Glenn Zaleski

Citing Bill Evans and Dave Brubeck among his stylistic influences, pianist, composer, and arranger Glenn Zaleski entered the American jazz landscape via the 2010 release Duet Suite, recorded with his brother, saxophonist, clarinetist, and bandleader Mark Zaleski. Critics praised his keyboard work, which soon secured sideman roles alongside Ravi Coltrane, Lage Lund, and Ari Hoenig while also supporting his own trio’s output on Capri and Sunnyside, beginning with the 2014 album My Ideal featuring bassist Dezron Douglas and drummer Craig Weinrib; Coltrane guested on a single track. The same trio delivered Fellowship in 2017. Zaleski has since become a regular presence on New York’s live jazz circuit, documenting another session with drummer Colin Stranahan and bassist Rick Rosato on the 2019 Capri title Live at Jazz Standard, their third collaboration.

Born in Boylston, Massachusetts, Zaleski participated in the Brubeck Institute Fellowship at the University of the Pacific between 2005 and 2007. After earning an undergraduate degree from The New School in 2009, he pursued graduate studies at N.Y.U., during which he and saxophonist Mark Zaleski issued Duet Suite in 2010. One year later he formed a trio with Rick Rosato and Colin Stranahan that recorded Anticipation for Capri Records. Also in 2011, Zaleski was named a finalist for the APA Cole Porter Fellowship in Jazz and reached the semifinals of the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Piano Competition. The trio reconvened for Limitless, another Capri release, in 2013.

While keeping 1959’s Everybody Digs Bill Evans and 1960’s Portrait in Jazz in mind, Zaleski made his solo debut with My Ideal on Sunnyside Communications in 2015, offering interpretations of material associated with Jerome Kern, Freddie Hubbard, and Charlie Parker. An album consisting largely of originals and again pairing him with Dezron Douglas and Craig Weinrib, Fellowship appeared on the same label in 2017. The next year he made Solo, Vol. 1 available as a free digital download via his website and his own imprint, Stark Terrace Music. In 2019 he rejoined Stranahan and Rosato for Live at Jazz Standard on Capri.

Daily summer strolls through Brooklyn’s Prospect Park with his wife introduced Zaleski to the Vale of Cashmere, a secluded, tree-lined pond that became his preferred site for meditation, composition, and organizing repertoire. While preparing for upcoming sessions and performances, he entered a New York studio alongside saxophonist Lucas Pino, trumpeter Adam O'Farrill, bassist Desmond White, and drummer Allan Mednard; the resulting album, The Question, came out on Sunnyside in July 2020.