Brian Priestley is an English jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

 writer, pianist and arranger.

Priestley began studying music at age 8, and in the 1960s began arranging jazz pieces for the National Youth Jazz Orchestra

National Youth Jazz Orchestra

The National Youth Jazz Orchestra is a British jazz orchestra founded in 1963 by Bill Ashton.Based in Westminster, London, NYJO started life as the London Schools' Jazz Orchestra and evolved into becoming the national orchestra...

 and gained a degree in modern languages from Leeds University

University of Leeds

The University of Leeds is a British Redbrick university located in the city of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England...

. In the late 1960s Priestley began contributing to the jazz press and was responsible for entries in Jazz on Record: A Critical Guide to the First Fifty Years, 1917–67 (1968), edited by Albert McCarthy and others.

In 1970 Priestley moved to London and began working with bands led by Tony Faulkner and Alan Cohen. Priestley helped arrange Duke Ellington

Duke Ellington

Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was an American composer, pianist, and big band leader. Ellington wrote over 1,000 compositions...

's "Creole Rhapsody" for Cohen in 1977 and has also worked with Digby Fairweather

Digby Fairweather

Digby Fairweather is a British jazz cornettist and broadcaster.-Biography:Fairweather has been a professional jazz musician since 1 January 1977, but worked for seven years previously with several local jazz bands in the Essex area and recorded his first album in 1975...

.

He has also done broadcasting work for the BBC

BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

 (BBC Radio London

BBC London 94.9

BBC London 94.9 is London's BBC Local Radio station, and part of BBC London. Broadcasting across Greater London and beyond on 94.9 FM, DAB, Virgin Media Channel 930, Sky Channel 0152 and also online...

 and Radio 3

BBC Radio 3

BBC Radio 3 is a national radio station operated by the BBC within the United Kingdom. Its output centres on classical music and opera, but jazz, world music, drama, culture and the arts also feature. The station is the world’s most significant commissioner of new music, and its New Generation...

) as well as London Jazz FM

102.2 Jazz FM

102.2 Jazz FM was a local jazz and soul music station for London run by GMG Radio. The station was based and broadcast from Castlereagh Street in London to around 15.5 million people within the broadcasting area...

. Priestley taught jazz piano

Jazz piano

Jazz piano is a collective term for the techniques pianists use when playing jazz. The piano has been an integral part of the jazz idiom since its inception, in both solo and ensemble settings. Its role is multifaceted due largely to the instrument's combined melodic and harmonic capabilities...

 at Goldsmiths College

Goldsmiths College

Goldsmiths, University of London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom which specialises in the arts, humanities and social sciences, and a constituent college of the federal University of London. It was founded in 1891 as Goldsmiths' Technical and Recreative Institute...

 from 1977 until 1993, and has worked for various other universities as an instructor over the years. Priestley has also authored biographies of Charles Mingus

Charles Mingus

Charles Mingus Jr. was an American jazz musician, composer, bandleader, and civil rights activist.Mingus's compositions retained the hot and soulful feel of hard bop and drew heavily from black gospel music while sometimes drawing on elements of Third stream, free jazz, and classical music...

, John Coltrane

John Coltrane

John William Coltrane was an American jazz saxophonist and composer. Working in the bebop and hard bop idioms early in his career, Coltrane helped pioneer the use of modes in jazz and later was at the forefront of free jazz...

 and Charlie Parker

Charlie Parker

Charles Parker, Jr. , famously called Bird or Yardbird, was an American jazz saxophonist and composer....

, as well as the book Jazz on Record published by Elm Tree Books, a history of the recording of the musical form.

Priestley is currently living in Tralee, Ireland, where he presents a show on Radio Kerry

Radio Kerry

Radio Kerry is a full service, licensed radio station that operates from the franchise area of County Kerry in Southwest Ireland.Radio Kerry was established in 1989 and began broadcasting on July 14 1990. The station headquarters are in Tralee, the principal town of County Kerry, with remote...

.

Discography

• You Taught My Heart to Sing (1994; Spirit of Jazz)
• Love You Madly (1999; Louise Gibbs, Brian Priestley & Tony Coe)
• Who Knows (2004)

Literature

• Priestley, B. Charlie Parker, Tunbridge Wells, Hippocrene Books 1984
• Priestley, B. Chasin´ the Bird – The Life and Legacy of Charlie Parker, Oxford University Press 2007, ISBN 0195327098
• Priestley, B. John Coltrane, London, Apollo Press 1986
• Priestley, B. Mingus. A Critical Biography, Da Capo Press, New York 1985, ISBN 0306802171
• Priestley, Digby Fairweather, Ian Carr Jazz The Rough Guide The Essential Companion to Artists and Albums, ISBN 1843532565 (formerly as Jazz. The Essential companion, Grafton Books 1988)
• Priestley, B. Jazz on Record, Elm Tree Books 1988, ISBN 0241124409
• Priestley, Dave Gelly, Paul Trynka, Tony Bacon The Sax and Brass book- saxophones, trumpets and trombones in Jazz, Rock and Pop, Balafon Books 1998