Jim McNeely
Jim McNeely ( born May 18, 1949 in Chicago, Illinois) is an American jazz musician ( piano, arrangement, composition) and orchestra leader.
Life and work
McNeely studied at the University of Illinois in 1975 and came to New York City. He has performed with Ted Curson and Chet Baker before he (later Mel Lewis and the Jazz Orchestra ) was founded in 1978 member of the Thad Jones / Mel Lewis Orchestra, where he remained until 1984.
From 1981 to 1985, he worked to listen to the Concord album Pure Getz as a composer and pianist in the quartet of Stan Getz. From 1990 to 1995 he was pianist for the quartet of Phil Woods. He also worked as a composer and arranger, inter alia, for the Danish Radio Jazz Orchestra, the Carnegie Hall Jazz Band, the Metropole Orkest, the WDR Big Band Cologne and the Stockholm Jazz Orchestra, where he received two Grammy nominations.
In 1996 he returned to Mel Lewis' Vanguard Jazz Orchestra back as a composer and pianist. From 1998 to 2003 he was chief conductor of the Danish Radio Jazz Orchestra. In addition, he also own various formations and published a number of his own albums.
As a sideman McNeely worked, inter alia, with Bob Brookmeyer, David Liebman, Art Farmer, Louis Smith and Bobby Watson. Since 1981 he teaches at the jazz faculty at New York University and he has since 1991 been co-director of the BMI Jazz Composer's Workshop. He also gave inter alia Summer Courses at the Stanford Jazz Workshop and the Jamey Aebersold 's Summer Jazz Clinics.
Since autumn 2011 McNeely acts as principal conductor of the Frankfurt Radio Bigband of the Hessischer Rundfunk in Frankfurt am Main.
Discography
- Rain's Dance with Sam Jacobs, Mike Richmond, Larry Schneider, 1976 Steeple Chase Records
- The Plot Thickens with Jon Burr, Billy Hart, Mike Richmond, John Scofield, 1979
- From the Heart with Marc Johnson, Adam Nussbaum, 1984
- Winds of Change with Mike Richmond, Kenny Washington, 1989 Steeplechase
- East Coast Blow Out with the WDR Big Band ( Rüdiger Baldauf, Henning Berg, Rainer Brüninghaus, Rob Bruynen, Roy Deuvall, Andy Haderer, Dave Horler, Marc Johnson, Rick Kiefer, Bernt Laukamp, Adam Nussbaum, Klaus Osterloh, Olivier Peters, Paul Peucker, Rolf Römer, Harold Rosenstein, John Scofield, Paul Shigihara, Heiner Wiberny ), 1989, Lipstick
- Sound Bites with Jan Adefelt, Peter Asplund, Gustavo Bergalli, Hector Bingert, Dave Castle, Johan Horlen, Fredrik Noren, Dick Oatts, Bertil beach mountain, Jukkis Uotila, Anders Wiborg, 1997
- Group Therapy with Cameron Brown, Billy Drewes, Greg Gisbert, John Hollenbeck, Tony Kadleck, Ed Neumeister, Dick Oatts, Scott Robinson, Tom Varner, Scott Wendland Holt, 2001 Omnitone
- The Power and the Glory: A Salute to Louis Armstrong with Nikolaj Bentzon, Tomas Franck, Søren Frost, Thomas Fryland, Anders Gustafsson, Steen Hansen, Michael Hove, Leroy Jones, Thomas Kjærgaard, Flemming Madsen, Uffe Markussen, Vincent Nilsson, Thomas Ovesen Henrik Pedersen Bolberg, Benny Rosenfeld, Nicolai Schultz, Ethan Weisgard, Axel Windfel, 2001
- In This Moment with Lennart Ginman, Adam Nussbaum, 2003