Travis Shook (born March 10, 1969) is a jazz pianist who made his eponymous

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music, Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of Japanese Conglomerate (company), conglomerate Sony. It was founded on Janua ...

debut in a quartet that included Tony Williams and

Bunky Green Vernice "Bunky" Green (born April 23, 1935) is an American jazz alto saxophonist and educator. Biography Green was raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he played the alto saxophone, mainly at a local club called "The Brass Rail". Green's fi ...

. He was born in

Oroville, California Oroville (''Oro'', Spanish for "Gold" and ''Ville'', French for "town") is the county seat of Butte County, California, United States. The population of the city was 15,506 at the 2010 census, up from 13,004 in the 2000 census. Following the ...

. He received much critical acclaim for this first effort, but failed to hold on to the contract when Sony purged a large percentage of the Columbia jazz roster upon acquiring the label in 1993. After spending some time as a member of the

Betty Carter Betty Carter (born Lillie Mae Jones; May 16, 1929 – September 26, 1998) was an American jazz singer known for her improvisational technique, scatting and other complex musical abilities that demonstrated her vocal talent and imaginative int ...

Trio, he dropped out of the public eye for a number of years. In 1993, Shook and his wife, jazz singer

Veronica Nunn Veronica Elaine Nunn (born October 7, 1957) is an American jazz singer who has been the featured vocalist with Michael Franks since 1992. In the late 1970s she moved to New York City to pursue a degree in theology at Lehmans College in the Bron ...

, started their own record label, Dead Horse Records, which has released four recordings to date. Shook grew up in

Olympia, Washington Olympia is the capital of the U.S. state of Washington and the county seat and largest city of Thurston County. It is southwest of the state's most populous city, Seattle, and is a cultural center of the southern Puget Sound region. Europea ...

, moved to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

in the mid-1990s and currently resides in

Woodstock, New York Woodstock is a town in Ulster County, New York, United States, in the northern part of the county, northwest of Kingston, NY. It lies within the borders of the Catskill Park. The population was 5,884 at the 2010 census, down from 6,241 in 200 ...

Selected discography

As leader

* ''Travis Shook'' * ''Awake'' * ''Travis Shook Plays Kurt Weill'' * ''Travis Shook - Trio''

As sideman

With

Sonny Simmons Huey "Sonny" Simmons (August 4, 1933 – April 6, 2021) was an American jazz musician. Biography Simmons was born on August 4, 1933 in Sicily Island, Louisiana. He grew up in Oakland, California, where he began playing the English horn. (Along ...

* ''American Jungle'' * ''Reincarnation'' With

* ''American Lullaby'' * ''Standard Delivery'' * ''The Art of Michael Franks'' With Jay Thomas * ''Rapture'' With Skip Walker * ''Tina's Contemplation''

External links

All Music AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the datab ...

br>Official Website
American jazz pianists American male jazz pianists Jazz songwriters Living people Musicians from Olympia, Washington 1969 births People from Oroville, California 20th-century American pianists 21st-century American pianists 20th-century American male musicians 21st-century American male musicians American male jazz musicians Jazz musicians from California {{Washington-musician-stub