BILL CUNLIFFE
Genres: Post-Fusion Contemporary, Post Bop, Third Stream, Pop, Art Song, Folk, Big Band, Latin Jazz, Hard Bop • United States

Jazz pianist, composer and arranger Bill Cunliffe is widely known for his swinging and lyrical pianism and his creativity and invention as a composer and arranger of jazz.  He graduated from Duke University and the Eastman School of Music, where he won several Down Beat Awards.  After graduation, he taught at Central State University, in Wilberforce, Ohio. His first major jazz gig was pianist and arranger  with Buddy Rich, touring Europe with Frank Sinatra. He later  performed  with Ray Brown, Joe Henderson, Freddie Hubbard, Benny Golson, Woody Shaw and James Moody. Bill was the 1989 winner of the $10,000 Thelonious Monk International Jazz Piano Award, and has received stipends from the National Endowment for the Arts. A number of his jazz instructional books  are published by Alfred Publications,  his big band compositions are published by Kendor Music and Otter Music, and his choral music read more...