John Esposito (pianist)
Encyclopedia
John Esposito is an American jazz
pianist
of advanced bebop
tendencies. Known as a composer for his own groups and a versatile sideman capable of all styles from stride piano
to free improvisation
, he is a pianist highly influenced by modernism
(Bartok
in particular), and capable of playing off of several rhythmic and harmonic levels at once. As manifested in music for his quintet (with Eric Person
on sax, Greg Glassman on trumpet, Kenny Davis
on bass, and Pete O'Brien on drums) and trio (with Ira Coleman on bass and Pete O'Brien on drums), Esposito's compositions are couched in an expansion of bebop harmony, often using rhythmic schemes of complex and suble metric modulation
. Some of his pieces are transformations of jazz standards rendered unrecognizable by such techniques as running the chord progression backwards, or using a complex system of chord substitutions.
Born in Brooklyn
, Esposito
was raised in the Hudson Valley
in a family that included policemen but also artists and musicians. His grandfather, a violin maker, was a jazz violinist and reed player, and played in the 1920s with the Paul Whiteman
Orchestra. Esposito attended the State University of New York at Albany. Majoring in musical composition
, he drew influences from visiting composers who came through, including John Cage
, Robert Ashley
, Frederic Rzewski
, and Elliot Carter. At the same time, however, he found himself drawn more to improvisation
, and, despite a rather late start, took up jazz
piano. (As a teenager, he had already played harmonica in a blues
band.) In 1980 Esposito moved to New York City, where he worked with saxophonist Arthur Rhames
, a neglected, almost forgotten figure who died of AIDS-related illness at 32 (1989), and who some nevertheless feel was the successor to John Coltrane
's mantle as the greatest creative performer on that instrument.
Esposito played in the Arthur Rhames Quartet for five years, and in 1987 launched his own jazz quintet called Second Sight, with Dave Douglas, Jeff Marx
, Allen Murphy
, Jeff Siegel, and Fred Berryhill. Notables he's performed with are Thurman Barker
, Nick Brignola
, Roy Campbell
, Santi Debriano
, Carter Jefferson
, John Lindberg
, Erica Lindsay
, Joe Lovano
, J.R. Monterose, David "fathead" Newman, and Roswell Rudd
. He has also recorded with Rashied Ali
, Dave Douglas, Dave Holland
, Franklin Kiermyer
, Jeff Marx
, Eric Person
, Arthur Rhames
, Sam Rivers
, Pharoah Sanders
, Michael Stuart
, and John Stubblefield
among others. In the 1990s he gradually (first as adjunct faculty and later as visiting professor) joined the faculty of Bard College
, where he teaches jazz piano, literature, and harmony. (One of his theory students was fellow faculty member Kyle Gann
). In 2006 Esposito formed his own record label SunJump in order to bring out recordings of his own groups and historical recordings in his archive.
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
Pianist
A pianist is a musician who plays the piano. A professional pianist can perform solo pieces, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers, solo instrumentalists, or other performers.-Choice of genres:...
of advanced bebop
Bebop
Bebop differed drastically from the straightforward compositions of the swing era, and was instead characterized by fast tempos, asymmetrical phrasing, intricate melodies, and rhythm sections that expanded on their role as tempo-keepers...
tendencies. Known as a composer for his own groups and a versatile sideman capable of all styles from stride piano
Stride piano
Harlem Stride Piano, Stride Piano, or just Stride, is a jazz piano style that was developed in the large cities of the East Coast, mainly in the New York, during 1920s and 1930s. The left hand may play a four-beat pulse with a single bass note, octave, seventh or tenth interval on the first and...
to free improvisation
Improvisation
Improvisation is the practice of acting, singing, talking and reacting, of making and creating, in the moment and in response to the stimulus of one's immediate environment and inner feelings. This can result in the invention of new thought patterns, new practices, new structures or symbols, and/or...
