Chris Peña at The Nash

Chris Peña - piano, Ben Hedquist - bass, Micah Hummel - drums

Pianist Chris Peña, originally from Tucson, was the recipient of the Provost Scholarship and an ASU JazzBird Scholarship. In 2010, Peña was a winner of DownBeat Magazine’s prestigious 33rd Annual Student Music Awards. Peña won for his collaborative arrangement of Bebel Gilberto’s “Um Segundo.”

Peña’s love of melody and lyricism was instilled in him as he grew up listening to baroque, classical and romantic music. But when he happened to attend a program sponsored by the Tucson Jazz Institute, his life was changed forever....

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Chris Peña - piano, Ben Hedquist - bass, Micah Hummel - drums

Pianist Chris Peña, originally from Tucson, was the recipient of the Provost Scholarship and an ASU JazzBird Scholarship. In 2010, Peña was a winner of DownBeat Magazine’s prestigious 33rd Annual Student Music Awards. Peña won for his collaborative arrangement of Bebel Gilberto’s “Um Segundo.”

Peña’s love of melody and lyricism was instilled in him as he grew up listening to baroque, classical and romantic music. But when he happened to attend a program sponsored by the Tucson Jazz Institute, his life was changed forever.

“I fell in love with America's first form of intellectual improvisatory music, which is jazz," he said. "The way Louis Armstrong can sweep the heart with soaring melodies while at the same time swinging so hard had such a powerful affect on me. On another side, John Coltrane appeals to me just because of the nature of my curiosity. Coltrane seemed to have insatiable desire for finding every last way to express what he felt through music.

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