Dick Hyman

A virtuoso pianist and acclaimed composer, Dick Hyman has built a reputation as a walking encyclopaedia of jazz styles thanks to his diverse range of work on more than 100 albums, including collaborations with some of music's biggest stars. Born in New York, he took classical music lessons from his uncle, concert pianist Anton Rovinsky, and grew up absorbing the city's vibrant scene and listening to his elder brother's collection of Jelly Roll Morton, Louis Armstrong and Fats Waller records. He also won a local radio station competition to have tuition from swing legend Teddy Wilson, served in the navy and attended Columbia University, before cutting his teeth playing standards from the Great American Songbook at country clubs and hotel ballrooms. Stints as a sideman for Lester Young, Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker led to him working as a studio musician in the early 1950s, and he performed regularly on television variety shows such as 'Sing Along With Mitch' and 'Beat Tthe Clock' in the 1960s. He became the first jazz artist to record with the Moog synthesiser on albums 'Moon Gas' and 'The Electric Eclectics' and was known for being able to turn his hand to a huge repertoire of songs from genres such as swing, boogie, chamber, ragtime and lounge room pop. As an arranger he worked with the Count Basie Orchestra, Tony Bennett and Ella Fitzgerald and began working on movie soundtracks in 1956 when he played on the film adaptation of Broadway musical 'Gigi'. It led to him contributing to several Woody Allen comedies including 'Radio Days', 'Mighty Aphrodite' and 'Melinda and Melinda' and other big Hollywood hits such as 'A League of Their Own', 'Mask' and 'Moonstruck' and throughout a prolific career he also reworked music by classic 1920s stars Duke Ellington, Scott Joplin and George Gershwin. He also spent 20 years as musical director at New York's 92nd Street Y art institute, won an Emmy Award for his theme tune to the TV drama 'Sunshine's On the Way', dabbled with bossa nova rhythms on album 'Brazilian Impressions' and collaborated with Bette Midler on 'Songs for the New Depression'. Still performing into his 90s, he teamed up with clarinetist Ken Peplowski and his daughter violinist Judy Hyman, as well as releasing 'House of Pianos', an album of standards and new song, in 2015. In 2017 he received the honour of being appointed a fellow of the National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Masters.

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