Born
in Chicago, Jim McNeely moved to New York City in 1975.
Since then he has become part of the international jazz scene.
Jim
received his first critical acclaim as pianist with the groups
of trumpeters Ted Curson and Chet Baker. In
1978 he joined the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra.
He spent six years as a featured soloist with that band and its
successor, Mel Lewis and the Jazz Orchestra (now The Vanguard
Jazz Orchestra). 1981 saw the beginning of Jim's
4-year tenure as pianist/composer with the Stan Getz Quartet.
From 1990 until 1995 he held the piano chair in the Phil Woods
Quintet. At the present time, he leads his own trio, and
appears as soloist at concerts and festivals in places as varied
as Finland, Australia, and Cleveland.
Jim's
reputation as an original composer/arranger for large jazz bands
continues to grow. His most recent work includes projects
with the Danish Radio Jazz Orchestra (with two Grammy
nominations!), the Carnegie Hall Jazz Band, the Metropole
Orchestra (Netherlands), the West German Radio (WDR) Big
Band and the Stockholm Jazz Orchestra.
In
January of 1996, he re-joined The Vanguard Jazz Orchestra as
pianist and Composer-in Residence. And in July of 1998 Jim
became Permanent Chief Conductor of the Danish Radio Jazz
Orchestra. The New York Times has called his
writing "exhilarating"; Bob Brookmeyer has written
about Jim: "Whatever the 'next step' is in music, I firmly
believe he will be it. He has all the tools--imagination,
technique, dreams, ambition..." And Down Beat, in
reviewing his recent CD East Coast Blow Out (with the WDR
Big Band on Lipstick Records), enthused: "Magnificent--5
stars!"
Jim
has appeared as sideman on numerous recordings led by major
artists such as Thad Jones, Mel Lewis, Stan
Getz, Bob Brookmeyer, David Liebman, Art
Farmer, Bobby Watson and Phil Woods. He
currently has ten albums under his own name. His current
recording, a recording debut of his Tentet, is Group
Therapy (OmniTone). The previous two records were the
recently double Grammy-nominated Danish Radio Jazz Orchestra
& Jim McNeely: Nice
Work (DaCapo) the Grammy-nominated Lickety
Split: The Vanguard Jazz Orchestra Plays the Music of Jim
McNeely (New World).
About
Jim, JazzTimes's Chuck Berg has written: "His melodic
inventiveness, harmonic richness and willingness to take chances
make for music with abundant emotional and intellectual appeal."
Larry Kart, of the Chicago Tribune, has observed:
"McNeely is a delight...having stated his graceful
ideas, (he) almost literally pursues them across the keyboard
until their prettiness has been burned away and what remains has
the strength of structural steel." And in Cologne the
Kölner Rundschau said: "He is a powerful,
imaginative pianist, seeking the tension between attack and
lyricism."
Teaching
is also an important element of Jim's work. Since 1981 he has
been part of the jazz faculty at New York University,
where he is currently Adjunct Resident Artist in Jazz
Studies. For a number of years he has appeared at numerous
college jazz festivals as performer and clinician, and has been
involved regularly with summer workshops such as the Stanford
Jazz Workshop and Jamey Aebersold's Summer Jazz Clinics.
He has also done teaching residencies at institutions in the US,
Canada, Spain, Sweden, Finland, Germany and Australia. In
the Fall of 1991 he became a co-director of the B.M.I.
Jazz Composer's Workshop.