, he is a pianist highly influenced by modernism
Modernism
Modernism, in its broadest definition, is modern thought, character, or practice. More specifically, the term describes the modernist movement, its set of cultural tendencies and array of associated cultural movements, originally arising from wide-scale and far-reaching changes to Western society...
(Bartok
Béla Bartók
Béla Viktor János Bartók was a Hungarian composer and pianist. He is considered one of the most important composers of the 20th century and is regarded, along with Liszt, as Hungary's greatest composer...
in particular), and capable of playing off of several rhythmic and harmonic levels at once. As manifested in music for his quintet (with Eric Person
Eric Person
Eric Person is an American alto and soprano saxophone player and leader of Meta-Four and Metamorphosis. Since coming to New York City in 1982, Person has performed with a who's who list of legends on the jazz and rock scene...
on sax, Greg Glassman on trumpet, Kenny Davis
Kenny Davis
Kenny Davis is an American jazz bassist.Davis released two albums as leader for Soul Note.He was also member of the Blue Note Records group Out of the Blue and has appeared on albums by Gary Bartz, Art Farmer, Don Byron, Eric Person, Michele Rosewoman, Onaje Allan Gumbs and others.Kenny is...
on bass, and Pete O'Brien on drums) and trio (with Ira Coleman on bass and Pete O'Brien on drums), Esposito's compositions are couched in an expansion of bebop harmony, often using rhythmic schemes of complex and suble metric modulation
Metric modulation
In music a metric modulation is a change from one time signature/tempo to another, wherein a note value from the first is made equivalent to a note value in the second, like a pivot...
. Some of his pieces are transformations of jazz standards rendered unrecognizable by such techniques as running the chord progression backwards, or using a complex system of chord substitutions.
Born in Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
, Esposito
Esposito
Esposito is an Italian-language family surname originating from southern Italy, and is especially popular in the Campania region.-Etymology and history:...
was raised in the Hudson Valley
Hudson Valley
The Hudson Valley comprises the valley of the Hudson River and its adjacent communities in New York State, United States, from northern Westchester County northward to the cities of Albany and Troy.-History:...
in a family that included policemen but also artists and musicians. His grandfather, a violin maker, was a jazz violinist and reed player, and played in the 1920s with the Paul Whiteman
Paul Whiteman
Paul Samuel Whiteman was an American bandleader and orchestral director.Leader of the most popular dance bands in the United States during the 1920s, Whiteman's recordings were immensely successful, and press notices often referred to him as the "King of Jazz"...
Orchestra. Esposito attended the State University of New York at Albany. Majoring in musical composition
Musical composition
Musical composition can refer to an original piece of music, the structure of a musical piece, or the process of creating a new piece of music. People who practice composition are called composers.- Musical compositions :...
, he drew influences from visiting composers who came through, including John Cage
John Cage
John Milton Cage Jr. was an American composer, music theorist, writer, philosopher and artist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one of the leading figures of the post-war avant-garde...
, Robert Ashley
Robert Ashley
Robert Ashley , is a contemporary American composer, best known for his operas and other theatrical works, many of which incorporate electronics and extended techniques. Along with Gordon Mumma, Ashley was also a major pioneer of audio synthesis.Ashley was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan...
, Frederic Rzewski
Frederic Rzewski
Frederic Anthony Rzewski is an American composer and virtuoso pianist.- Biography :Rzewski began playing piano at age 5. He attended Phillips Academy, Harvard and Princeton, where his teachers included Randall Thompson, Roger Sessions, Walter Piston and Milton Babbitt...
, and Elliot Carter. At the same time, however, he found himself drawn more to improvisation
Improvisation
Improvisation is the practice of acting, singing, talking and reacting, of making and creating, in the moment and in response to the stimulus of one's immediate environment and inner feelings. This can result in the invention of new thought patterns, new practices, new structures or symbols, and/or...
