Biography
Peter Eldridge occupies a distinguished place among melodic poets, a lineage that includes such varied figures as Stevie Wonder, Paul Simon, Joni Mitchell, James Taylor, and Steely Dan—singer/songwriters who craft catchy, beautiful melodies paired with insightful lyrics at once personal and universal. While these artists rank among his chief influences, Eldridge layers in his distinctive wry, gentle humor and pronounced jazz sensibility, producing work that resists easy classification. His sound draws from jazz, pop, R&B, rock, soul, and Latin music alike, allowing each song’s message and mood to dictate its direction even as his harmonic fingerprints stay immediately recognizable. A skilled keyboardist, arranger, and producer, he has served on the jazz vocal faculty at the Manhattan School of Music since 1993 and maintains a private teaching studio, where Jane Monheit studied with him for four years before reaching the finals of the 1999 Thelonious Monk competition. He first attracted international notice as a jazz/pop vocalist whose warm, supple tone and relaxed, engaging stage manner stood out; as a founding member of the Grammy-winning New York Voices, he has toured and recorded with the ensemble since 1987, appearing across Europe and Japan as well as at Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center. Additional collaborations and recording credits include Nancy Wilson, Joshua Redman, Bobby McFerrin, Patti Austin, Ray Brown, the Count Basie Band, Jim Hall, Astrud Gilberto, and George Benson. Independently, he performs with percussionist and co-producer Ben Wittman before an expanding New York following. Music surrounded him from childhood—his father played upright bass alongside Benny Goodman—and Eldridge began piano lessons at an early age. He entered Ithaca College as a classical piano major before switching to voice, during which time he met four of the original New York Voices. His wide-ranging tastes already surfaced in performances with numerous choirs, madrigal ensembles, and jazz vocal groups. After graduation he settled in Boston, where the Massachusetts State Council on the Arts awarded him a composing grant and he served as instructor and accompanist for the National Dance Institute, the organization for inner-city children founded by Jacques D’Ambroise. Upon relocating to New York City in the 1990s, he received steady calls for vocal and keyboard session work and took the role of musical director for a respected off-Broadway theater company. The breadth of his abilities appears across the two debut albums issued simultaneously in 2000 on Rosebud Records. Stranger in Town presents a moody, tender set of late-night jazz ballads positioned somewhere between Chet Baker and Johnny Hartmann, with contributions from Michael Brecker, Claudio Roditi, Lewis Nash, Romero Lubambo, and pianist Andy Ezrin, whose own first trio recording Eldridge produced. Fool No More comprises twelve originals that typify Eldridge’s writing—compelling yet eminently singable reflections on contemporary life and love, never straying far from playfulness and hope even in their darker passages. While continuing with New York Voices, whose forthcoming big-band album Sing, Sing, Sing was slated for 2001, Eldridge continues to shape a singular artistic identity.
Albums
