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Learn 50 things you didn't know about musician Jason Moran.
1. In 1999, the same year that Jason Moran released his debut recording Soundtrack To Human Motion, the prodigy pianist and composer also joined New Directions, a band made up of young stars from the Blue Note roster that went on tour in celebration of the label's 60th anniversary.
2. At the core of New Directions was the genesis of a rhythm section-with Moran, bassist Tarus Mateen, and drummer Nasheet Waits-that would go on to become one of the most enduringly creative piano trios in jazz.
3. Ten years later, the trailblazing trio-which Moran has since dubbed The Bandwagon-headed into Avatar Studios in Manhattan to record Ten, the most assured and focused album of Moran's acclaimed career, a snapshot of a mature band with a decade of shared musical experience from which to draw.
4. The Bandwagon made their first recording as a trio with Facing Left in 2000, and has been the foundation of the majority of Moran's artistic statements since.
5. The trio has been augmented by saxophonist Sam Rivers for 2001's Black Stars, (which was named to NPR's list of "The Decade's 50 Most Important Recordings") and guitarist Marvin Sewell on 2005's blues exploration Same Mother as well as 2006's Artist In Residence, a compendium of Moran's arts institution commissions that also featured collaborations with soprano Alicia Hall Moran and conceptual artist Adrian Piper.
6. Rolling Stone has called Moran "the most provocative thinker in current jazz," and in Mateen and Waits, he has found his ideal companions, two distinctive voices on their instruments who are restlessly creative and share his open-mindedness and diversity of influences, not just beyond jazz in classical music and hip hop, but also beyond music in art, film, dance, and theater.
7. In a recent live review in The New York Times, critic Nate Chinen praised Moran's "fierce longstanding group," adding that they "didn't follow his lead so much as flank him on both sides. Though it's a trio its sound described something bigger and more indivisible."
8. "RFK In The Land Of Apartheid" is the main theme from a film score that Moran composed for Larry Shore's documentary RFK In The Land Of Apartheid about Robert Kennedy's historic 1966 visit to South Africa.
9. "Pas De Deux," the sole solo performance on the album, comes from Moran's first-ever dance collaboration with choreographer Alonzo King's Lines Ballet company.
10. Also on Ten are compositions by three of Moran's foremost influences: Thelonious Monk, Andrew Hill, and Jaki Byard.
11. Jason Moran is a jazz pianist, composer and educator, heavily involved in multimedia art and theatrical installations.
12. Moran recorded first with Greg Osby and debuted as a band leader with the 1999 album Soundtrack to Human Motion.
13. Since then, he has released eight other albums--with his trio The Bandwagon, solo or leading other ensembles--and appeared in about thirty albums as a sideman.
14. Moran was born in Houston, Texas. He grew up in Pleasantville, Houston, Texas.
15. His high middle-class parents, Andy, an investment banker and Mary a teacher, encouraged his musical and artistic sensibilities at the Houston Symphony, museums and galleries, and through a relationship with John T. Biggers and a collection of their own.
16. Moran began training at classical piano playing, in Yelena Kurinets' Suzuki method music school, when he was six.
17. His father's extensive records collection (around 10,000 in 2004), varied from Motown, to classical to avant-garde jazz.
18. As a boy he developed a preference for hip hop music over the piano until, at the age of 13, he first heard the song "′Round Midnight" by Thelonious Monk at home, and switched his efforts to jazz.
19. Monk's childlike melodies, with their many silent spaces, struck him as relatively easy to play and not overly ornate, while the rhythms were reminiscent of hip hop songs, and the harmonies unorthodox.
20. Both jazz and hip hop were part of Houston's skateboarding scene in which he was involved.
21. He attended Houston's High School for the Performing and Visual Arts (HSPVA), graduating in 1993 the jazz program headed by Robert Morgan.
22. In his senior year, he was student director of the school's jazz combo, and part of the Texas high school all-state jazz ensamble.
23. He then enrolled at the Manhattan School of Music, which he would graduate in 1997 with a BM degree, to study with pianist Jaki Byard.
