Jazz Pianist Jed Distler Gives Thelonius Monk a Workout

If you’re into music, especially jazz, you’ve probably encountered Jed Distler. Distler's been called an amazing proponent of the piano here in the new century. The versatile genius of music who expresses himself through composition, journalism, producing, and playing both classical music and jazz, Distler will be taking the stage Saturday night at LightSoundSpace at 1591 Irving Street in Rahway.

The show starts at 7:30 pm, and tickets, which can be bought online, are $25.

You may remember Distler's scores to such airline boarding videos as Spring Flowers in Appalachia, music for holiday bargain CDs like Baby’s First Christmas, or mini-operas like The Three Minute Saga of Rudolfo premiered at Lincoln Center. Perhaps you’ve played his published Bill Evans and Art Tatum transcriptions, or read his record reviews in Gramophone or on Classicstoday.com. Or maybe you've caught him playing Beethoven with the Bill T.Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company at BAM, or knew about his 2006 recital tour of Italy. 

In February 2007 you saw Distler's name all over the newspapers when he helped uncover one of the great scandals in the history of classical recording. Or else you’ve heard such compositions as Three Landscapes for Peter Wyer (for toy piano, recorded by Margaret Leng Tan on Point Records), the String Quartet No. 1 (Mister Softee Variations), premiered in 1999 by the Flux Quartet and broadcast every summer on John Schaefer's New Sounds),or Distler's tour-de-force piano theater extravaganza The Gold Standard a collaboration with playwright Ed Schmidt.

On recitals and on disc, he has premiered works by Frederic Rzewski, Lois V Vierk, Virko Baley, Wendy Mae Chambers, Andrew Thomas, Virgil Thomson, David Maslanka, Douglas Geers, William Schimmel, Kitty Brazelton, Alvin Curran, Eleanor Hovda, Bob Windbiel, and others.

You might remember such press clips about Jed as “an altogether extraordinary pianist (Newark Star-Ledger), or “a musician with smoke coming out of his ears (alternative radio station WFMU).” As Composers Collaborative’s co-founder and Artistic Director, Distler has created and programmed such innovative festivals as Solo Flights, Non Sequitur, and, most recently, Serial Underground at the Cornelia Street Café. He’s received grants from ASCAP, Meet the Composer, and American Composers Forum, and he received a Macdowell Colony residency in the fall of 2001.

As CCI's 20th anniversary year unfolds, Distler continues to beat new music’s vibrant, ever changing, boundary blurring drum.