, and, despite a rather late start, took up 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...
piano. (As a teenager, he had already played harmonica in a blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
band.) In 1980 Esposito moved to New York City, where he worked with saxophonist Arthur Rhames
Arthur Rhames
Arthur Rhames was a guitarist, tenor saxophonist, pianist and melodica stylist, Krishna devotee, and a legend of New York City avant-garde jazz.-Biography:...
, a neglected, almost forgotten figure who died of AIDS-related illness at 32 (1989), and who some nevertheless feel was the successor to John Coltrane
John Coltrane
John William Coltrane was an American jazz saxophonist and composer. Working in the bebop and hard bop idioms early in his career, Coltrane helped pioneer the use of modes in jazz and later was at the forefront of free jazz...
's mantle as the greatest creative performer on that instrument.
Esposito played in the Arthur Rhames Quartet for five years, and in 1987 launched his own jazz quintet called Second Sight, with Dave Douglas, Jeff Marx
Jeff Marx
Jeff Marx is a composer and lyricist of musicals. He is best known for creating the Broadway musical Avenue Q with collaborator Robert Lopez.- Early life :...
, Allen Murphy
Allen Murphy
Allen Murphy is a retired American professional basketball player. Murphy was a 6'4½" 190 lbs guard and at played shooting guard for the University of Louisville Cardinals of whom he was part of their 1975 Final Four team...
, Jeff Siegel, and Fred Berryhill. Notables he's performed with are Thurman Barker
Thurman Barker
Thurman Barker is an American jazz drummer.Barker's first professional experience was at age sixteen with Mighty Joe Young. Barker took his bachelor's at Empire State College, then studied at the American Conservatory of Music under Harold Jones and at Roosevelt University under Edward Parimba...
, Nick Brignola
Nick Brignola
-Biography:He was born on July 17, 1936 in Troy, New York. Nick was born into a musical family in which his father played the tuba and his uncle played the banjo. As a mostly self-taught musician, he developed his facility on all of his instruments using unconventional techniques, which gave his...
, Roy Campbell
Roy Campbell, Jr.
Roy Campbell, Jr. is versatile trumpeter frequently linked to free jazz, though he has also performed rhythm and blues, bebop and funk at times during his career. Born in Los Angeles, California in 1952, Campbell was raised in New York. At age fifteen Campbell began learning to play trumpet and...
, Santi Debriano
Santi Debriano
Santi Wilson Debriano is a jazz bassist.Debriano was raised in Brooklyn, having moved there with his family at age four. He studied composition at Union College in New York, then attended the New England Conservatory of Music and Wesleyan University...
, Carter Jefferson
Carter Jefferson
Carter Jefferson was an American jazz tenor saxophonist.Jefferson played clarinet and alto saxophone early in his career, playing in the backing bands for The Temptations, The Supremes, and Little Richard in the 1960s. In 1971, he entered New York University, and played with Mongo Santamaría and...
, John Lindberg
John Lindberg
John Lindberg is an American jazz double-bassist.Lindberg studied at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor and moved to New York City in 1977. There he played with the Human Arts Ensemble alongside Joseph Bowie and Bobo Shaw, and he was in ensembles with Anthony Braxton from 1978-1985...
, Erica Lindsay
Erica Lindsay
Erica Lindsay is an American saxophone player and composer. Erica Lindsay is an American jazz - saxophonist and composer....
, Joe Lovano
Joe Lovano
Joseph Salvatore "Joe" Lovano is a post bop jazz saxophonist, alto clarinetist, flautist, and drummer. Since the late 1980s, Lovano has been one of the world's premiere tenor saxophone players, earning a Grammy award and several nods on Down Beat magazine's critics' and readers' polls...
, J.R. Monterose, David "fathead" Newman, and Roswell Rudd
Roswell Rudd
Roswell Rudd is a Grammy Award-nominated American jazz trombonist and composer....
