Steve Barta

Grammy-nominated pianist and composer Steve Barta blends jazz, Brazilian, and classical elements throughout his work. Beyond his own projects, the musician has joined forces with an array of jazz groups, symphony orchestras, and performers that include Al Jarreau, B.B. King, and Dori Caymmi. His first solo outing, the 1989 album Rossport, was followed by Barta in 1991 and Blue River in 1995, both of which spotlighted longtime associate Herbie Mann. During the following decade he issued Another Life Brazil in 2004 along with several holiday recordings cast in the global-jazz vein pioneered by Vince Guaraldi. The 2013 children’s project Jumpin’ Jazz Kids, co-written and produced with Mark Oblinger for jazz ensemble and orchestra, earned a Grammy nomination for Best Children’s Album, while a 2015 release presented Barta’s symphonic treatment of Claude Bolling’s Suite for Flute and Jazz Piano Trio. In 2023 he teamed with flutist Hubert Laws and guitarist Lee Trees for the Brazilian-tinged single “Ascended.” Barta also works as an educator, having authored The Source, prepared piano arrangements of Beatles songs for Hal Leonard Publishing, and instructed students at Colorado College.

Born on Christmas Day 1953, Barta saw his reference volume The Source: The Dictionary of Contemporary and Traditional Scales issued by Hal Leonard in 1986. Rossport, his debut solo recording, appeared three years later. Titled after an Ontario village, the acoustic collection placed Barta at the piano alongside bassist Kim Stone, with sporadic contributions from guitar, oboe, and flute—the latter an instrument he frequently pairs with piano. Captured across late 1990 and early 1991, the self-released Barta album revealed stronger Brazilian currents and featured flutist Herbie Mann, guitarist Bruce Dunlap, bassist Paul Socolow, and drummer Ricky Sebastian; it also contained the track “Blue River,” which later became one of his signature pieces. The solo-piano effort Moments in Movement arrived in 1992, and Blue River followed in 1995 as an energetic blend of earlier and newly recorded material that added bassist Jerry Watts and guitarist Ricardo Silveira. Before the decade closed, Follow Your Heart appeared, incorporating interpretations of Satie and Bach alongside an unreleased Barta symphonic suite.

After participating in several editions of The State Farm Holiday Collection alongside Kim Stone, drummer Ronnie Shaw, and others, Barta released his first new-millennium album under his own name, the 2003 Christmas collection Three Ships. The recording, which ranged from Schubert’s “Ave Maria” to “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” enlisted Stone, drummer Russell Burnett, and flutist Paul Nagem. Following the live album Live at Home!, Another Life Brazil in 2004 reunited him with percussionist Paulinho Da Costa, guitarist Dori Caymmi, Mann, Watts, drummer Mike Shapiro, and vocalist Lee Trees. Subsequent holiday projects included 2006’s Twelve Days of Christmas, scored for string orchestra, and Christmas Around the World, which involved Deborah Henson-Conant, the Da Vinci Quartet, and Phil Volan and Chorale. Sponsored by a hospice, the reflective collaboration Together We Can Heal with Phil Volan addressed themes of loss. By decade’s end Barta had also completed the solo-piano sets Noël: A Musical Christmas Card and That Christmas Feeling—each accompanied by songbooks—and the covers collections Unstandards and Encore Unstandards, spotlighting lesser-known works by Cole Porter, Rodgers & Hart, Michel Legrand, and Burt Bacharach.

In 2012 Barta and co-writer/producer Mark Oblinger unveiled Jumpin’ Jazz Kids, a narrative recording scored for jazz quintet and full symphony orchestra. Narrated by James Murray and featuring Al Jarreau, Hubert Laws, and Dee Dee Bridgewater, the album received a Grammy nomination for Best Children’s Album. Another large-scale endeavor followed: Barta’s symphonic arrangement of Claude Bolling’s Suite for Flute and Jazz Piano Trio, recorded with Laws on flute and Jeffrey Biegel on piano and released in 2015. Around the same period he joined the jazz-piano faculty at Colorado College. As a recording artist he returned in early 2023 with the solo-piano track “Standing Tree” and the collaboration “Ascended” alongside Laws and Trees.