Joel Forrester

About

Joel Forrester is the composer of more than 1200 tunes, a versatile and accomplished jazz pianist, leader of his own quartet and prolific recording artist. He has performed in an extraordinary diversity of settings - from large ensembles to a duet setting with a tap dancer! His playing draws from stride, boogie-woogie, bebop, trance and what he likes to call 'salon pieces' but each composition bears the stamp of this most individual artist.

Since its founding in 1980, under the co-leadership and co-compositional duties of soprano saxophonist Phillip Johnston and pianist Joel Forrester, the Microscopic Septet have been "New York's most famous unknown band"; since 1990, the catchy, film noir theme they created for NPR’s "Fresh Air with Terry Gross" has aired daily on stations across America, and may now be the most-broadcast jazz tune in the world.