Jim McNeely

Jim McNeely
Background information
Born (1949-05-18)May 18, 1949
Chicago, Illinois, US
Genres Jazz
Occupation(s) Composer, arranger, conductor, musician
Instruments Piano
Years active 1975–present
Associated acts The Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra, Stan Getz, Phil Woods, DR Big Band, HR Big Band
Website jim-mcneely.com

Jim McNeely (born May 18, 1949) is a Grammy award-winning jazz pianist, composer, and arranger.

Biography

McNeely was born in Chicago, Illinois. He earned a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Illinois, and moved to New York City in 1975. In 1978 he joined the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Big Band. He spent six years as a featured soloist with that band and its successor, Mel Lewis and the Jazz Orchestra (now the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra).

In 1981 he began a four-year tenure as pianist/composer with the Stan Getz Quartet. From 1990 until 1995 he held the piano chair in the Phil Woods Quintet. In 1996 he re-joined the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra as pianist and composer-in-residence, a position that he still holds.

From 1998 to 2003 he was chief conductor of the DR Big Band in Copenhagen, Denmark, and as of 2011 is chief conductor of the HR (Hessischer Rundfunk) Big Band in Frankfurt, Germany. He continues to appear as guest with many of Europe's leading jazz orchestras such as the Metropole Orchestra (Netherlands) and the Stockholm Jazz Orchestra (Sweden). McNeely also leads his own tentet, his own trio, and appears as soloist at concerts and festivals worldwide. He has recorded more than a dozen albums under his own name, earning nine Grammy nominations between 1997 and 2006. In 2008, he was awarded a Grammy with Vanguard Jazz Orchestra for their album Monday Night Live at the Village Vanguard (Planet Arts).

McNeely serves on the faculties of Manhattan School of Music, William Paterson University, and is former musical director of the BMI Jazz Composers Workshop.

A former resident of Montclair, New Jersey,[1] he now resides in Maplewood, New Jersey. He has two siblings, a younger sister and a younger brother.

Selected discography

With Ted Curson

With Stan Getz

References

  1. ↑ Wise, Robert. "Eclectic Sounds of New Jersey, Echoing From Coast to Coast", The New York Times, February 8, 2004. Accessed August 18, 2012. "Nominated in various jazz categories are the saxophonist and Newark native Wayne Shorter; the pianist Keith Jarrett, from western New Jersey; the percussionist and Newark resident Stefon Harris; and the pianist, composer and arranger Jim McNeely, of Montclair, has been nominated for best instrumental arrangement for an album by Renee Rosnes and the Danish Radio Big Band."

External links

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