Biography
Renowned pianist and composer from Canada, Renee Rosnes exhibits technical mastery as a jazz improviser whose style captures the essence of post-bop refinement. Her approach draws from pianists such as Oscar Peterson, McCoy Tyner, and Horace Silver. Broader notice followed her 1980s relocation to New York City, where she worked with Joe Henderson, Wayne Shorter, and J.J. Johnson while serving in the Carnegie Hall Jazz Band. That period launched a rewarding solo trajectory marked by multiple Juno Award-winning Blue Note releases, among them For the Moment in 1990 and Life on Earth in 2002. Beyond her own projects she maintains a regular role in bassist Ron Carter’s quartet, co-founded the San Francisco Jazz Collective, and acts as musical director for the all-star ARTEMIS ensemble, whose first album appeared in 2020. She issued her third Smoke Sessions recording, Kinds of Love, in 2021.
Born in Regina, Saskatchewan, in 1962, Rosnes began classical piano lessons at age three. A high school music instructor introduced her to jazz during adolescence by placing her in the jazz band. She studied classical performance at the University of Toronto for two years before returning to Vancouver to perform jazz professionally full-time, recognizing where her commitment lay. Vancouver’s early-1980s jazz club circuit offered a thriving setting that allowed her to sit in with and absorb lessons from visiting and local masters including Sarah Vaughan, Oscar Peterson, Ella Fitzgerald, and Toshiko Akiyoshi. At after-hours spots she also played alongside Freddie Hubbard, Wynton and Branford Marsalis, and Woody Shaw.
A 1986 Canada Council for the Arts grant supported her move to New York City, where earlier friendships eased the adjustment. Within a few years the right calls arrived; her first significant opportunity came when tenor saxophonist Joe Henderson invited her into his quartet. Later in the decade she joined the small groups of saxophonist Wayne Shorter and trombonist J.J. Johnson while demonstrating her command in the Carnegie Hall Jazz Band directed by trumpeter Jon Faddis. She has additionally performed with the Gerald Wilson Orchestra, the Danish Radio Big Band, and the Dizzy Gillespie All-Star Tribute Band.
Her enduring Blue Note association began in 1990, producing nine widely praised albums that collected four Juno Awards and several Canadian National Jazz Awards. The Blue Note catalog comprises her self-titled 1990 debut, For the Moment (1990), Without Words (1992), Ancestors (1996), As We Are Now (1997), Art & Soul (1999), With a Little Help from My Friends (2001), Life on Earth (2002), and Renee Rosnes with the Danish Radio Big Band (2003). Life on Earth ranks among her strongest 1990s achievements, merging Indigenous traditions from India, Senegal, Indonesia, and Brazil with her jazz piano language.
Her ensembles have included drummers Billy Drummond, her former husband, Lewis Nash, and Bill Stewart; saxophonists Walt Weiskopf and Rich Perry; vibraphonist Steve Nelson; and bassist Peter Washington. She has maintained frequent collaborations with vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson and remains an original member of the SF Jazz Collective octet. Later recordings include the 2005 trio date A Time for Love with drummer Nash and bassist Washington on the Japanese Video Arts label; the same pair supported her on the 2008 Joe Henderson tribute Black Narcissus for Pony Canyon. Double Portrait, a piano-duo album with her husband Bill Charlap, appeared on Blue Note in 2010, while Manhattan Rain, also issued that year on Pony Canyon, presented settings ranging from trio to quintet.
In subsequent years she contributed to sessions by Michael Dease, Renée Fleming, Jimmy Greene, and Tony Bennett. Written in the Rocks, her first album devoted entirely to original compositions inspired by the coastal landscape of her native British Columbia, arrived in 2016 and earned the Juno Award for Jazz Album of the Year: Solo. Beloved of the Sky, a live recording made at New York’s Smoke Club, followed in 2018 with her quintet featuring saxophonist Chris Potter, vibraphonist Steve Nelson, bassist Peter Washington, and drummer Lenny White. ARTEMIS, the 2020 debut from the jazz supergroup of the same name, placed Rosnes at the helm alongside clarinetist Anat Cohen, tenor saxophonist Melissa Aldana, trumpeter Ingrid Jensen, bassist Noriko Ueda, drummer Allison Miller, and vocalist Cécile McLorin Salvant. The next year she returned to small-group work with the Smoke Sessions album Kinds of Love, which featured saxophonist Chris Potter, bassist Christian McBride, drummer Carl Allen, and percussionist Rogério Boccato.
