LONG BIO:
Peter Saltzman is a rare quadruple musical threat—equally brilliant and innovative as songwriter, singer, pianist and producer. Like recent Grammy winner Nora Jones, he smoothly traverses the boundaries of jazz and pop in a way that makes both jazz and pop fans happy. But he also bridges the gap between old and new American pop styles, and the audiences that go along with them. His music is “ambitious, richly layered, [and] wonderfully accessible” (Hedy Weiss, Chicago Sun-Times)

OLD AND NEW
Mr. Saltzman’s songs incorporate both the older pre-rock American styles of Gershwin, Porter and Rodgers as well as the more recent styles of Sting, Stevie Wonder, etc. His lyrics draw on the urbane witticisms of writers like Lorenz Hart and Cole Porter and the darkly sardonic Bob Dylan. His cross-generational influences also extend to his singing and piano styles. One hears elements of Billie Holiday, Mel Torme and modern rock/R&B singers in his voice, and in his piano style everyt

Basic Bio

As a composer, singer and pianist, Peter Saltzman has been leading a variety of Chicago-based ensembles since the late 1980's. These include the Peter Zak Band (his erstwhile stage name), which exclusively performed Saltzman's pop songs, and released an album, "Songs From Two States" of those in 1988; The Revolution Ensemble, a mixed jazz-classical group of varying sizes (3 to 30) which performed everything from Saltzman's hybrid orchestral works to chamber jazz, and released the critically acclaimed CD "Kabbalah Blues/Quantum Funk" in 2000; and most recently the Peter Saltzman Band, which performs a combination of jazz-pop Saltzman originals along with provocative renditions of everything from Irving Berlin to Bob Dylan, and released the CD "Things Better Left Said" in 2003.

Saltzman, who studied Jazz at Indian University (Bloomington) and composition at Eastman School of Music, has also composed for wide variety of mediums, including orchestra, chorus, film, dance, opera, chamber music and solo piano--along with song. His compositions have been performed and recorded internationally by groups as diverse as the Czech National Philharmonic Orchestra, Chicago a cappella and Dallas Black Dance Theatre. He recently composed the score for Eric Forsberg's feature film "Alien Abduction" (2005, Asylum). Oxford University Press publishes many of his choral, vocal and piano works. Saltzman is the recipient of numerous awards, grants and commissions, including an ASCAP composer's prize and an Illinois Arts Council Fellowship grant. He is an adjunct professor of music at Columbia College Chicago.

Saltzman's music has been called "ambitious, richly layered, wonderfully" (Chicago Tribune), "Distinctive...memorable..." (Chicago Sun-Times), and "powerful stuff" (Dallas Morning News)