William Morrison Charlap (born October 15, 1966, pronounced "Shar-Lap") is an American

jazz pianist Jazz piano is a collective term for the techniques pianists use when playing jazz. The piano has been an integral part of the jazz idiom since its inception, in both solo and ensemble settings. Its role is multifaceted due largely to the instru ...

. In 2016, '' The Silver Lining: The Songs of Jerome Kern'', an album produced by Charlap and

Tony Bennett Anthony Dominick Benedetto (born August 3, 1926), known professionally as Tony Bennett, is an American retired singer of traditional pop standards, big band, show tunes, and jazz. Bennett is also a painter, having created works under his birth ...

, won the award for

Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album The Grammy Award for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album is an award presented to recording artists at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards. Honors in several categories are presented ...

at the

58th Annual Grammy Awards The 58th Annual Grammy Awards was held on February 15, 2016, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. The ceremony recognizes the best recordings, compositions and artists of the eligibility year, which was from October 1, 2014, to September 30, 20 ...

Early life and education

Born in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, Bill Charlap comes from a musical background. His father was the composer Moose Charlap. His mother, Sandy Stewart, is a singer who was a regular on Perry Como's ''

Kraft Music Hall ''The Kraft Music Hall'' was a popular old-time radio variety program, featuring top show business entertainers, which aired first on NBC radio from 1933 to 1949. Radio ''The Kraft Program'' debuted June 26, 1933, as a musical-variety progra ...

'' television series and had a hit recording in 1962 with " My Coloring Book". Charlap is a distant cousin of the jazz pianist

Dick Hyman Richard Hyman (born March 8, 1927) is an American jazz pianist and composer. Over a 70-year career, he has worked as a pianist, organist, arranger, music director, electronic musician, and composer. He was named a National Endowment for the Art ...

. Charlap began playing piano at the age of three. He studied classical music, but his career has been in jazz.

Career

Charlap recorded ''Love Is Here to Stay'' (2004) and ''Something to Remember'' (2012) with his mother, Sandy Stewart. His albums ''Somewhere'', featuring the music of

Leonard Bernstein Leonard Bernstein ( ; August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, pianist, music educator, author, and humanitarian. Considered to be one of the most important conductors of his time, he was the first America ...

, and ''Live at The Village Vanguard'' received Grammy Award nominations. He has worked with

Gerry Mulligan Gerald Joseph Mulligan (April 6, 1927 – January 20, 1996), also known as Jeru, was an American jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, composer and arranger. Though primarily known as one of the leading jazz baritone saxophonists—playing the instrum ...

Benny Carter Bennett Lester Carter (August 8, 1907 – July 12, 2003) was an American jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, trumpeter, composer, arranger, and bandleader. With Johnny Hodges, he was a pioneer on the alto saxophone. From the beginning of his career ...

Phil Woods Philip Wells Woods (November 2, 1931 – September 29, 2015) was an American jazz alto saxophonist, clarinetist, bandleader, and composer. Biography Woods was born in Springfield, Massachusetts. After inheriting a saxophone at age 12, he began ...

, Scott Hamilton and others. In the mid-1990s, he was the musical director of ''Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, A Celebration of

Johnny Mercer John Herndon Mercer (November 18, 1909 – June 25, 1976) was an American lyricist, songwriter, and singer, as well as a record label executive who co-founded Capitol Records with music industry businessmen Buddy DeSylva and Glenn E. Wallich ...

'', part of New York's

JVC Jazz Festival The Newport Jazz Festival is an annual American multi-day jazz music festival held every summer in Newport, Rhode Island. Elaine Lorillard established the festival in 1954, and she and husband Louis Lorillard financed it for many years. They hir ...

. In 1995, he joined the Phil Woods Quintet. Charlap appears at least twice a year for engagements at jazz clubs, including the

Village Vanguard The Village Vanguard is a jazz club at Seventh Avenue South in Greenwich Village, New York City. The club was opened on February 22, 1935, by Max Gordon. Originally, the club presented folk music and beat poetry, but it became primarily a jazz ...

, with his rhythm section, consisting of

Peter Washington Peter Washington (born in Los Angeles on August 28, 1964) is a jazz double bassist. He played with the Westchester Community Symphony at the age of 14. Later he played electric bass in rock bands. He attended the University of California, Berke ...

(

double bass The double bass (), also known simply as the bass () (or #Terminology, by other names), is the largest and lowest-pitched Bow (music), bowed (or plucked) string instrument in the modern orchestra, symphony orchestra (excluding unorthodox addit ...

