Friday, June 14th
The Scott Routenberg Trio: CD Release Party
The Scott Routenberg Trio is an Indianapolis-based jazz piano trio specializing in Routenberg’s award-winning compositions, Brazilian jazz,
and fresh interpretations of the standard repertoire. The dynamic, intense and critically-acclaimed trio has been lauded as “an example of moving forward in jazz music” (Chamber Music America), with Routenberg hailed as a “rising-star jazz pianist…who has found his own voice in the modern mainstream” and a “superior modern jazz pianist offering an individualistic take on the classic piano trio” (JAZZIZ). The trio’s debut album, Every End is a Beginning, released on Grammy-winning label Summit Records in 2017, reached #65 on the JazzWeek radio chart, #33 on the Roots Music Report Top 50 Jazz Albums, and was named Jazz Album of the Week by
soulandjazz.com. The Creative Source’s Dr. Brad Stone calls the album “an early candidate for jazz record of the year.”
In 2018 the Scott Routenberg Trio released their second studio album on Summit Records, SUPERMOON, which features 10 new original
compositions by Routenberg inspired by his young children. SUPERMOON received critical praise as “a work of unified expression from a charismatic trio…with substantial moments of gratification” (Jazz Trail). Jazz Weekly describes the album as “a decalogue of Routenberg’s compositions…rich in lyricism,” declaring that “the modern jazz piano trio is alive and well.” SUPERMOON received wide airplay on dozens of jazz stations nationwide and abroad, including Jazz on PRI’s “Jazz After Hours,” the Jazz Network (Chicago) and The Creative Source. “The trio often seems to think as one, sounding quite tight but also spontaneous…” (Scott Yanow-L.A. Jazz Scene).
The trio has performed across the United States and in Canada at such festivals and venues as Indy Jazz Fest 2015-2018, Elkhart Jazz Festival 2018, The Green Mill (Chicago), The Jazz Kitchen (Indianapolis), The Velvet Note (Atlanta), Rudy’s Jazz Room (Nashville), The Home Smith Bar at the Old Mill (Toronto), The Palladium (Carmel, IN), the Chatterbox (Indy) and has opened for legendary jazz guitarist John Scofield.
Dr. Scott Routenberg enjoys a versatile and prolific career as an award-winning composer, arranger, jazz pianist and orchestrator. For over a decade, Routenberg’s “groundbreaking” and genre-bending music has garnered widespread critical acclaim, with the artist emerging as a “distinctive original voice” in modern jazz composition. In 2004, Scott was the first jazz songwriter to win the coveted John Lennon Songwriting Contest Maxell Song of the Year. Other notable awards and honors include The ASCAP Foundation/Symphonic Jazz Orchestra Commissioning Prize (2016), the International Society of Jazz Arrangers and Composers Symposium SONIC Award for Best Arrangement (2017), the ASCAP David Rose Scholarship, Composer Scholar at the Henry Mancini Institute in Los Angeles, the ASCAP Foundation Young Jazz Composer Award (three-time winner), participant in the ASCAP Television and Film Scoring Workshop and the DOWNBEAT Student Award for Best Extended Length Composition.
As a jazz arranger, Routenberg has been commissioned by multiple Grammy-winning ensembles and artists, including the Metropole Orkest and harmonica virtuoso Howard Levy. His orchestral music has been performed by The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and has received premieres at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center and around the world.
Scott’s jazz piano teachers include Brazilian legend Manfredo Fest (keyboardist and arranger for Sergio Mendes, Brazil ’66 and Bossa Rio), Chip Crawford (Grammy Award winning pianist for Gregory Porter on Blue Note records) and Vince Maggio (student of Oscar Peterson and roommate of Bill Evans) and Ted Howe. Routenberg is a graduate of the University of Miami Frost School of Music and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dr. Routenberg is currently Associate Professor of Jazz Piano at Ball State University, where he received the 2018-2019 College of Fine Arts Dean’s Creative Endeavor Award for the School of Music. Routenberg was chosen to serve on the jury for the prestigious American Pianists Association Jazz Piano Competition Premiere Series (2018-2019), where he helped choose the $100,000 Cole Porter Fellowship winner, one of the most coveted prizes in the music world and the largest for jazz pianists.
Scott looks forward to returning to his hometown of Atlanta, Georgia to play The Velvet Note with his trio once again!
Showtimes: 7:30pm and 9:30pm
The Velvet Note®