Brian Roy Haas (born March 18, 1974) is an American jazz pianist and founding member of the band

Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey (or JFJO or The Fred) is an American instrumental music group started in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1994. The band has had 16 different members in 20 years and put out 25 albums under the leadership of keyboardist/composer Brian H ...

. Haas spent his formative years in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, a suburb of

Tulsa Tulsa () is the second-largest city in the U.S. state, state of Oklahoma and List of United States cities by population, 47th-most populous city in the United States. The population was 413,066 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. ...

. He began studying

classical piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

at age five. He won local and regional piano competitions at a young age. When he was sixteen, he won the Oklahoma Concerto Competition. He performed with the

Tulsa Philharmonic The Tulsa Philharmonic was an American symphony orchestra located in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The orchestra was founded in 1948 by H. Arthur Brown who was principal conductor from 1948 till 1958. The original Tulsa Philharmonic grew out of a small group ...

. After graduating from high school, he received a scholarship to study classical music at the University of Tulsa, but while in college he became interested in jazz and switched his major. In January 2011 JFJO recorded a suite of music based on the

Tulsa Race Riot The Tulsa race massacre, also known as the Tulsa race riot or the Black Wall Street massacre, was a two-day-long massacre that took place between May 31 – June 1, 1921, when mobs of white residents, some of whom had been appointed as deput ...

. Haas signed with

Rykodisc Rykodisc is an American record label owned by Warner Music Group, operating as a unit of WMG's Independent Label Group and is distributed through Alternative Distribution Alliance. History Claiming to be the first Compact Disc, CD-only independ ...

/Hyena Records, which released his first album, ''The Truth About Hollywood'' (2005), a combination of Hass's compositions and cover versions of songs by

Thelonious Monk Thelonious Sphere Monk (, October 10, 1917 – February 17, 1982) was an American jazz pianist and composer. He had a unique improvisational style and made numerous contributions to the standard jazz repertoire, including " 'Round Midnight", "B ...

Discography

References

External links

Official site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Haas, Brian American jazz pianists American male pianists Aspen Music Festival and School alumni Living people 1974 births University of Tulsa alumni 21st-century American pianists 21st-century American male musicians American male jazz musicians