Dave Kikoski is an exceptional American jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

 pianist and keyboardist.

Kikoski learned piano from his father and played with him in bars as a teenager. He studied at the Berklee College of Music

Berklee College of Music

Berklee College of Music, located in Boston, Massachusetts, is the largest independent college of contemporary music in the world. Known primarily as a school for jazz, rock and popular music, it also offers college-level courses in a wide range of contemporary and historic styles, including hip...

 in the early 1980s, then moved to New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

 in 1985, touring and recording subsequently with Roy Haynes

Roy Haynes

Roy Owen Haynes is an American jazz drummer and bandleader. Haynes is among the most recorded drummers in jazz, and in a career lasting more than 60 years has played in a wide range of styles ranging from swing and bebop to jazz fusion and avant-garde jazz...

 (from 1986), Randy Brecker

Randy Brecker

Randal "Randy" Brecker is an American trumpeter and flugelhornist. He is a highly sought after performer in the genres of jazz, rock, and R&B, and has performed or recorded with Stanley Turrentine, Billy Cobham, Bruce Springsteen, Lou Reed, Sandip Burman, Charles Mingus, Blood, Sweat & Tears,...

 (1986-88), Bob Berg

Bob Berg

Bob Berg was a jazz saxophonist originally from Brooklyn, New York City. He started his musical education at the age of six when he began studying classical piano. He began playing the saxophone at the age of thirteen. Bob Berg was a Juilliard graduate influenced heavily by the late 1964–67 period...

 (1988), and Billy Hart

Billy Hart

William "Billy" Hart is a jazz drummer and educator who has performed with some of the most important jazz musicians in history.-Biography:Early on Hart performed in Washington, D.C...

 (1989). He has also played or recorded with George Garzone

George Garzone

George Garzone is a saxophonist and jazz educator residing in New York city.Saxophonist George Garzone is a member of The Fringe, a jazz trio founded in 1972 that includes bassist John Lockwood and drummer Bob Gullotti, that performs regularly in the Boston area and has toured world wide. The...

, Barry Finnerty

Barry Finnerty

Michael Barry Finnerty is an American jazz guitarist, keyboardist, and bassist, best known for his work as a session musician for artists like Miles Davis and the Crusaders...

, Red Rodney

Red Rodney

Robert Roland Chudnick , who performed by the stage name Red Rodney, was an American bop and hard bop trumpeter.-Biography:...

, Craig Handy

Craig Handy

Craig Mitchell Handy is an American post-bop tenor saxophonist.Born in Oakland, California, Handy attended North Texas State University from 1981 to 1984, and following this played with Art Blakey, Wynton Marsalis, Roy Haynes, Abdullah Ibrahim, Elvin Jones, Joe Henderson, Betty Carter, George...

, Ralph Moore

Ralph Moore

-Biography:Ralph Moore was born in London, England and grew up in a crowded inner city area. He evinced no particular musical interest until his mother bought him a trumpet when he was 13. Ralph studied with the late Alan Briggs, a local musician, in Brixton, and was soon sitting in with pub bands....

, Didier Lockwood

Didier Lockwood

Didier Lockwood is a French jazz violinist. He played in the progressive rock/jazz fusion band Magma in the 1970s and is known for his use of electric amplification and experimentation on different sounds on the electric violin....

, Joe Locke

Joe Locke

Joseph Paul Locke is a US American jazz vibraphonist, composer, recording artist and educator.-Biography:Locke was born in Palo Alto, California, but raised in Rochester, New York...

, Olivier Ker Ourio

Olivier Ker Ourio

Olivier Ker Ourio is a jazz musician of Breton ancestry known for playing Chromatic harmonica. He has worked with Bruce Arnold, Franck Amsallem and David Kikoski among others. He has also shown an interest in Creole music and Celtic music.-References:...

 and Mingus Big Band

Mingus Big Band

The Mingus Big Band is an ensemble, based in New York City, that specializes in the compositions of the late Charles Mingus. It is managed by his widow, Sue Mingus and represented by Tree Lawn Artists, Inc.. In addition to its weekly Monday night appearance at the Jazz Standard in New York City,...

. Dave won a 2011 Grammy Award with the Mingus Big Band for the Best Live Jazz Ensemble Album, "Live at the Jazz Standard". He also had a Grammy nomination with Roy Haynes for the "Birds of a Feather" CD.

As leader

• Presage (Freelance Records, 1989)
• Persistent Dreams (Triloka Records, 1991)
• Dave Kikoski (Epicure Records, 1994)
• Inner Trust (Criss Cross Jazz
  Criss Cross Jazz
  Criss Cross Jazz is a Dutch jazz record label, specializing in American jazz.Criss Cross was founded in 1980 by Gerry Teekens, a drummer and German professor. The label, which releases about 20 albums per year, is noted for its simple, block-color cover art...
  
  , 1998)
• Maze (Criss Cross, 1999)
• Almost Twilight (Criss Cross, 2000)
• Surf's Up (Criss Cross, 2001)
• Comfortable Strange (DIW Records
  DIW Records
  DIW Records is a Japanese record label. It is a subsidiary label of Disc Union and specializes in jazz and avant garde music. Kazunori Sugiyama was an executive producer for the label before starting Tzadik Records with John Zorn.-Discography:...
  
  , 2002)
• The Five (DIW, 2002)
• Combinations (Criss Cross, 2002)
• Details (Criss Cross, 2004)
• Lighter Way (Apria Records, 2006)
• Limits (Criss Cross, 2006)
• Mostly Standards (Criss Cross, 2009)
• Live At Smalls (Smalls Live, 2010)