Piedmont Piano Company is pleased to present
Peter Horvath Trio
Recording artist, pianist, and composer Peter Horvath performs with his dynamic trio, featuring Bay Area greats Jeff Chambers on bass and Jason Lewis on drums. The trio will highlight some originals, along with some unique arrangements of standards.
$20 General Admission
Contemporary jazz pianist, keyboardist, and composer, Peter Horvath has been perfecting his craft since the age of six when he began taking classical piano lessons. Born in Budapest, Hungary, he attended the Bela Bartok Conservatory of Music. At age 17, he won the National Jazz Combo Competition in Hungary and two years later moved to Austria to attend the Vienna Conservatory of Music. In 1983, Peter moved to the United States, where he studied at the Berklee College of Music in Boston. He has since performed, recorded and toured nationally and worldwide with a long line of world-class artist, including jazz greats Bobby Hutcherson, Joe Henderson, Richie Cole, Ernie Watts, Eddie Henderson, Charles McPherson, Benny Maupin, the Victor Bailey Group, Lenny White, Arturo Sandoval, Randy Brecker, Marcus Miller, Pee Wee Ellis Funk Assembly, Bob Mintzer, Bob Sheppard, Craig Handy, Tiger Okoshi, Lalah Hathaway, Melba Moore, Ledisi, Keith Washington, Rosie Gaines, Ray Obiedo, Pete Escovedo and the Oakland Symphony. Peter composed for and performed with David Garibaldi for his critically acclaimed Warner Brothers video/CD series and recorded the tracks for Aretha Franklin's performance of the National Anthem at the 1993 World Series.
Peter Horvath's first solo recording, "Foreign Matter", has received enormous national contemporary jazz radio airplay. In its first week of release, it was the #1 most added recording to Gavin's Adult Alternative Chart and #2 most added to Radio & Record's NAC Chart.
His new album, Absolute Reality, is featuring some of the greatest names in jazz, like Bob Mintzer, Randy Brecker, Victor Bailey, Lenny White, Dean Brown, the late Ricky Lawson, Ray Obiedo, Larry Kimpel, Walfredo Reyes,Jr, Karl Perazzo, Peter Michael Escovedo, and others. All original compositions, the music fuses a variety of elements from hard hitting funk jazz with horns, to pieces with latin and straight ahead jazz influences, along with some beautiful mid tempo tunes and ballads, even a solo piano performance to close the album with. The sound represents the musical diversity of the Bay Area along with the influences of years of touring and recording with some of the greats in jazz and beyond. peterhorvath.com
Veteran bassist Jeff Chambers is known for his impeccable timing, dynamic rhythms and improvisational dexterity. Now known as one of the foremost bassists in the country, he has played with many great jazz artists such as Ahmad Jamal, Larry Coryell, Dizzy Gillespie, Gonzalo Rubalcaba.
Chambers masterfully breaks the conventionally accepted boundaries of his instrument and forges new melodic possibilities. According to San Francisco Chronicle music critic Phil Elwood, "Jeff Chambers makes playing upright bass look and sound so easy with his rhythmic sense and melodic vocabulary". He has played at venues such as the Montreux Jazz Festival (Switzerland); Concord Jazz Festival (CA); Monterey Jazz Festival (CA); Fujitsu Jazz Festival (Japan), the Newport Jazz Festival (RI) and countless others.
A gifted educator, Jeff Chambers has taught bass, improvisation and combo direction at various institutions including The Brubeck Institute, University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA); San Francisco State University (San Francisco, CA); Jazz Camp West (Oakland, CA); The Jazz School (Berkeley, CA); Berkeley High School (Berkeley, CA); Fresno State University (Fresno, CA); and Dominican University of California (San Rafael, CA) and though out the greater Bay Area public school system. Chambers also teaches privately. jeffchambersjazz.com
Jason Lewis graduated from the classical percussion program at San Jose State University, under the direction of Tony Cirone of the San Francisco Symphony, with a B.A. in music. Mr. Lewis has taught privately in the bay area, coached at the Stanford Jazz Workshop, has performed clinics at schools throughout the San Jose area, and is currently a lecturer in the Jazz Studies Department at San Jose State University.
He has played with a variety of talented musicians including; John Stowell, Gary Burton, Gil Goldstein, James Moody, Mark Murphy, Bob Sheppard, Steve Rodby, Paul McCandles, Norma Winstone, Larry Coryell, Darol Anger, Regina Carter, Johnny Frigo, James Carter, John Handy, Anton Schwartz, Mark Levine, Peter Apfelbaum, Paul Nagel, and Kurt Elling. Mr. Lewis has also performed with the San Jose Symphony and the San Jose Civic Light Opera.
Besides playing throughout the San Francisco Bay Area with many groups, Mr. Lewis has toured and recorded with Boz Scaggs, Michael Brook, Djivan Gasparyan, Ann Dyer and Taylor Eigsti. He can be heard on numerous recordings as well as TV (Spark on PBS), Video Game (Godfather 2) and Movie Soundtracks (Affliction, Albino Alligator, Ratatouille-”Our Friend the Rat”) and has appeared on Late Night with Conan O Brian (with Boz Scaggs).