American hard bop jazz pianist
Jazz pianist
Hard bop pianist who came to the fore with Art Blakeys Jazz Messengers in the early 1960s. He was also a noted composer (his best known numbers included "Bolivia," "Mosaic" and "Ugetsu"). He was a winner of the National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Masters Fellowship in 2010.
His mother was a concert pianist.
He served in the Army in the mid-1950s, and then settled in New York. There, he worked with several artists, including Art Blakey s Jazz Messengers. Beginning in the 1970s, he led the Eastern Rebellion, an ensemble that lasted for more than two decades. He was also a composer, with tunes such as "Bolivia," "Mosaic" and "Ugetsu" becoming modern-day classics.
