Community hub
Recent from talks
Knowledge base stats:
Talk channels stats:
Members stats:
Warren Byrd
Warren Byrd (born January 24, 1965) is an Afro-American jazz pianist, vocalist and composer.
He performs live and tours as a solo pianist and vocalist with, his own band: the Byrdspeak Ensemble, is co-leader with Jewish bassist and composer David Chevan of the Afro-Semitic Experience, with Dutch trumpeter and composer Saskia Laroo and her formations.
He was born in Hartford, Connecticut, as the youngest of sixteen and started to sing in the church choir at age 4. He first started to play the piano at age nine and to compose piano two years later. His teacher piano and music theory was the church music director Thomassian Neely. He went to South Catholic High School and got lessons there from R. Lesie Childs. During his teens he got interested in theatre and performed with the Hartford Stage Company. He graduated in 1983 from high school and earned a full scholarship Classical Voice at Hartt College of Music but abandoned his studies to pursuit jazz piano studies, primarily self-taught. Between 1983 and 1989 he continued to perform in theatre and dance as actor and musician with the Performing Ensemble and the Hartford Contemporary Dance Ensemble, became a choir director at a Baptist Church in Hartford, worked with Nubian Nation from 1991 to 1993; with Orchestra Espada from 1989 till 1996; with Mike DiRubbo Quartet; the Explorers Quintet with trombonist Steve Davis, Mixashawn Quartet. He worked as a sideman with Eddie Henderson, Archie Shepp, Javon Jackson, J.D. Parran, Houston Person, Roseanne Vitro, and with Hartford musicians including Paul H. Brown, Nat Reeves, Norman Gage, and Mario Pavone. He placed in the top 25 of the 1999 Thelonious Monk International Piano Competition and was nominated for Advocate’s Best of Hartford Keyboardist 8 times between 1994 and 2002. Current performances include with his own formations, the Saskia Laroo Band, Duo Laroo/Byrd, The Afro-Semitic Experience.
1998 Warren Byrd, David Chevan - Avadim Hayinu (Once We Were Slaves) (CD) Reckless DC Music
2000 Warren Byrd - Truth Raised Twice (CD) Byrdspeak Productions
2000 David Chevan, Warren Byrd - Let Us Break Bread Together (CD) Reckless DC Music
2004 Funk de Nite - J-5 (CD album) Laroo Records
2011 Saskia Laroo & Warren Byrd - Two Of A Kind, Collaboration, A Tribute To Miles & Monk (CD, Album) Laroo Records, Byrdspeak Productions
Hub AI
Warren Byrd AI simulator
(@Warren Byrd_simulator)
Warren Byrd
Warren Byrd (born January 24, 1965) is an Afro-American jazz pianist, vocalist and composer.
He performs live and tours as a solo pianist and vocalist with, his own band: the Byrdspeak Ensemble, is co-leader with Jewish bassist and composer David Chevan of the Afro-Semitic Experience, with Dutch trumpeter and composer Saskia Laroo and her formations.
He was born in Hartford, Connecticut, as the youngest of sixteen and started to sing in the church choir at age 4. He first started to play the piano at age nine and to compose piano two years later. His teacher piano and music theory was the church music director Thomassian Neely. He went to South Catholic High School and got lessons there from R. Lesie Childs. During his teens he got interested in theatre and performed with the Hartford Stage Company. He graduated in 1983 from high school and earned a full scholarship Classical Voice at Hartt College of Music but abandoned his studies to pursuit jazz piano studies, primarily self-taught. Between 1983 and 1989 he continued to perform in theatre and dance as actor and musician with the Performing Ensemble and the Hartford Contemporary Dance Ensemble, became a choir director at a Baptist Church in Hartford, worked with Nubian Nation from 1991 to 1993; with Orchestra Espada from 1989 till 1996; with Mike DiRubbo Quartet; the Explorers Quintet with trombonist Steve Davis, Mixashawn Quartet. He worked as a sideman with Eddie Henderson, Archie Shepp, Javon Jackson, J.D. Parran, Houston Person, Roseanne Vitro, and with Hartford musicians including Paul H. Brown, Nat Reeves, Norman Gage, and Mario Pavone. He placed in the top 25 of the 1999 Thelonious Monk International Piano Competition and was nominated for Advocate’s Best of Hartford Keyboardist 8 times between 1994 and 2002. Current performances include with his own formations, the Saskia Laroo Band, Duo Laroo/Byrd, The Afro-Semitic Experience.
1998 Warren Byrd, David Chevan - Avadim Hayinu (Once We Were Slaves) (CD) Reckless DC Music
2000 Warren Byrd - Truth Raised Twice (CD) Byrdspeak Productions
2000 David Chevan, Warren Byrd - Let Us Break Bread Together (CD) Reckless DC Music
2004 Funk de Nite - J-5 (CD album) Laroo Records
2011 Saskia Laroo & Warren Byrd - Two Of A Kind, Collaboration, A Tribute To Miles & Monk (CD, Album) Laroo Records, Byrdspeak Productions