About Bill Charlap
William Morrison Charlap ) is an American jazz pianist. In 2016, The Silver Lining: The Songs of Jerome Kern, an album featuring Charlap and Tony Bennett, won the award for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album at the 58th Annual Grammy Awards.
Born in New York City, Bill Charlap comes from a musical background. His father was the composer Moose Charlap. His mother, Sandy Stewart, is a singer who was a regular on Perry Como's Kraft Music Hall television series and had a hit recording in 1962 with "My Coloring Book". Charlap is a distant cousin of the jazz pianist Dick Hyman.
Charlap began playing piano at the age of three. He studied classical music, but his career has been in jazz.
Charlap recorded Love Is Here to Stay and Something to Remember with his mother, Sandy Stewart. His albums Somewhere, featuring the music of Leonard Bernstein, and Live at The Village Vanguard received Grammy Award nominations.
He has worked with Gerry Mulligan, Benny Carter, Tony Bennett, Phil Woods, Scott Hamilton, Ron Carter, and others. In the mid-1990s, he was the musical director of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, A Celebration of Johnny Mercer, part of New York's JVC Jazz Festival. In 1995, he joined the Phil Woods Quintet.
Charlap appears at least twice a year for engagements at jazz clubs, including the Village Vanguard, with his rhythm section, consisting of Peter Washington and Kenny Washington . Since 2001, he has recorded as a member of the New York Trio for the Japanese label Venus Records. The other members of the New York Trio are bassist Jay Leonhart and drummer Bill Stewart.
Charlap succeeded Dick Hyman as artistic director of New York City's 92nd Street Y Jazz in July six-program series after Hyman's 20th year in 2004. He and his wife, Canadian jazz pianist Renee Rosnes, released an album of piano duets Double Portrait on Blue Note Records/EMI.
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