Ben Waltzer
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Ben Waltzer is from Lansing, Michigan and attended high school at the Interlochen Arts Academy, where he won awards from Downbeat magazine and the National Association of Jazz Educators. He then enrolled in a double-degree program at the New England Conservatory - where he studied with pianists Geri Allen and Bevan Manson, and saxophonist Jimmy Giuffre - and Tufts University. In 1991 Mr. Waltzer transferred to Harvard University to pursue a degree in American History and Literature.
While at Harvard, he wrote a thesis on the jazz historian, essayist and novelist Albert Murray. He graduated magna cum laude in 1993 and was the recipient of Harvard’s Braverman Award for artistic excellence.
Mr. Waltzer then moved to New York and got a steady gig on New York’s lower-east side, enabling him to perform with a wide range of dedicated young musicians, including Bill McHenry, Reid Anderson, Jorge Rossy, and Leon Parker. In 1996 he recorded his first CD, “For Good,” featuring Mr. Rossy, and bassist Reid Anderson for the burgeoning Fresh Sound New Talent record label. Later that year, Mr. Waltzer moved to Barcelona for eight months to perform and teach, and recorded “Jazz is Where You Find It: Live at the Pipa Club” with the tenor saxophonist Bill McHenry, which Cuadernos De Jazz named the third-best worldwide jazz release of 1997. Cadence magazine called his latest record, “In Metropolitan Motion” (2000) a “winner because it revels in the jazz tradition rather than exploits it.” Allaboutjazz.com referred to it as an “inspired statement”. Jazz Times magazine recently hailed it the strongest of Fresh Sound’s latest releases.
Mr. Waltzer, who recently completed the musical directorship of Isaac Mizrahi’s off-broadway show, “Les Mizrahi”, is a regular on Mr. Mizrahi’s television program on the Oxygen network. He teaches jazz piano at Columbia University and the Maine Jazz Camp, and writes on jazz for The New York Times and other publications.
What the critics think:
“Mr. Waltzer is an imaginative pianist and composer, and he's part of a valid new underground in the jazz of this city, building on a foundation of straight-ahead jazz and adding foreign concepts and fresh sensibilities to it…he has a fistful of smart compositional ideas, and his regular quartet is spangled with some of the best young jazz players in New York.” - Ben Ratliff, The New York Times
“There’s a seat on the train next to fellow young pianists Bruce Barth, Brad Mehldau, Ethan Iverson and Bill Charlap. It belongs to Ben Waltzer whose taste and talent rival his peers.” - Michael G. Nastos, All Music Guide
“Waltzer is an elegant stylist. If you enjoy the creative swing mainstream, In Metropolitan Motion is a must” - David Lewis, Cadence
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