Stephen Cox, Pianist

Many of us have heard great collaborations between pianists and guitarists. During the days I was in music school, I enjoyed accompanying vocalists and instrumentalists (string and wind players). But in those years I didn’t have an opportunity to collaborate with guitarists. Years later I had the chance to play with guitarists in the jazz…

We know everyone’s experience with performance anxiety (stage fright) is unique. It depends upon so many things: not the least of which is the nature of the music the performer is playing or singing, expectations and demands. Acknowledging that our experiences are different, and that some people don’t suffer much from stage fright at all:…

The subtitle for this post might also be ‘shameless name-dropping’. I learned an interesting lesson recently about name-dropping: I dropped the name of my nephew-in-law Mark Schneider to someone recently; Mark is a well-established theater director, educator, and an amazing creative – and comedic – thinker. I mentioned my name-drop to Mark, he was gracious…

Until Covid-19, the Ventura Jazz Orchestra & Sextet was a long-standing jazz/swing organization based in Ojai California, it played all over Ventura and Santa Barbara counties (and occasionally beyond those counties’ borders). For much of its history the marvelous singer Donna Greene was part of the group. I played in the group for quite a…

An older term for Collaborative Pianist, as many of us know, is Accompanist. My piano teacher for many years, Camille Hayes, was a fan of the late great pianist Gerald Moore; Gerald Moore was a quintessential classical-music accompanist: most consider him to be one of the best accompanists, if not the best. His autobiography ‘Am…

Recently moving to San Francisco, I’ve been inspired to learn more about Vince Guaraldi and his life here. By far the best source of such knowledge is with Derrick Bang. His book ‘Vince Guaraldi at the Piano’ and his website (https://impressionsofvince.blogspot.com/) have the most information and insights about Vince Guaraldi I’m aware of. It’s astounding…

Working at Patagonia, I thought quite a bit about stoke. Like most people, I’d heard the term used many times. What I believe now about the concept, is that it has some essential ingredients. There of course is no universal definition, these are just my evolving observations. I think it’s along the lines of what…