JIM MCNEELY
Genres: Post Bop, Progressive Big Band, Third Stream • United States

Jim McNeely (May 18, 1949 – September 26, 2025) was a jazz pianist, composer, arranger, and faculty.   Jim 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 was the pianist in the Phil Woods Quintet. In 1996, he rejoined the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra as pianist. He was still associated with the Vanguard Orchestra as composer-in-residence. From 1998 to 2002, McNeely was chief conductor of the DR Big Band in Copenhagen, Denmark. As of 2011, he was chief conductor of the HR read more...