Born in Regina, Saskatchewan, in 1962, Rosnes began classical piano lessons at age three. A high school music instructor introduced her to jazz during adolescence by placing her in the jazz band. She studied classical performance at the University of Toronto for two years before returning to Vancouver to perform jazz professionally full-time, recognizing where her commitment lay. Vancouver’s early-1980s jazz club circuit offered a thriving setting that allowed her to sit in with and absorb lessons from visiting and local masters including Sarah Vaughan, Oscar Peterson, Ella Fitzgerald, and Toshiko Akiyoshi. At after-hours spots she also played alongside Freddie Hubbard, Wynton and Branford Marsalis, and Woody Shaw.
A 1986 Canada Council for the Arts grant supported her move to New York City, where earlier friendships eased the adjustment. Within a few years the right calls arrived; her first significant opportunity came when tenor saxophonist Joe Henderson invited her into his quartet. Later in the decade she joined the small groups of saxophonist Wayne Shorter and trombonist J.J. Johnson while demonstrating her command in the Carnegie Hall Jazz Band directed by trumpeter Jon Faddis. She has additionally performed with the Gerald Wilson Orchestra, the Danish Radio Big Band, and the Dizzy Gillespie All-Star Tribute Band.
Her enduring Blue Note association began in 1990, producing nine widely praised albums that collected four Juno Awards and several Canadian National Jazz Awards. The Blue Note catalog comprises her self-titled 1990 debut, For the Moment (1990), Without Words (1992), Ancestors (1996), As We Are Now (1997), Art & Soul (1999), With a Little Help from My Friends (2001), Life on Earth (2002), and Renee Rosnes with the Danish Radio Big Band (2003). Life on Earth ranks among her strongest 1990s achievements, merging Indigenous traditions from India, Senegal, Indonesia, and Brazil with her jazz piano language.
Her ensembles have included drummers Billy Drummond, her former husband, Lewis Nash, and Bill Stewart; saxophonists Walt Weiskopf and Rich Perry; vibraphonist Steve Nelson; and bassist Peter Washington. She has maintained frequent collaborations with vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson and remains an original member of the SF Jazz Collective octet. Later recordings include the 2005 trio date A Time for Love with drummer Nash and bassist Washington on the Japanese Video Arts label; the same pair supported her on the 2008 Joe Henderson tribute Black Narcissus for Pony Canyon. Double Portrait, a piano-duo album with her husband Bill Charlap, appeared on Blue Note in 2010, while Manhattan Rain, also issued that year on Pony Canyon, presented settings ranging from trio to quintet.
In subsequent years she contributed to sessions by Michael Dease, Renée Fleming, Jimmy Greene, and Tony Bennett. Written in the Rocks, her first album devoted entirely to original compositions inspired by the coastal landscape of her native British Columbia, arrived in 2016 and earned the Juno Award for Jazz Album of the Year: Solo. Beloved of the Sky, a live recording made at New York’s Smoke Club, followed in 2018 with her quintet featuring saxophonist Chris Potter, vibraphonist Steve Nelson, bassist Peter Washington, and drummer Lenny White. ARTEMIS, the 2020 debut from the jazz supergroup of the same name, placed Rosnes at the helm alongside clarinetist Anat Cohen, tenor saxophonist Melissa Aldana, trumpeter Ingrid Jensen, bassist Noriko Ueda, drummer Allison Miller, and vocalist Cécile McLorin Salvant. The next year she returned to small-group work with the Smoke Sessions album Kinds of Love, which featured saxophonist Chris Potter, bassist Christian McBride, drummer Carl Allen, and percussionist Rogério Boccato.
Albums
