Bill Carrothers

Born in 1964 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA, Carrothers took up professional piano work in the early 1980s and quickly earned notice as a dependable player. Over the following twenty years he appeared at major American rooms such as New York’s Village Gate, Knitting Factory and the revived Birdland, as well as at Blues Alley in Washington, DC. European engagements included the New Morning club in Paris and headline slots at the Audi Jazz Festival in Brussels, the Nevers Jazz Festival—where he shared the bill with Abbey Lincoln—and the Marciac Festival. Throughout that same span he worked as a sideman for Buddy DeFranco, Dave Douglas, Curtis Fuller, Tim Hagans, Billy Higgins, Lee Konitz, James Moody, Gary Peacock, Dewey Redman, Charlie Rouse, Terrell Stafford, Bill Stewart, Ira Sullivan, Toots Thielemans and Bennie Wallace, and he appeared on recordings by Douglas, Stewart and Sullivan among others. In autumn 2000 he led the Rising Star Tour across Europe.

A strikingly talented pianist, Carrothers shapes a contemporary approach that recalls leading hard-bop and post-bop figures while remaining unmistakably his own. Traces of introspective writing by twentieth-century classical composers surface from time to time as well.