Darrell Grant Day
5-30-62
Central to Darrell Grant’s music is a sense of purpose, agency, and connection to community.
Through eight albums as a bandleader, numerous recordings as a sideman, a growing body of compositions, and two decades of service as an educator and leader in the arts, Grant’s multi-faceted creative projects and innovative initiatives reflect a belief in the extraordinary power of art to communicate, inspire, provoke, inform, and move others to transform society and themselves.
“Darrell Grant is a musician worthy of some serious listening. He is a very fine pianist and composer.”
Speaking to Nat Hentoff for the liner notes to his debut CD Black Art, Grant told the renowned jazz critic that “the longer I play, the clearer it becomes that, at least for me, the goal is to give voice to the meanings behind the music. I have a deep desire to reach people, to communicate something of the things that I am finding to be true, with humor, with love, with silence, with swing, and with passion.” Telling those truths has been the driving force in Darrell Grant’s musical career.
DARRELL GRANT was introduced to international audiences in 1988 as the pianist with the legendary vocalist Betty Carter. He has performed and recorded with such notable musicians as Branford Marsalis, David Sanborn, Esperanza Spalding, John Clayton, Nicholas Payton, James Moody, Kevin Eubanks, Lenny White, Jane Bunnett, Somi, Tom Harrell, Jack Dejohnette, Terence Blanchard, and Art Farmer. He has performed extensively as a bandleader and solo artist throughout the U.S., Canada, and Europe in venues ranging from clubs to major jazz festivals, and been featured on Marian McPartland’s “Piano Jazz” on National Public Radio.
Born May 30, 1962 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Grant grew up in Denver, Colorado in a musical family. He began classical lessons at age seven and quickly received honors for his prowess on piano. He discovered jazz in school band programs and played family concerts and talent shows. At 15, he joined the Pearl Street Jazz Band, a precocious ensemble of teenaged musicians playing traditional New Orleans-style jazz. The group held down regular professional gigs, recorded two albums, and appeared at regional jazz festivals.