24. The next year he participated in Betty Carter's Jazz Ahead exclusive workshop, composing the piece "Make a Decision" for the final concert.
25. In 1997, when Moran was a senior at Manhattan School of Music, he was invited to join the band of saxophonist Greg Osby for a European tour, following a conversation, that lingered mostly on older piano jazz, and no audition.
26. Osby liked his playing, and Moran continued to play with Osby's group upon their return to the United States, making his first recorded appearance on Osby's 1997 Blue Note album Further Ado.
27. He would subsequently appear on several other Osby albums and Osby would introduce him to avant-garde pianists Muhal Richard Abrams and Andrew Hill.
28. His stint with Osby led Moran to signing a contract of his own with Blue Note.
29. His debut Soundtrack to Human Motion was released in 1999.
30. Moran was joined on the album by Osby, drummer Eric Harland (a classmate of Moran's at the Manhattan School, and the one who recommended him to Osby), vibraphonist Stefon Harris and acoustic bassist Lonnie Plaxico.
31. Moran has been on the faculty of the New England Conservatory of Music since 2010, where he delivers a yearly masterclass, and the Manhattan School of Music, taking over the position occupied by his former teacher, Jaki Byard.
32. In the Kennedy Center he has been the musical adviser for jazz from 2011, and artistic director for jazz from 2014, occupying the position of Billy Taylor.
33. Focused on attracting larger and younger audience, he created at Kenndy the Crossroads Club.
34. Moran and his family manage the granting of "Moran Scholarship Award", first set in 1994 for jazz students at HSPVA. In 2005 they set in Houston The Mary Lou Chester Moran Foundation, for similar purposes.
35. In 2013 he expressed support for the Justice for Jazz Artists campaign of the American Federation of Musicians.
36. JazzTimes' 2011 Expanded Critics' Poll voted Moran second place "Artist of the Year", and first place "Pianist of the Year"; the Charles Lloyd New Quartet, "Acoustic Group of the Year" and The Bandwagon fifth place in that category.
37. In 2013, the New Quartet was second place in its category and Moran, second in pianists.
38. Moran has won a number of awards, including The Jazz Journalists Association's "Up-n-Coming Jazz Musician" award in 2003.
39. The Down Beat critics poll voted him Rising Star Jazz Artist, Rising Star Pianist, and Rising Star Composer for three years straight (2003-05).
40. In 2013, Moran held residencies in SFJAZZ, Juilliard and Molde Jazz Festival.
41. Another full-length documentary, Grammar about "jazz through Jason Moran" and genre boundaries, is in the making, after first director Radiclani Clytus had found funding in a 2012 kickstarter campaign.
42. Moran married Alicia Hall Moran, a mezzo-soprano singer and artistic collaborator,in 2003.
43. The couple lives in Harlem and have twins.
44. He has an older brother and a younger.
45. Two of his cousins, Tony and Michael Llorens, toured with Albert King playing piano and drums, and were recorded on In Session.
46. His uncle Joe is a painter.
47. Besides recordings under his own name, Moran has recorded with a range of other musicians including Greg Osby, Steve Coleman, Charles Lloyd, Cassandra Wilson, Joe Lovano, Christian McBride, Von Freeman, Francisco Mela, and Don Byron.
48. In April 2007 Moran took the piano in Charles Lloyd's New Quartet, succeeding Geri Allen. He was the last member to join the group, which keep touring (As of 2014), recorded one studio album and two live ones. Moran and Lloyd recorded a duo album, Hagar's Song, in 2013.
49. From September 2009 to about 2012 Moran toured with Dave Holland's Overtone Quartet.
50. Since 2011 Moran has been performing the show "Fats Waller dance party", originally commissioned by Harlem Stage. It became the basis of a 2014 release, All Rise: A Joyful Elegy for Fats Waller, dedicated to Fats Waller and the form of popular entertainment that jazz was in his days.
Source: facebook.com/pages/Jason-Moran, Wikipedia.org
