Taylor Eigsti (born September 24, 1984) is an American

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

pianist and composer. Eigsti's trio features bassist Harish Raghavan and drummer Eric Harland. He is also a member of Eric Harland Voyager, Kendrick Scott Oracle, and Gretchen Parlato's group. A child prodigy, Eigsti has been a faculty member at the

Stanford Jazz Workshop Stanford Jazz Workshop (SJW) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to jazz education and the annual concert series known as the Stanford Jazz Festival. SJW was founded in 1972 by saxophonist and educator Jim Nadel. Though many of its activities a ...

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

since age 15. Eigsti has twice won the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Instrumental Album, for ''Tree Falls'' in

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and ''Plot Armor'' in

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.Evan Minsker,
Grammys 2022 Winners: See the Full List Here
, ''Pitchfork'', April 3, 2022

Early life

Eigsti was born to Nancy and Steve Eigsti on September 24, 1984, and grew up in

Menlo Park, California Menlo Park ( ) is a city at the eastern edge of San Mateo County, California, San Mateo County in the San Francisco Bay Area of California, United States. It is bordered by San Francisco Bay on the north and east; East Palo Alto, California, Eas ...

. When he was three, his 17-year-old sister, Shannon, died of cancer. Her death made a lasting impression and continued to influence Eigsti's musical development. Eigsti's study of piano began at age four when he was inspired by his older sister, Shannon."Taylor Eigsti - Pianist , Composer , Artist , Two-time Grammy Nominee". Taylor Eigsti. Web. 23 Apr. 2012. . He graduated

salutatorian Salutatorian is an academic title given in Armenia, the Philippines, Canada, Afghanistan and the United States to the second-highest-ranked graduate of the entire graduating class of a specific discipline. Only the valedictorian is ranked higher. ...

of his high school class at Woodside Priory School, where he returned to give the Commencement Address in 2010. He then had a brief stint at the

University of Southern California The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in ...

's Thornton School of Music before dropping out, midway through his sophomore year, to pursue his musical career."Taylor Eigsti and the Prodigy Thing". Interview by Judith Schlesinger. All About Jazz. All About Jazz, 22 Oct. 2004. Web. 24 Apr. 2012.

Musical career

New York-based pianist and composer Taylor Eigsti started playing the piano when he was four years old. Growing up in

, Eigsti was quickly labeled a prodigy, and has since released 7 albums as a bandleader, in addition to appearing on over 50 albums as a sideman. Eigsti has garnered multiple individual GRAMMY Award nominations over the years for his work as a recording artist and composer, including Best Instrumental Composition, and Best Jazz Instrumental Solo. Eigsti also co-wrote a featured composition with

Don Cheadle Donald Frank Cheadle Jr. (, ; born November 29, 1964) is an American actor. Known for his roles in film and television, he has received List of awards and nominations received by Don Cheadle, multiple accolades including two Golden Globe Award ...

for the 2017 GRAMMY-winning soundtrack to the motion picture " Miles Ahead". Eigsti has traveled internationally with his trio and quartet, and has frequently performed as a sideman since moving to New York City in 2008. Eigsti has performed at the

Hollywood Bowl The Hollywood Bowl is an amphitheatre and Urban park, public park in the Hollywood Hills of Los Angeles, California. It was named one of the 10 best live music venues in the United States by ''Rolling Stone'' magazine in 2018 and was listed on ...

Carnegie Hall Carnegie Hall ( ) is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It is at 881 Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh Avenue, occupying the east side of Seventh Avenue between 56th Street (Manhattan), 56th and 57th Street (Manhattan), 57t ...

Salle Pleyel The Salle Pleyel (, meaning "Pleyel Hall") is a concert hall in the 8th arrondissement of Paris, France, designed by the acoustician Gustave Lyon together with the architect Jacques Marcel Auburtin, who died in 1926, and the work was completed i ...

Red Rocks Amphitheatre Red Rocks Amphitheatre (also known colloquially as simply Red Rocks) is an open-air amphitheater in the Western United States, western United States near Morrison, Colorado, approximately southwest of Denver. It is owned and operated by the c ...

Royal Festival Hall The Royal Festival Hall is a 2,700-seat concert, dance and talks venue within Southbank Centre in London, England. It is situated on the South Bank of the River Thames, not far from Hungerford Bridge, in the London Borough of Lambeth. It is a G ...

Konzerthaus, Vienna The Konzerthaus is a concert hall located in Vienna, Austria, which opened in 1913. It is situated in the third district just at the edge of the first district in Vienna. Since it was founded it has always tried to emphasise both traditional and ...

, Olympia Hall,

Massey Hall Massey Hall is a performing arts auditorium in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Opened in 1894, it is known for its outstanding acoustics and was the long-time hall of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir. Although original ...

Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (also simply known as Lincoln Center) is a complex of buildings in the Lincoln Square neighborhood on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It has thirty indoor and outdoor facilities and is host to 5 ...

, Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall, and many festivals including

Montreal International Jazz Festival The Festival international de Jazz de Montréal is an annual jazz festival held in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The Montreal Jazz Fest holds the 2004 Guinness World Record as the world's largest jazz festival. Every year it features roughly 3,000 ar ...

North Sea Jazz Festival The North Sea Jazz Festival is a festival held annually on the second weekend of July in the Netherlands at the Ahoy venue. The festival moved to Rotterdam in 2006 after the demolition of the Statenhal in The Hague where it was originally held. ...

, Mosaic Music Festival (Singapore),

Monterey Jazz Festival The Monterey Jazz Festival is an annual music festival that takes place in Monterey, California, United States. It debuted on October 3, 1958, championed by Dave Brubeck and co-founded by jazz and popular music critic Ralph J. Gleason and jazz ...

Stockholm Jazz Festival Stockholm Jazz Festival is an annual music festival that was established in 1980 in Stockholm, Sweden, originally called the Stockholm Jazz and Blues Festival. A portion of the first festival was broadcast on Swedish television. Overview Claim ...

, Istanbul International Jazz Festival, Quito Jazz Festival,

Jakarta International Java Jazz Festival Jakarta International Java Jazz Festival (JJF) is one of the largest jazz festivals in the world and arguably the biggest in the Southern Hemisphere, held in Jakarta, Indonesia. The annual jazz festival is held every early March and was designed ...

, Sydney Jazz Festival,

Newport Jazz Festival The Newport Jazz Festival is an annual American multi-day jazz music festival held every summer in Newport, Rhode Island. Elaine Lorillard established the festival in 1954, and she and husband Louis Lorillard financed it for many years. They hire ...

, Chicago Jazz Festival,

Toronto Jazz Festival The Toronto Jazz Festival is a jazz event in Toronto which takes place for 10 days in late June through early July. Like the Beaches International Jazz Festival, most of the events are outdoors and located throughout the downtown core. The hub of th ...

. Eigsti has also been featured numerous times in various television specials, NPR appearances, commercials, and composed the theme music to the motion picture " Detachment" starring Oscar-winner

Adrien Brody Adrien Nicholas Brody (born April 14, 1973) is an American actor. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of Polish pianist Władysław Szpilman in Roman Polanski's war drama '' The Pianist'' (2002) becoming the youngest acto ...

collaborating on the score with

the Newton Brothers John Andrew Grush and Taylor Newton Stewart, known collectively as the Newton Brothers, are American film score composers, record producers, and multi-instrumentalists. Their works include scores for several films with director Mike Flanagan, ha ...

. In 2018, Eigsti was featured on a television special with

Chris Botti Christopher Stephen Botti ( ; born October 12, 1962) is an American trumpeter and composer. In 2013, Botti won the Grammy Award in the Grammy Award for Best Pop Instrumental Album, Best Pop Instrumental Album category, for the album Impressions ...

for PBS's ''

Great Performances ''Great Performances'' is a television anthology series dedicated to the performing arts; the banner has been used to televise plays, musicals, opera, ballet, concerts, as well as occasional documentaries. It is produced by the PBS member statio ...

''. Eigsti has performed, toured, or recorded with

Dave Brubeck David Warren Brubeck (; December 6, 1920 – December 5, 2012) was an American jazz pianist and composer. Often regarded as a foremost exponent of cool jazz, Brubeck's work is characterized by unusual time signatures and superimposing contrasti ...

, Joshua Redman, Julian Lage, David Benoit,

Terence Blanchard Terence Oliver Blanchard (born March 13, 1962) is an American jazz trumpeter and composer. He has also written two operas and more than 80 film and television scores. Blanchard has been nominated for two Academy Awards for Original Score for ''B ...

, Becca Stevens, James Moody,

Esperanza Spalding Esperanza Emily Spalding (born October 18, 1984), sometimes professionally known with the stylized name of esperanza spalding, is an American bassist, singer, songwriter, and composer. Her accolades include five Grammy Awards, a Boston Music Aw ...

, Lisa Fischer, Ernestine Anderson, Red Holloway,

Kurt Rosenwinkel Kurt Rosenwinkel (born October 28, 1970) is an American jazz guitarist, composer, bandleader, producer, educator, keyboardist and record label owner. Biography Born in Philadelphia to a musical family, Rosenwinkel began taking piano lessons when ...

