Jason Lindner (born February 1, 1973) is an American pianist, keyboardist, synthesist, sound designer, composer, arranger and producer.

Life and career

Lindner was brought up in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

, New York City.Matzner, Frank A. (August 18, 2014
"Jason Lindner: Beyond the Solo"
AllAboutJazz. His father played the piano and sang, and Jason began playing the piano at the age of 2. As a child, he liked heavy metal, then

bebop Bebop or bop is a style of jazz developed in the early-to-mid-1940s in the United States. The style features compositions characterized by a fast tempo, complex chord progressions with rapid chord changes and numerous changes of key, instrumen ...

and

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...

as a teenager.Greene, Andy (December 4, 2015
"David Bowie Keyboardist Jason Lindner on Making of 'Blackstar'"
''Rolling Stone''. He attended the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts. Lindner "made his mark during the 1990s", in part as leader of a big band that played at

Smalls Jazz Club Smalls Jazz Club is a jazz club at 183 West 10th Street, Greenwich Village, New York City. Established in 1994, it earned a reputation in the 1990s as a "hotbed for New York's jazz talent" with a "well-deserved reputation as one of the best places ...

in New York City.Adler, David R
"Artist Biography"
AllMusic. Retrieved February 7, 2015. He was also the club's house pianist around the time it opened in 1994. This band recorded the album ''Premonition'' in 1998Murph, John (June 2004
"Jason Lindner"
. ''JazzTimes''. and it was released in 2000, by which time Lindner had changed to leading a quintet. He performed and arranged for vocalist

Claudia Acuña Claudia Acuña (July 31, 1971, Santiago) is a Chilean jazz vocalist, songwriter, and arranger. Biography Born July 3 1971 in Santiago and raised in Concepcion, she was inspired as a child to perform a variety of music, including folk, pop and op ...

's first album, ''Wind from the South''. By 2004, Lindner was leading an electric group that consisted of Jacques Schwarz-Bart (sax), Avishai Cohen (trumpet), Reggie Washington (bass), and Gene Jackson (drums). His Now Vs. Now band began in 2006 as a quintet, with Cohen, Baba (beatbox, rap), Panagiotis Andreou (bass), and

Mark Guiliana Mark Guiliana (born September 2, 1980) is a Grammy-nominated American drummer, composer and leader of the band Beat Music. He is known for his playing with Avishai Cohen, Brad Mehldau, David Bowie, Meshell Ndegeocello, Gretchen Parlato, Jason ...

(drums). Lindner commented that "I wasn't playing jazz quartet gigs anymore. I was playing in a place where we could really experiment sonically, using electric bass, the drummer playing more groove-oriented beats and less straight ahead swing. ..I wanted to appeal to ordinary people and not just a jazz audience." In the first three months of 2015 he participated in recordings sessions for

David Bowie David Robert Jones (8 January 194710 January 2016), known professionally as David Bowie ( ), was an English singer-songwriter and actor. A leading figure in the music industry, he is regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the ...

's ''

Blackstar ''Blackstar'' is an American animated science fantasy television series, produced in 1981 by Lou Scheimer and Norm Prescott for Filmation. The series was Filmation's second fantasy epic, the first being '' The Freedom Force'', a segment of '' ...

''. For this recording, he used nine keyboards and a grand piano. Lindner reported that his subsequent production work was influenced by the presence of

Tony Visconti Anthony Edward Visconti (born April 24, 1944) is an American record producer, musician and singer. Since the late 1960s, he has worked with an array of performers. His first hit single was T. Rex's " Ride a White Swan" in 1970, the first of man ...

for the Bowie sessions.

Compositions

A 2004 observer commented that Lindner's compositions are often "buoyant, singable melodies enlivened by circular, interlocking rhythms that often coalesce, swell and burst into euphoric exclamations ..witha mesmerizing, transportive vibe that seamlessly reconciles elements of Afro-Cuban, modern and modal jazz with R&B, hip-hop and house music." Between the release of Now Vs. Now's first and second albums, Lindner's compositions became influenced more by electronica.

Awards

In 2009, Lindner's band was the winner of the Big Band Rising Star category in ''

Down Beat ' (styled in all caps) is an American music magazine devoted to "jazz, blues and beyond", the last word indicating its expansion beyond the jazz realm which it covered exclusively in previous years. The publication was established in 1934 in Chi ...

'' magazine's critics' poll. Lindner was ''Down Beats critics' poll winner of the Keyboard Rising Star category in 2013. In 2015, his band again won the Big Band Rising Star category in the ''Down Beat'' critics' poll."Rising Star, Big Band". (August 2015) ''Down Beat''. p. 64.

Discography

An asterisk (*) indicates that the year is that of release.

As leader/co-leader

As sideman

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lindner, Jason 1973 births Living people American jazz pianists American male pianists Musicians from New York City Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School alumni Pharaoh's Daughter members Jazz musicians from New York (state) 21st-century American pianists 21st-century American male musicians American male jazz musicians Sunnyside Records artists Fresh Sounds Records artists