) and Kenny Washington (drums) (the two are not related to each other). Since 2001, he has recorded as a member of the New York Trio for the Japanese label

Venus Records Venus Records is a Japanese jazz record label. It was founded in 1992 by Tetsuo Hara, who had worked as a producer for RCA Victor. It mostly works with a select group of artists from Italy, the United States, and Japan, and uses a signature 24-b ...

. The other members of the New York Trio are bassist

Jay Leonhart Jay Leonhart (born December 6, 1940) is a double bassist, singer, and songwriter who has worked in jazz and popular music. He has performed with Judy Garland, Bucky Pizzarelli, Carly Simon, Frank Sinatra, and Sting. Leonhart is noted for his cl ...

and drummer Bill Stewart. Charlap succeeded

as Artistic Director of New York City's

92nd Street Y 92nd Street Y, New York (92NY) is a cultural and community center located on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City, at the corner of East 92nd Street and Lexington Avenue. Founded in 1874 as the Young Men's Hebrew Association, the ...

Jazz in July six-program series after Hyman's 20th year in 2004. He and his wife, Canadian jazz pianist Renee Rosnes, released an album of piano duets ''Double Portrait'' on Blue Note Records/

EMI EMI Group Limited (originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records Ltd. or simply EMI) was a British transnational conglomerate founded in March 1931 in London. At the time of its break-up in 201 ...

. In 2008, Charlap became part of

The Blue Note 7 The Blue Note 7 are a jazz septet formed in 2008 in honor of the 70th anniversary of Blue Note Records. The group consists of Peter Bernstein (guitar), Bill Charlap (piano), Ravi Coltrane (tenor saxophone), Lewis Nash (drums), Nicholas Payton ...

, a septet formed that year in honor of the 70th anniversary of

Blue Note Records Blue Note Records is an American jazz record label owned by Universal Music Group and operated under Capitol Music Group. Established in 1939 by Alfred Lion and Max Margulis, it derived its name from the blue notes of jazz and the blues. Or ...

. The group recorded an album in 2008, ''

Mosaic A mosaic is a pattern or image made of small regular or irregular pieces of colored stone, glass or ceramic, held in place by plaster/mortar, and covering a surface. Mosaics are often used as floor and wall decoration, and were particularly pop ...

'', which was released in 2009 on Blue Note/

, and toured the United States in promotion of the album from January to April 2009. The group plays the music of Blue Note Records from various artists, with arrangements by members of the band and his wife Renee Rosnes. In September 2015, Charlap became the Director of Jazz Studies at

William Paterson University William Paterson University, officially William Paterson University of New Jersey (WPUNJ), is a public university in Wayne, New Jersey. It is part of New Jersey's public system of higher education. Founded in 1855 and was named after American ju ...

in Wayne,

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

Personal life

He married the Canadian jazz pianist Renee Rosnes in New York City on August 25, 2007. He has two daughters from a previous marriage and one stepson from Rosnes’ previous marriage to

Billy Drummond Willis Robert "Billy" Drummond Jr. (born June 19, 1959) is an American jazz drummer. Early life Billy Drummond was born in Newport News, Virginia, where he grew up listening to the extensive jazz record collection of his father, an amateur dr ...

Discography

As leader or co-leader

As a member

* '' Mosaic: A Celebration of Blue Note Records'' (

Blue Note In jazz and blues, a blue note is a note that—for expressive purposes—is sung or played at a slightly different pitch from standard. Typically the alteration is between a quartertone and a semitone, but this varies depending on the musical co ...

, 2009) – recorded in 2008 Other Blue Note appearances * Bill Charlap,

Elvis Costello Declan Patrick MacManus Order of the British Empire, OBE (born 25 August 1954), known professionally as Elvis Costello, is an English singer-songwriter and record producer. He has won multiple awards in his career, including a Grammy Award in ...

Hank Jones Henry Jones Jr. (July 31, 1918 – May 16, 2010) was an American jazz pianist, bandleader, arranger, and composer. Critics and musicians described Jones as eloquent, lyrical, and impeccable. In 1989, The National Endowment for the Arts honored ...

Joe Lovano Joseph Salvatore Lovano (born December 29, 1952)"Joe Lovano." ''Contemporary Musicians''. Vol. 13. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale, 1994. Retrieved via ''Biography in Context'' database, May 5, 2017. is an American jazz saxophonist, alto clarin ...

