Mike Nock

Emerging from his native region, Mike Nock has long ranked among the foremost modern jazz keyboardists of his generation. Piano instruction under his father began when Nock reached the age of eleven. Four years afterward he launched his performing career, and upon turning eighteen he relocated to Australia. Leadership of a trio led to an England tour in 1961, after which he traveled to the United States for enrollment at Berklee College of Music. He abandoned formal studies after a single year to serve as house pianist at a Boston venue, where opportunities arose to collaborate with Coleman Hawkins, Pee Wee Russell, Phil Woods, Sam Rivers, and many others. Recognition arrived during his membership in Yusef Lateef’s band from 1963 to 1965. Subsequent activity included leading personal groups, a brief engagement with the Jazz Messengers, and a move to San Francisco for work with John Handy. Between 1968 and 1970 he explored fusion by directing the Fourth Way, an early innovator in the style. Several years later he worked as a studio musician in New York from 1975 to 1985, then returned to Australia. There he has maintained an active presence both as an educator at the N.S.W. Conservatorium of Music and as a performer, making occasional returns to the U.S. His first recording as a leader appeared in 1960 with the album Move, captured in Australia; later releases have appeared on Capitol with the Fourth Way, along with MPS, Improvising Artists via the group Almanac, Laurie, Enja, Timeless, Tomato, ECM, DIW, Naxos Jazz, Birdland, and Jazzhead.