9/15/10 Completion of a recording of the Solar Concerto for the Nine Muses. A work commisioned and recorded in Santa Fe including many players from the Santa Fe Opera.
07/25/10 Tribute to Bobby Timmons at Center for Spiritual Living in Santa Fe withTribute Trio
6/13/10 Tribute to Earl "Bud" Powell at Casa Rondena with Tribute Trio
05/13/10 Tribute to Horace Silver at Outpost Performance Space withTribute Trio
12/3/09 Launch of Solar Trio at the Outpost Perfoming Arts Space
i3/12/09 his Piano Preludes were performed by pianist Roger Steptoe in New York.
12/15/08 - John completed his recording Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier books 1 & 2 on a Steingraeber Piano in Santa Fe, NM. The works are to be released at free2earth.com.
9/1/08 John began teaching Piano at Northern New Miexico College.
John's CD "Pages" is available from CDbaby.com. This is an important milestone in his career. After two decades of writing, playing, touring, and educating, John Rangel is beginning his solo recording career.
Info
John Rangel is a dynamic Composer and Jazz Pianist. He has been a professional musician for over twenty years. John grew up in a very musical family in New York City. He grew up listening to jazz and classical pianists; many of which were available to experience live in NYC. He loved the recordings of Stravinsky, J.S. Bach, Mozart, Maurice Ravel, Ray Charles, Erroll Garner, Teddy Wilson, Oscar Peterson, Wynton Kelly, Bill Evans, Herbie Hancock. He listened live to many classical pianist at various concert venues in NYC. He also heard live Mary Lou Williams, Kenny Baron, Oscar Peterson, Richie Beirach, Kirk Lightsey, Ralph Towner, and others. He decided to become a musician and studied in Rochester NY at the Eastman School. He eventually migrated back to NYC where he studied with John Corigliano, Stanley Cowell , Richie Beirach, Joanne Brackeen, Phil Markowitz, and Frank Martori.
After a six period in Orlando Fl, John moved to Los Angeles in the early 90's. He immersed himself in the rich vibrant culture of Leimert Park known as the "African Greenwich Village." Leimert Park is the center of African-American Arts in LA, brimming with poets, artists, and musicians. This community has been a major influence on John's spiritual intention and musical direction. John Rangel has explored a tremendous range of musical experiences including Jazz, Classical, Film Music, Pop, Hi-Life, Salsa, Reggae, and Calypso.
John Rangel's versatility as a jazz pianist is most evident in his work with the following artists; Nat Adderly, Marcus Printup, Ira Sullivan, Bobby Shew, Sam Rivers, Ravi Coltrane, Pharaoh Saunders, Sonny Fortune, Zane Musa, Eric Person, Justin Ray, Ernie Watts, Sam Most, Azar Lawrence, Phil Ranelin, Scott Whitfield, George Bohannon, Al McKibbon, James Leary, Dr. Art Davis, Nedra Wheeler, Tony Dumas, Dwight Trible, Carmen Bradford, James Torme (son of Mel), Blay Amboley and His Afrikan Jazz Band, Tierney Sutton, Rosemary Clooney, Willie Jones III, Ndugu Chancellor, Sunship Theus, Sherman Ferguson, Ralph Penland, Smitty Smith, Joe La Barbera, Derf Reklaw, and Billy Higgins.
Some performance highlights include; Inntone Jazz Festival in Austria, The Outpost Performance Space, Carnegie Hall in NY, Royce Hall in LA, Gene Harris Jazz Festival in Idaho, the Playboy Jazz Festival, LA County Museum of Art, MOCA, Central Avenue Jazz Festival, Clearwater Jazz Festival in Florida, Ronnie Scott's in London, Jazz Café in London, North Sea Jazz Festival in the Netherlands, and various venues in Osaka and Tokyo.
John now lives in Santa Fe New Mexico where he has recently relocated his music production studio. He a professor at Northern New Mexico College teaching piano and has started a program at Rio Grande School teaching music using Apple computers. He shared 2009 producer of the year credit from the New Mexico Music Awards last year with Luis Guerra. He has worked with many local musicians in the thriving New Mexico community of musicians; including Luis Guerra, Diego Arencon, Cathy McGill, Hillary Smith, Larry Mitchell, Bobby Shew, Cal Haynes, Michael Glynn, Glenn Kostur, Peter Amahll, Kanoa Kaluhiwa, Matt Brewer, Bruce Dunlap, John Trentacosta, Carmella Rappazzo, Marcos Cavalcante, Howard Cloud, Dimi Disanti, Pat Malone, Dave Parlato, Jon Gagan, Chris Golden, Doug Lawrence, Paul Gonzalez, Brian Wingard, Camillo Quinones, and many others.