, Diane Schuur, Ambrose Akinmusire, Ben Wendel, Marian McPartland, Christian McBride, Nicholas Payton,

Joshua Bell Joshua David Bell (born December 9, 1967) is an American violinist and conductor. He is currently music director of the Academy of St Martin in the Fields. Early life and education Bell was born in Bloomington, Indiana, one of four children of ...

, Chris Potter, Stefon Harris, Sting,

John Mayer John Clayton Mayer ( ; born October 16, 1977) is an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist. He attended Berklee College of Music in Boston, but he left for Atlanta in 1997 with fellow guitarist Clay Cook, with whom he formed the short-liv ...

Hank Jones Henry Jones Jr. (July 31, 1918 – May 16, 2010) was an American jazz pianist, bandleader, arranger, and composer. Critics and musicians have described Jones as eloquent, lyrical, and impeccable. In 1989, The National Endowment for the Arts h ...

Chick Corea Armando Anthony "Chick" Corea (June 12, 1941 – February 9, 2021) was an American jazz pianist, composer, bandleader and occasional percussionist. His compositions "Spain (instrumental), Spain", "500 Miles High", "La Fiesta", "Armando's Rhumba" ...

, Snarky Puppy,

Vanessa Williams Vanessa Lynn Williams (born March 18, 1963) is an American singer, actress, model, producer and dancer. She gained recognition as the first Black woman to win the Miss America title when she was crowned Miss America 1984. She would later Vanes ...

McCoy Tyner Alfred McCoy Tyner (December 11, 1938March 6, 2020) was an American jazz piano, jazz pianist and composer known for his work with the John Coltrane Quartet from 1960 to 1965, and his long solo career afterwards. He was an NEA Jazz Masters, NEA J ...

, Joey DeFrancesco, Charles McPherson, Geoffrey Keezer, Eldar Djangirov, Joe Lovano,

The Doobie Brothers The Doobie Brothers are an American rock band formed in San Jose, California in 1970. Known for their flexibility in performing across numerous genres and their vocal harmonies, the band has been active for over five decades, with their greate ...

, and

Frederica von Stade Frederica von Stade (born 1 June 1945) is a semi-retired American classical singer. Best known for her work in opera, she was also a recitalist and concert artist, and she recorded more than a hundred albums and videos. She is especially associa ...

, among many others. In addition to leading and performing with various small ensembles, Eigsti frequently has had the opportunity to work with, compose for and orchestrate music for various symphony orchestras, and has written music for orchestra and jazz ensemble. Various soloist and compositional features include the San José Chamber Orchestra, Oakland Symphony,

New York Philharmonic The New York Philharmonic is an American symphony orchestra based in New York City. Known officially as the ''Philharmonic-Symphony Society of New York, Inc.'', and globally known as the ''New York Philharmonic Orchestra'' (NYPO) or the ''New Yo ...

, the New York Pops,

Chicago Symphony Orchestra The Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO) is an American symphony orchestra based in Chicago, Illinois. Founded by Theodore Thomas in 1891, the ensemble has been based in the Symphony Center since 1904 and plays a summer season at the Ravinia F ...

, Colorado Symphony, Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, Naples Philharmonic,

Nashville Symphony The Nashville Symphony is an American symphony orchestra, based in Nashville, Tennessee. The orchestra is resident at the Schermerhorn Symphony Center. History In 1920, prior to the 1946 founding of the Nashville Symphony, a group of amateur a ...

, Sacramento Philharmonic Orchestra, Boston Youth Symphony Orchestras,

Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra (PSO) is an American orchestra based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The orchestra is resident at Heinz Hall, located in Pittsburgh's Cultural District. Since 2008, the orchestra's music director is Manfred Ho ...

Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra The Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra (ISO) is a major American orchestra based in Indianapolis, Indiana. The largest performing arts organization in Indiana, the orchestra was founded in 1930 and is based at the Hilbert Circle Theatre in downtown ...

, San Jose Youth Symphony, Golden State Youth Orchestra, Bear Valley Music Festival Orchestra, Tassajara Symphony, Reno Philharmonic and multiple featured collaborations with the Peninsula Symphony Orchestra.

Albums as a bandleader

Eigsti released his first album ''Tay's Groove'' at age 14. It featured Seward McCain on bass and Dan Brubeck on drums. Eigsti's second album, ''Live At Filoli'', with John Shifflett on bass and Jason Lewis on drums, was recorded at a concert at Filoli Gardens on September 16, 2000. The trio played this concert as a last minute replacement for a Marian McPartland show. His third album, ''Taylor's Dream'', was released in 2001 on

DIW Records DIW Records is a Japanese record label specializing in avant-garde jazz. It is a subsidiary of Disk Union. Kazunori Sugiyama was an executive producer for the label before starting Tzadik Records with John Zorn. DIW's name stands for "Discs in ...

