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Grammy Award-winning pianist Bill Charlap, director of jazz studies at William Paterson University in Wayne, recently received Jazz at Lincoln Center’s 2024 Award for Artistic Excellence during its gala, “Celebrating Tony Bennett.”
One of the world’s premiere jazz pianists, Charlap is known for his interpretations of the American popular songs, and collaborated with Tony Bennett on Tony Bennett & Bill Charlap, The Silver Lining: The Songs of Jerome Kern (Columbia), which won the 2015 Grammy Award for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album.
Charlap joined William Paterson University in 2015 as director of its internationally known Jazz Studies Program, now in its 51st year. As director, he directs several of the program’s 24 small jazz groups, host the program’s dialogue days that feature peer and faculty critiques of student performances, and presents numerous concerts, including a recent performance with the WP Jazz Orchestra at Dizzy’s Club Coca Cola at Jazz at Lincoln Center.
The gala was hosted by five-time Grammy-nominated singer, songwriter, and actor Josh Groban, who introduced Charlap as “a virtuosic pianist who has explored the many facets of American music, from the Great American Songbook to the compositions of Leonard Bernstein to countless classics by jazz’s greatest composers.” Groban also noted that in his position as director of jazz studies, Charlap is “passing the gift of jazz on to the next generation.”
The award was presented by two of Charlap’s mentees, pianists Isaiah Thompson pianists and Caelan Cardello, a 2022 graduate of William Paterson University. “Bill’s unwavering benevolence and genuine concern for his students is unparalleled, and his personal engagement illuminates the depth of his soul,” said Cardello in his remarks.
“I can’t tell you how deeply honored I am to be recognized this way by people I admire so much: Wynton Marsalis, and everyone at Jazz at Lincoln Center, which is a beacon of light and humanity and art and music,” said Charlap in accepting the award. “This music, and in art and in life, it’s all about loving each other into being,” he added, thanking “people who love you into being,” including “Dr. David Demsey, who I work with at William Paterson University (and) all the students there.”
In addition to Charlap, the evening featured performances by the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, Rubén Blades, Bernadette Peters, Jared Grimes, Adriane Lenox, Kristin Chenoweth, Ekep Nkwelle, Shenel Johns, Robbie Lee, and Norm Lewis.
Charlap has performed and recorded with many leading artists of our time, including Phil Woods, Gerry Mulligan, Barbra Streisand, and Wynton Marsalis, among many others. In 1997, he formed his trio with bassist Peter Washington and drummer Kenny Washington, now recognized as one of the leading groups in jazz.
The Bill Charlap Trio has received three Grammy nominations: for Somewhere: The Songs of Leonard Bernstein, for The Bill Charlap Trio: Live at the Village Vanguard (Blue Note), and for The Bill Charlap Trio: Uptown Downtown (Impulse!).
Charlap tours all over the world, and his annual New York engagements include appearances at Jazz at Lincoln Center and the Village Vanguard. Named director of jazz studies at William Paterson in 2015, Charlap is artistic director of New York City’s Jazz in July Festival at 92NY and has produced concerts for Jazz at Lincoln Center, New Jersey Performing Arts Center, Chicago Symphony Center, and the Hollywood Bowl.
Photos by Michael Loccisano/Getty Images for Jazz at Lincoln Center.