. He has also recorded with Rashied Ali
Rashied Ali
Rashied Ali, born Robert Patterson was an American free jazz and avant-garde jazz drummer best known for playing with John Coltrane in the last years of Coltrane's life.-Biography:...
, Dave Douglas, Dave Holland
Dave Holland
Dave Holland is an English jazz double bassist, composer and bandleader who has been performing and recording for five decades. He has lived in the United States for 40 years....
, Franklin Kiermyer
Franklin Kiermyer
Franklin Kiermyer in Montréal, Canada, is a drummer/composer who came to prominence in the 1990s during his long residency in New York City. Kiermyer's work is inspired by a variety of spiritual musics including the late period of John Coltrane...
, Jeff Marx
Jeff Marx
Jeff Marx is a composer and lyricist of musicals. He is best known for creating the Broadway musical Avenue Q with collaborator Robert Lopez.- Early life :...
, Eric Person
Eric Person
Eric Person is an American alto and soprano saxophone player and leader of Meta-Four and Metamorphosis. Since coming to New York City in 1982, Person has performed with a who's who list of legends on the jazz and rock scene...
, Arthur Rhames
Arthur Rhames
Arthur Rhames was a guitarist, tenor saxophonist, pianist and melodica stylist, Krishna devotee, and a legend of New York City avant-garde jazz.-Biography:...
, Sam Rivers
Sam Rivers
Samuel Carthorne Rivers , is an American jazz musician and composer. He performs on soprano and tenor saxophones, bass clarinet, flute, harmonica and piano....
, Pharoah Sanders
Pharoah Sanders
Pharoah Sanders is a Grammy Award–winning American jazz saxophonist.Saxophonist Ornette Coleman once described him as "probably the best tenor player in the world." Emerging from John Coltrane's groups of the mid-60s Sanders is known for his overblowing, harmonic, and multiphonic techniques on...
, Michael Stuart
Michael Stuart
Michael Stuart is an American salsa singer and actor.- Early years :Stuart was born in New York City, to Puerto Rican parents who settled in the 1960s after emigrating from Puerto Rico. There Stuart received his primary and secondary education. He was musically influenced by his uncle Israel...
, and John Stubblefield
John Stubblefield
John Stubblefield was an American jazz saxophonist, flautist, and oboist.Stubblefield was an adaptable musician; he was stationed with the World Saxophone Quartet , Reggie Workman , McCoy Tyner , Freddie Hubbard , and George Russell .-As leader:* Prelude with Onaje Allan Gumbs, Cecil McBee, Joe...
among others. In the 1990s he gradually (first as adjunct faculty and later as visiting professor) joined the faculty of Bard College
Bard College
Bard College, founded in 1860 as "St. Stephen's College", is a small four-year liberal arts college located in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York.-Location:...
, where he teaches jazz piano, literature, and harmony. (One of his theory students was fellow faculty member Kyle Gann
Kyle Gann
Kyle Eugene Gann is an American professor of music, critic and composer born in Dallas, Texas. As a critic for The Village Voice and other publications he has been a supporter of progressive music including such Downtown movements as postminimalism and totalism.- As composer :As a composer his...
). In 2006 Esposito formed his own record label SunJump in order to bring out recordings of his own groups and historical recordings in his archive.
Discography (group - title - year issued - label)
- John Esposito Quintet: The Blue People - 2006 - SunJump
- John Esposito Trio: Down Blue Marlin Road - 2006 - SunJump
- Eric Person: Reflection, the best of collection - 2007- Distinction Records
- Eric Person and Meta-Four: Live at Big Sur- 2003- Distinction Records
- Eric Person and Meta-Four: Extra Pressure - 1999 - Distinction Records
- Franklin Kiermyer: Sanctification - 1999 - Mobility Music/Sunship Records
- Franklin Kiermyer: Kairos - 1996 - Evidence Music
- Franklin Kiermyer, Pharoah Sanders, John Esposito, Drew Gress: Solomon's Daughter - 1994 - Evidence Music