JazzHouston Editor

Background

Howdy. I'm a pianist, singer and songwriter, predominantly working that bad-girl Texas/New Orleans blues/stride style. Heck, if I could ride the piano sidesaddle, I would. I'm also the longtime pianista for legendary Houston ethnomusicological clearinghouse The Gypsies (about which Phish founder Trey Anastasio gushed in Rolling Stone, "We pump this groove into our skulls until four in the morning," leaving one rather wondering what they did for fun.) I am a former member (accordion and keys) of Los Angeles's greatest and much-lamented Irish trad group Train to Sligo, featuring famed Irish songwriters Gerry O'Beirne and Thom Moore (we opened for The Grateful Dead on St. Patrick's Day, 1988, in Oakland, California. And no, dude, we'll never stop talking about it.) I also served a tenure as composer and musical director for Houston's own Comedy Workshop, which spawned the likes of Bill Hicks, Sam Kinison, Brett Butler and Janeane Garofalo, none of whom ever sang my music, the lousy ingrates.

I currently teach piano theory and technique at Linda Lowe's Writers In The Round Studios in West University; for more info, go to www.witr.org. All ages, all danged kinds of fun.

Need someone to play Theremin, pump organ, harmonium or toy piano? I own and play those too!

For a more comprehensive CV (one that covers The Lost Years), ply me with Chardonnay or warm treacle tart. Or, you know, check out my website.

Photograph by Pin Lim/2009.

Location

Houston, Texas

Occupation

pianist, vocalist, music teacher

Music That Inspires Me

Early music (Monteverdi, Tallis, Byrd, Morley, etc.), choral music, JS Bach, Debussy, Satie, Ravel, Gershwin, Joplin, Philip Glass, John Adams, British & Irish trad/folk, Americana, Tom Waits, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Gilberto Gil, Caetano Veloso, Kurt Weill & Bertolt Brecht, Stephen Sondheim, circus music, dark cabaret, ethnic music, gospel, The Beatles, stride, barrelhouse, ragtime, punk, Patti Smith, Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, Randy Newman, experimental music, film scores, Olivier Messiaen, Paul Bowles, George Crumb, Harry Partch, Serge Gainsbourg, Jacques Brel, Lewis Furey, anything dark, scary, sad, mad and/or clangy.

Films I'll Watch More Than Once

Anything by the Coen Bros., most classic musicals, most Woody Allen, classic comedies (Chaplin, Keaton, Fields, the Marx Bros.), documentaries, British dramas & comedies, most film adaptations of Shakespeare, anything by Christopher Guest & Co., "The Exorcist," good film adaptations of good books and plays, period pieces (bring on Jane Austen and the Bronte sisters!), well-made horror and gangster flicks.