 2010. He performed with jazz-cabaret singer Ann Hampton Callaway in Manhattan at Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola in March 2011.

His big band compositions have been published by Kendor Music and the University of Northern Colorado Jazz Press. He is a Baldwin Pianos artist, and was Marian McPartland's guest on her famed Piano Jazz radio show in 1998. As a composer and arranger, Cunliffe's music has been performed by many orchestras, including the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra, the Illinois Philharmonic, the Reading Symphony, and the Henry Mancini Institute Orchestra. He composed Fantasy for piano jazz trio and orchestra which was performed in 2006 by the Manhattan School of Music Symphony. He composed a festive overture entitled Viva Mexico, which was premiered by the Illinois Philharmonic in 1999. He has composed numerous works for big band, orchestra, chamber groups, and choir. He has written extensively for television, and his music was in the Miramax feature Comic Book-The Movie, the Susan Sarandon film The Banger Sisters, and the James Caan television show Las Vegas. His concerto for trumpet and orchestra entitled fourth stream... La Banda was recently premiered by Terell Stafford. It was performed by the Temple University Symphony Orchestra, which was conducted by Luis Biava, at Verizon Hall in Philadelphia, and at Alice Tully Hall in New York City. In April 2010, his big band, including saxophonist Rob Lockhart, and trumpeter Willie Murillo, performed  and reviewer Tony Gieske wrote: The magnificent Bill Cunliffe orchestra played an interesting encore before leaving the bandstand at Vitello’s Saturday, a classic Count Basie number that you’d think would be hard to mess up. ... Everything was full and ringing. It was the icing on the various baked goods that Cunliffe was offering, keeping the ears a-tingle all evening. ... West Side Story, in Cunliffe’s Grammy-winning chart, was the evening’s wide-ranging centerpiece, and it was certainly impressive, particularly the I Feel Pretty part, taken at breakneck speed. ––reviewer Tony Gieske in The International Review of Music Cunliffe led the Resonance Jazz Orchestra at the Playboy Jazz Festival in Hollywood, California in June 2011.

In 2010, Mr. Cunliffe has been working on what he calls fourth stream which he defines as "jazz plus classical plus latin percussion". He described the piece La Banda as having a salsa vein injecting itself into the orchestra which "ends in a frenzy of double time percussion" and which involves an inversion of a Rachmaninoff melody.

I had this dream that this big artillery of musicians was playing this piece that I wrote, and I was sitting in the audience, which was very funny to me. – Bill Cunliffe

Teaching
Cunliffe is Professor of Music at California State University Fullerton, where he was honored as "Destinguished Faculty Member" in 2010. In addition, Cunliffe has taught at such institutions as Central State University, Musicians Institute in Hollywood, California State University, Northridge, the University of Southern California, and Temple University.

He has conducted numerous workshops and clinics as well. Ongoing residencies include the Skidmore Jazz Institute, and the Vail Jazz Workshop. In 2010 he made a DVD teaching beginning jazz and blues piano. He is composer–in–residence at All Saints Episcopal Church, in Pasadena, California. He composes and performs with flutist Holly Hofmann and the Latin jazz group Imaginacion.

Awards
Cunliffe won the 2010 Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Arrangement of Oscar Peterson's "West Side Story Medley". In 2006 he was nominated for a Grammy award for his jazz arrangement of his song Do It Again. He won several Down Beat Awards for his big band and orchestral pieces. In 1989, Cunliffe won the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Piano Award. He received stipends from the National Endowment for the Arts. He won a grant from the New Zealand School of Music and the Rodger Fox Big Band of New Zealand released a CD of Bill's jazz orchestra compositions. In 2005, he won the Philadelphia Jazz Composer competition sponsored by the American Composer Federation. In the 1990s, he was nominated for two Emmys for best original song on the television shows Another World and Guiding Light.

Personal life
Cunliffe, according to the Chicago Tribune, loves watching television but he doesn't do it on a TV set, but rather uses his computer. He has been described by fellow faculty members at California State University as "charming, witty, warm, and humble." There is a report that he is engaged to be married sometime in 2013.

Books

 * Jazz Keyboard Toolbox, Alfred Publications
 * Jazz Piano Inventions, Alfred Publications
 * Maxx Blues Keyboard, Alfred Publications
 * "Uniquely Familiar", Alfred Publications

Discography

 * That Time of Year
 * Live at Rocco
 * Live at Bernie's
 * Romantic Fantasy with orchestra directed by Jeffrey Schindler
 * Bill plays Bud
 * Partners in Crime
 * Satisfaction
 * A Rare Connection
 * A Paul Simon Songbook
 * Bill in Brazil
 * Just Duet with flutist Holly Hofmann
 * Imaginacion
 * Just Duet volume 2 with flutist Holly Hofmann
 * How My Heart Sings
 * Warriors with the Rodger Fox Big Band
 * The Blues and The Abstract Truth, Take 2
 * ''Three's Company" with flutist Holly Hofmann, trumpeter Terell Stafford, clarinetist Ken Peplowski, and violinist Regina Carter
 * ''Transformation" with the choir of All Saints Church, Pasadena, James Walker, director
 * An NPR Jazz Christmas with Marian McPartland II, song God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen by Bill Cunliffe