Dianne Reeves Dianne Elizabeth Reeves (born October 23, 1956) is an American jazz singer. Biography Dianne Reeves was born in Detroit, Michigan, into a musical family. Her father sang, her mother played trumpet, her uncle is bassist Charles Burrell, and h ...

, ''Billy Strayhorn: Lush Life'' (Blue Note, 2007) – compositions of

Billy Strayhorn William Thomas Strayhorn (November 29, 1915 – May 31, 1967) was an American jazz composer, pianist, lyricist, and arranger, who collaborated with bandleader and composer Duke Ellington for nearly three decades. His compositions include "Take ...

As sideman

With Harry Allen * ''Harry Allen Plays Ellington Songs with the Bill Charlap Trio'' (

RCA Victor RCA Records is an American record label currently owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship labels, alongside RCA's former long-time rival Columbia Records; also Aris ...

, 2000) – recorded in 1999 * ''Blues for Pres and Teddy'' (Swingbros, 2011) With

* 1997: ''Chasin' the Bird'' (

Venus Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is sometimes called Earth's "sister" or "twin" planet as it is almost as large and has a similar composition. As an interior planet to Earth, Venus (like Mercury) appears in Earth's sky never fa ...

, 1998) * 2000: ''Voyage with the Bill Charlap Trio at the Floating Jazz Festival Aboard the QE2'' (Chiaroscuro, 2001) * 2002: ''The Thrill is Gone'' with strings (Venus, 2003) * 2002: ''The Great American Songbook'', Volumes 1 & 2 (Kind of Blue, 2006) With others *

Ruby Braff Reuben "Ruby" Braff (March 16, 1927 – February 9, 2003) was an American jazz trumpeter and cornetist. Jack Teagarden was once asked about him on the Garry Moore television show and described Ruby as "the Ivy League Louis Armstrong". Braff ...

, ''You Brought a New Kind of Love'' ( Arbors, 2004) *

Johnny Frigo Johnny Frigo (December 27, 1916 – July 4, 2007) was an American jazz violinist, bassist and songwriter. He appeared in the 1940s as a violinist before working as a bassist. He returned to the violin in the 1980s and enjoyed a comeback, recordin ...

, '' Johnny Frigo's DNA Exposed!'' (Arbors, 2001) * With Jon Gordon, ''Spark'' (Chiaroscuro, 1995) * Scott Hamilton, ''Back to New York'' (Concord Jazz, 2005) *

, ''Great Duets'' (Chiaroscuro, 1999) * Brian Lynch, ''Brian Lynch Meets Bill Charlap'' (Sharp Nine, 2003) *

, ''Lonesome Boulevard'' (

Verve Verve may refer to: Music * The Verve, an English rock band * ''The Verve E.P.'', a 1992 EP by The Verve * ''Verve'' (R. Stevie Moore album) * Verve Records, an American jazz record label Businesses * Verve Coffee Roasters, an American coffee ho ...

, 2009) * the

Joe Roccisano Joseph Lucian Roccisano (October 15, 1939 in Springfield, Massachusetts – November 9, 1997) was an American jazz saxophonist and arranger. Career Roccisano received his bachelor's degree in music education from SUNY-Potsdam in 1963. In 1964 he ...

Orchestra, ''

Leave Your Mind Behind ''Leave Your Mind Behind'' is an album by the Joe Roccisano Orchestra which was released on Orrin Keepnews' Landmark label in 1995.Carol Sloane Carol Sloane (born March 5, 1937) is an American jazz singer born in Providence, Rhode Island, who has been singing professionally since she was 14, although for a time in the 1970s she worked as a legal secretary in Raleigh, North Carolina. In ...

, ''When I Look in Your Eyes'' (Concord, 1994) * Sean Smith, ''LIVE!'' (Chiaroscuro, 1999) * Grant Stewart, ''Grant Stewart + 4'' (VideoArts, 2005) – recorded in 2004 * Warren Vaché, ''Dream Dancing'' (Arbors, 2004) – recorded in 2003

References

External links

Biography
at All About Jazz
Official Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Charlap, Bill American jazz pianists Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School alumni Musicians from New York City People from West Orange, New Jersey State University of New York at Purchase alumni 1966 births Living people Blue Note Records artists Impulse! Records artists 20th-century American pianists Jazz musicians from New York (state) American male pianists 21st-century American pianists 20th-century American male musicians 21st-century American male musicians American male jazz musicians American people of Jewish descent The Blue Note 7 members Nagel-Heyer Records artists Venus Records artists Double-Time Records artists Criss Cross Jazz artists Chiaroscuro Records artists