Bill Cunliffe

Bill Cunliffe, studied classical piano initially, but switched to jazz after meeting Mary Lou Williams at Duke University. Upon graduating from the Eastman School of Music, he taught music at Central State University in Wilberforce Ohio, before touring with Buddy Rich and Frank Sinatra. He returned to Cincinnati for three years as the house pianist at the Greenwich Tavern, and performed with James Moody, Jon Faddis, Red Rodney, Art Farmer, Clifford Jordan, Freddie Hubbard, Bob Berg, Junior Cook, Sonny Fortune, Slide Hampton, Woody Shaw, Michael Brecker, George Coleman, Pharoah Sanders, Joe Henderson, and Art Blakey.

He moved to Los Angeles in 1989 after winning the Thelonious Monk International Piano Competition, and joined the Clayton Brothers and the Clayton Hamilton Jazz Orchestra for ten years. He also toured with vocalists Marlena Shaw, Anita O’Day, and flutist Holly Hofmann. He spent three years in NYC, freelancing, and touring with his trio, trumpeter Terell Stafford, and saxophonist Karl Denson, and gigs with Phil Woods, Benny Golson, Eric Alexander, Harry Allen, Bobby Watson, Jane Monheit, Ann Hampton Callaway, Karrin Allyson, and the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra.

He was nominated for four Grammys in jazz composing and arranging, winning for Best Instrumental Arrangement for “West Side Story Medley,” on the album “Resonance Big Band Plays Tribute to Oscar Peterson” (Resonance Records, 2009).

Cunliffe’s film work includes the score for “On the Shoulders of Giants,” Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s homage to the Harlem Rens basketball team of the 1920s and ’30s, which was nominated for an NAACP Image Award.

For thirty years he has led his piano trio, with recordings on the Azica, Metre, and Naxos labels, and has been the pianist in drummer Joe LaBarbera’s quintet.

Cunliffe teaches at the Skidmore Jazz Institute and the Vail Jazz Workshop. He is Professor of Music at Cal State Fullerton, and was named a Distinguished Professor of the College of the Arts in 2010.