Bill Cunliffe

Recognized with a Grammy for his work as a jazz pianist, arranger, and educator, Bill Cunliffe displays mastery as a soloist whose playing combines rhythmic drive with poetic, melodic invention. Upon earning his diploma from Eastman School of Music, he began professionally as an instructor at Central State University in Ohio before serving as drummer and arranger for the Buddy Rich Big Band. Public recognition arrived when he captured first place in the 1989 Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz International Piano Competition. In addition to leading well-regarded solo projects such as 1993’s Rare Connection, 2003’s How My Heart Sings, and 2017’s Bachanalia, he maintained a long tenure with the Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra and performed alongside Joe Henderson, Frank Sinatra, Freddie Hubbard, Benny Golson, and Michael Bublé. His arrangement of “West Side Story Medley,” featured on the 2010 album The Resonance Big Band Plays Tribute to Oscar Peterson, earned a Grammy Award.

Based in Los Angeles, Cunliffe divides his schedule among faculty duties at California State University, Fullerton, direction of his post-bop ensembles, and performances with the Latin group Imaginación and the classical-jazz collective Trimotif. In 2018 he recorded Cabin in the Sky with harmonica player Hendrik Meurkens.

Born William Henry Cunliffe, Jr. in 1956 in Andover, Massachusetts, he received his earliest musical exposure from his mother, herself a skilled pianist. While enrolled at Phillips Academy he pursued private instruction and absorbed a broad spectrum of classical, jazz, pop, and rock recordings. He later attended Wesleyan University and performed with a regional rock band, where an acquaintance first presented him with the recordings of pianist Oscar Peterson—an encounter that sparked a lifelong commitment to jazz. Although he once considered careers in medicine and psychology, music became his sole focus by senior year. He transferred to Duke University to study under pianist Mary Lou Williams and subsequently obtained a master’s degree from Eastman School of Music.

After graduation he taught at Central State University in Wilberforce, Ohio, remaining two years before joining the Buddy Rich Big Band as drummer and arranger. Following that engagement he returned to southern Ohio and worked as house pianist at Cincinnati’s Greenwich Tavern, collaborating with visiting artists including Freddie Hubbard, Joe Henderson, Woody Shaw, and James Moody. His move to Los Angeles in 1989 coincided with his victory in the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz International Piano Competition. That same year he formed the crossover jazz duo Porcupine with drummer Bernie Dresel and issued their self-titled debut. He soon began an extended association with the Clayton Brothers and the Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra, appearing on numerous tours and recordings.

Cunliffe’s first album as leader, 1993’s A Rare Connection, presented straight-ahead performances with reedman Bob Sheppard, trumpeter Clay Jenkins, trombonist Bruce Paulson, bassist Dave Carpenter, drummer Peter Erskine, and percussionist Kurt Rasmussen. The following year he released A Paul Simon Songbook, interpreting songs by one of his favored pop composers alongside saxophonist Gerald Albright, guitarist Thom Rotella, and additional musicians. Subsequent well-received projects included the bossa-nova-inflected Bill in Brazil, the Bud Powell tribute Bill Plays Bud from 1998, and the 1990 solo-piano recording Satisfaction. He also resumed activity with Porcupine, continued recording with the Clayton Brothers, and contributed to sessions led by flutist Holly Hofmann, the Jazz at the Movies Band, and Bob Curnow. During the same decade two of his original songs for the daytime dramas Another World and Guiding Light received Emmy nominations for Best Original Song.

Throughout the following ten years Cunliffe issued several live recordings and introduced his Latin jazz ensemble on 2005’s Imaginación. He earned the first of multiple Grammy nominations for his arrangement of “Angel Eyes” on trombonist Alan Kaplan’s 2002 album Lonely Town. Additional collaborations involved saxophonist Gary Foster, drummer Joe La Barbera, vocalist Eden Atwood, and composer Phil Kelly. In 2010 he received his first Grammy for the “West Side Story Medley” arrangement on The Resonance Big Band Plays Tribute to Oscar Peterson. Further nominations recognized his orchestrations for Terell Stafford and the Temple University Orchestra’s 2012 release Overture, Waltz and Rondo for Jazz Piano, Trumpet and Orchestra. He also partnered with clarinetist Mort Weiss, joined clarinetist Gary Gray for Rhapsody in Blue Plus More Gershwin, and appeared on Michael Bublé’s Nobody But Me.

Bachanalia, issued in 2017, offered big-band treatments of works by J.S. Bach, C.P.E. Bach, Falla, Prokofiev, and others. The 2018 collaboration Cabin in the Sky with Hendrik Meurkens followed, succeeded the next year by the holiday collection Christmas in the Dog House.