. Eigsti's first nationally released album was ''Resonance'', recorded in 2003 and released on Bop City Records. It was the trio's third album together and peaked at number five in national jazz radio airplay. Eigsti's first major label debut was titled ''Lucky To Be Me''. It was released on

Concord Records Concord Records is an American record label owned by Concord and based in Los Angeles, California. Concord Records was launched in 1995 as an imprint designed to reach beyond the company's foundational Concord Jazz label. The label's artists ha ...

in 2006. ''Lucky To Be Me'' features Julian Lage on guitar, Christian McBride on bass, and Lewis Nash on drums. The album received two

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards, stylized as GRAMMY, and often referred to as The Grammys, are awards presented by The Recording Academy of the United States to recognize outstanding achievements in music. They are regarded by many as the most prestigious ...

nominations - one for ''Best Instrumental Composition'' on for his song "''Argument"'', and the other for ''Best Jazz Solo Performance'' on "''Freedom Jazz Dance"''. The album met with critical acclaim, but it was also criticized for being uneven. In 2008 Eigsti released ''Let It Come To You'', his second release with the Concord label. This album featured Julian Lage on guitar, Reuben Rogers on bass, Eric Harland on drums, Harish Raghavan on bass and Aaron McLendon on drums. Additionally, Joshua Redman, Edmar Castaneda, Dayna Stephens, Ben Wendel, and Evan Francis are featured as guests. Eigsti's next Concord album, ''Daylight at Midnight'', was released on September 21, 2010. This album features vocalist Becca Stevens and several arrangements of contemporary popular artists like

Rufus Wainwright Rufus McGarrigle Wainwright (born July 22, 1973) is a Canadian and American singer, songwriter, and composer. He has recorded eleven studio albums and numerous tracks on compilations and film soundtracks. He has also written two classical opera ...

Imogen Heap Imogen Jennifer Jane Heap ( ; born 9 December 1977) is an English musician, singer, songwriter, record producer, and entrepreneur. She is considered a pioneer in pop music, particularly electropop, and in music technology. While attending the ...

, and

Elliott Smith Steven Paul Smith (August 6, 1969 – October 21, 2003), known as Elliott Smith, was an American musician and singer-songwriter. He was born in Omaha, Nebraska, raised primarily in Texas, and lived much of his life in Portland, Oregon, whe ...

. On May 21, 2021, Eigsti released ''Tree Falls'' through GSI records. The album features drummer Eric Harland, who co-owns the GSI label, vocalists Becca Stevens,

Casey Abrams Casey Abrams (born February 12, 1991) is an American musician from Idyllwild, California, who finished in sixth place in the tenth season of ''American Idol,'' five weeks after being saved from elimination by the judges. A self-titled debut a ...

and Gretchen Parlato, and bass guitarist David "DJ" Ginyard. The album won a Grammy for Best Contemporary Instrumental Album.

Discography

As leader

As sideman

With Eric Harland * ''Voyager: Live by Night'' (Space Time, 2008 011 * ''Vipassana'' (GSI, 2014) With Gretchen Parlato * ''The Lost and Found'' (ObliqSound, 2011) * ''Live in NYC'' (Obliqsound, 2013) D, DVD-Video With Anton Schwartz * ''Radiant Blue'' (Anton Jazz, 2006) * ''Flash Mob'' (Anton Jazz, 2014) With Kendrick Scott * ''Conviction'' (Concord Jazz, 2013) * ''We Are the Drum'' (Blue Note, 2015) * ''A Wall Becomes a Bridge'' (Blue Note, 2019) With Dayna Stephens * ''The Timeless Now'' (CTA, 2007) * ''That Nepenthetic Place'' (Sunnyside, 2013) With others * David Benoit, ''Jazz for Peanuts'' (Peak/Concord, 2008) * Julian Lage, ''Sounding Point'' (EmArcy, 2009) * Bongwool Lee, ''My Singing Fingers'' (Origin, 2018) * Matt Slocum, ''With Love And Sadness'' (Sunnyside, 2022) * J. D. Walter, ''Dressed in a Song'' (JWALREC, 2020) * Ben Wendel, ''Simple Song'' (Sunnyside, 2009) * Dann Zinn, ''Day of Reckoning'' (Origin, 2019)

References

External links

Official websiteTaylor Eigsti and the Prodigy Thing
* All Musicbr>Jazz History Database
{{DEFAULTSORT:Eigsti 1984 births Living people American jazz pianists American male jazz pianists USC Thornton School of Music alumni Stanford University staff People from Menlo Park, California 21st-century American pianists 21st-century American male musicians Jazz musicians from California Grammy Award winners