Biography
Recognition of pianist Jane Jarvis' abilities arrived only after many decades. She issued her first recording as a leader upon turning 70, and wider notice followed a full ten years later.
Early promise had been evident, however. At age 12 she already worked as an accompanist on a local Gary, Indiana radio station for a children's program. When she was 13 her parents died in a train crash. That same year she joined the staff of WJKS-WIND Chicago, where she accompanied Ethel Waters, Sophie Tucker, and Paul Whiteman's band among others.
Jarvis earned a B.S. from Pace University after attending five different conservatories. Throughout those years she remained active musically in the Midwest while raising two children. Her radio work at WTMJ brought opportunities to perform with visiting artists that included Eddie South, Billy Butterfield, and Maxine Sullivan.
She spent 18 years at the Muzak corporation and eventually became Vice President. In the 1950s she also played organ regularly for Milwaukee Braves home games, then served as the New York Mets' organist from 1964 to 1979. During the same period she appeared occasionally in New York clubs with Roy Eldridge, Helen Humes, Richie Kamuca, and Ruby Braff.
After retiring from baseball, Jarvis turned to jazz piano full time and enjoyed a long engagement at Zinno's, a Greenwich Village restaurant, with Milt Hinton. Two albums appeared on Audiophile in 1985 and 1988; a third followed on Arbors in 1995. She gained further attention through the Statesmen of Jazz, an affiliation that began in 1984 and produced recordings as well. She also founded the annual Jane Jarvis Jazz Invitational, a jazz party and festival held each November in Florida.
A solid mainstream pianist, she retained both her enthusiasm and her sense of swing well into her eighties.
Early promise had been evident, however. At age 12 she already worked as an accompanist on a local Gary, Indiana radio station for a children's program. When she was 13 her parents died in a train crash. That same year she joined the staff of WJKS-WIND Chicago, where she accompanied Ethel Waters, Sophie Tucker, and Paul Whiteman's band among others.
Jarvis earned a B.S. from Pace University after attending five different conservatories. Throughout those years she remained active musically in the Midwest while raising two children. Her radio work at WTMJ brought opportunities to perform with visiting artists that included Eddie South, Billy Butterfield, and Maxine Sullivan.
She spent 18 years at the Muzak corporation and eventually became Vice President. In the 1950s she also played organ regularly for Milwaukee Braves home games, then served as the New York Mets' organist from 1964 to 1979. During the same period she appeared occasionally in New York clubs with Roy Eldridge, Helen Humes, Richie Kamuca, and Ruby Braff.
After retiring from baseball, Jarvis turned to jazz piano full time and enjoyed a long engagement at Zinno's, a Greenwich Village restaurant, with Milt Hinton. Two albums appeared on Audiophile in 1985 and 1988; a third followed on Arbors in 1995. She gained further attention through the Statesmen of Jazz, an affiliation that began in 1984 and produced recordings as well. She also founded the annual Jane Jarvis Jazz Invitational, a jazz party and festival held each November in Florida.
A solid mainstream pianist, she retained both her enthusiasm and her sense of swing well into her eighties.
Albums
