Robert L. Steele ("Lanny") (December 30, 1933 – October 21, 1994) was an American jazz pianist, educator, composer, and jazz festival promoter. He founded the Texas Southern University Jazz Ensemble.
Steele graduated from Lamar High School in Houston, Texas. He studied music at the
University of North Texas
The University of North Texas (UNT) is a public research university in Denton, Texas. It was founded as a nonsectarian, coeducational, private teachers college in 1890 and was formally adopted by the state 11 years later."Denton Normal School," ...
College of Music, where he was a member of the
One O'Clock Lab Band
One O'Clock Lab Band is an ensemble of the Jazz Studies division at the University of North Texas College of Music in Denton, Texas. Since the 1970s, the band's albums have received seven Grammy Award nominations, including two for ''Lab 2009''. ...
.
He was a pianist for
Arnett Cobb
Arnett Cleophus Cobb (August 10, 1918 – March 24, 1989)
accessed July 2010.
. He taught music at
Texas Southern University
Texas Southern University (Texas Southern or TSU) is a public historically black university in Houston, Texas. The university is one of the largest and most comprehensive historically black college or universities in the USA with nearly 10,000 ...
, where he created the TSU Jazz Ensemble. He also founded the Juneteenth Blues Festival (Houston), a commemoration of the liberation of Texan African-Americans from slavery. He helped organize the Houston Jazz Festival and was a co-founder of SUMArts.
[Jim Sherman, "Goodbye to Lanny Steele", ''Houston Press'', October 22, 1994]
References
1933 births
1994 deaths
20th-century American composers
20th-century American pianists
American jazz bandleaders
American jazz composers
American jazz pianists
American male pianists
American music arrangers
Jazz arrangers
American male jazz composers
University of North Texas College of Music alumni
20th-century American male musicians
20th-century jazz composers
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