Jason Linder
Audio / Video
Gallery
About
Pianist, composer, multi-keyboardist, band-leader and arranger, Jason Lindner, grew up in Brooklyn, New York, and was naturally able to learn to play radio, television and film music by ear while only a few years of age. At age 7 he began formal piano studies, followed by guitar, saxophone, flute, bass and drums. He attended F. H. LaGuardia High School of Music and Art (location for the TV-series Fame) and formed lasting ties with musical colleagues Daniel Freedman (Third World Love), Myron Walden (Brian Blade Fellowship), Eric McPherson (Jackie McLean, Kurt Rosenwinkle) and others, and began his professional career performing at local galleries, clubs and restaurants, as well as in the great performance halls of Carnegie and Lincoln Center with school, city and state ensembles. Lindner sites his most influential teachers into his early 20's as Barry Harris (the "keeper of the bebop flame"), and Chris Anderson (perhaps the biggest influence harmonically on Herbie Hancock). Always guided by the light of his mentors, Lindner explains, “I've brought everything I inherited from my elders in the New York jazz community - Barry, Chris, Frank Hewitt, Jimmy Lovelace, Tommy Turrentine, C Sharpe, Junior Cook, Junior Mance, Jackie Byard and others - and try to connect this knowledge and tradition from the masters to new things happening now rhythmically and harmonically, in an aim to just melt into this current musical moment in history, and not worry about style or genre. Just music.”
Following his own path, Jason played in Latin dance bands, accompanied jazz vocalists at the jazz community theater The University Of The Streets, and composed for and led various formations of his own ensembles. He began touring and recording with Israeli bassist Avishai Cohen and Chilean vocalist Claudia Acuña, all the while becoming more and more interested in seeking out different forms of musical expression from around the globe in the search for the intense vitality which he felt was lacking in much of the music around. "No type of music is more important than any other," Lindner claims. "They are all parts of one musical expression, the universal language of Music. Just as knowing multiple verbal languages broadens ones native tongue, sharpen the mind for learning and increase ones ability toward expression, so does knowledge of multiple musical forms make one a more complete musician. Music in different places naturally became specialized in different ways of expression and are all historically linked to one-another, some more apparent than others. These gaps are slowly being filled and forgotten links re-discovered. I believe this is what my generation is now rapidly understanding."
Today Jason Lindner is an integral, vital part of many exciting bands and projects, including Me'shell Ndegeocello, Claudia Acuña, Dafnis Prieto's Grammy-nominated Absolute Quintet, on trumpeter Avishai Cohen's recording After The Big Rain with Lionel Loueke, Anat Cohen, Omer Avital, Baba Israel, The New York Gypsy All Stars, and others. Jason Lindner's credits also include musical direction for Lauryn Hill, big band arrangements for Jazz at Lincoln Center's Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra on their Grammy-nominated “Noche Involvidable”, touring with the world's greatest living jazz drummer Roy Haynes, and a recent sold-out Carnegie Hall performance featured with the most celebrated singer of Croatia, Oliver Dragojević. Lindner is arguably the only musician on the scene that is fully entrenched in such diverse styles as playing acoustic jazz piano with various small groups, analogue modular synths with Me'shell Ndegeocello, and leading one of the most electrifying big bands around. Lindner has also shared stage or studio with esteemed artists as Chick Corea, Elvin Jones, Branford Marsalis, Wynton Marsalis, Paquito D’Rivera, Christian McBride, Hüsnü Şenlendirici, Pink Noise, Amel Larrieux, Kurt Rosenwinkle, Dana Leong, Pharaoh's Daughter, Cindy Santos, Waverly Seven, Somi, Giovanna Moretti, Junior Cook, Jon Hendricks, James Moody, Graciella and members of the legendary Mario Bauza Orchestra, Mark Turner, Dakota Staton, Jimmy Lovelace (Wes Montgomery), Jimmy Cobb (Miles Davis), The Henry Mancini Orchestra, Clarence "C" Sharpe, Vernel Fournier (Ahmad Jamal), and others.
Artist Website
Following his own path, Jason played in Latin dance bands, accompanied jazz vocalists at the jazz community theater The University Of The Streets, and composed for and led various formations of his own ensembles. He began touring and recording with Israeli bassist Avishai Cohen and Chilean vocalist Claudia Acuña, all the while becoming more and more interested in seeking out different forms of musical expression from around the globe in the search for the intense vitality which he felt was lacking in much of the music around. "No type of music is more important than any other," Lindner claims. "They are all parts of one musical expression, the universal language of Music. Just as knowing multiple verbal languages broadens ones native tongue, sharpen the mind for learning and increase ones ability toward expression, so does knowledge of multiple musical forms make one a more complete musician. Music in different places naturally became specialized in different ways of expression and are all historically linked to one-another, some more apparent than others. These gaps are slowly being filled and forgotten links re-discovered. I believe this is what my generation is now rapidly understanding."
Today Jason Lindner is an integral, vital part of many exciting bands and projects, including Me'shell Ndegeocello, Claudia Acuña, Dafnis Prieto's Grammy-nominated Absolute Quintet, on trumpeter Avishai Cohen's recording After The Big Rain with Lionel Loueke, Anat Cohen, Omer Avital, Baba Israel, The New York Gypsy All Stars, and others. Jason Lindner's credits also include musical direction for Lauryn Hill, big band arrangements for Jazz at Lincoln Center's Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra on their Grammy-nominated “Noche Involvidable”, touring with the world's greatest living jazz drummer Roy Haynes, and a recent sold-out Carnegie Hall performance featured with the most celebrated singer of Croatia, Oliver Dragojević. Lindner is arguably the only musician on the scene that is fully entrenched in such diverse styles as playing acoustic jazz piano with various small groups, analogue modular synths with Me'shell Ndegeocello, and leading one of the most electrifying big bands around. Lindner has also shared stage or studio with esteemed artists as Chick Corea, Elvin Jones, Branford Marsalis, Wynton Marsalis, Paquito D’Rivera, Christian McBride, Hüsnü Şenlendirici, Pink Noise, Amel Larrieux, Kurt Rosenwinkle, Dana Leong, Pharaoh's Daughter, Cindy Santos, Waverly Seven, Somi, Giovanna Moretti, Junior Cook, Jon Hendricks, James Moody, Graciella and members of the legendary Mario Bauza Orchestra, Mark Turner, Dakota Staton, Jimmy Lovelace (Wes Montgomery), Jimmy Cobb (Miles Davis), The Henry Mancini Orchestra, Clarence "C" Sharpe, Vernel Fournier (Ahmad Jamal), and others.