 |
 |
|
Please
send comments,
questions, and suggestions
about Oberlin Online news
and feature articles to
online.news@oberlin.edu.
DAN WALL JOINS JAZZ FACULTY OF OBERLIN CONSERVATORY OF MUSIC
FEBRUARY 28, 2001--Robert Dodson, dean of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music at Oberlin College, announces the appointment, effective February 1, 2001, of jazz pianist Dan Wall to the Oberlin faculty. Wall will be visiting teacher of jazz piano.
At the age of 17, Wall won a Hall of Fame Scholarship from Down Beat magazine, and he has frequently been selected for their International Critics' Poll.
During the 1970s and 1980s, Wall cultivated a reputation as a jazz pianist by playing and recording with such artists as Joe Chambers, Al Cohn, Steve Grossman, Eddie Gomez, Eddie Harris, Sheila Jordan, Lee Konitz, Charlie Rouse and Jeremy Steig. Other artists with whom he has performed or recorded include Steve Gadd, Tom Harrell, Billy Hart (Oberlin assistant professor of jazz percussion), Henry Mancini and Bernard Purdie. Wall's compositions have been recorded by, among others, Eddie Gomez and Chick Corea.
Since 1991, Wall has been a member of the John Abercrombie Trio, playing the Hammond B-3 organ. The Trio received critical acclaim for its first two recordings, While We're Young and Speak of the Devil, and the Los Angeles Village View wrote: "When it comes to sheer musicality, you'd be hard to find a better band than Abercrombie's Trio."
Tactics, recorded live by the Abercrombie Trio at the New York club Visiones for ECM Records, includes compositions by Wall alongside jazz standards and Abercrombie classics. Wall's most recent release with the Trio is Open Land, recorded for ECM and featuring guest artists Joe Lovano, Mark Feldman and Kenny Wheeler.
Wall's first album as an organ player in his own right was Off the Wall, recorded in 1996 for Enja Records. He was joined on that recording by Austrian guitarist Karl Ratzer, Adam Nussbaum, and Canadian trumpet player Ingrid Jensen. His discography also includes a piano album for the label Audiophile and four CDs with tenor saxophonist Jerry Bergonzi for Double Time Records. His most recent release as a leader, also with Double Time, is On the Inside Looking In.
The Oberlin Conservatory of Music at Oberlin College, founded in 1865, is the nation's oldest continuously operating conservatory, and the only major music school in the country linked with a preeminent college of arts and sciences. The Conservatory offers majors in performance, composition, music education, music theory, electronic and computer music, jazz studies, music history, and a double major in piano performance and vocal accompanying. There are more than 400 public concerts on campus each year--most of them free--including performances by student ensembles, faculty members, and performances and master classes by guest artists.
Media Contact: Marci Janas
       |