Taylor Eigsti is an American jazz pianist

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...

 and composer

Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...

.

A former child prodigy

Child prodigy

A child prodigy is someone who, at an early age, masters one or more skills far beyond his or her level of maturity. One criterion for classifying prodigies is: a prodigy is a child, typically younger than 18 years old, who is performing at the level of a highly trained adult in a very demanding...

, Eigsti started studying piano at age four. He recorded his first album at age 14. Eigsti has been a faculty member at the Stanford Jazz Workshop

Stanford Jazz Workshop

Stanford Jazz Workshop was founded in 1972 by saxophonist and educator Jim Nadel to create an environment conducive to learning, experiencing and appreciating jazz...

 at Stanford University

Stanford University

The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...

 since age 15.

Eigsti has played with such artists as Dave Brubeck

Dave Brubeck

David Warren "Dave" Brubeck is an American jazz pianist. He has written a number of jazz standards, including "In Your Own Sweet Way" and "The Duke". Brubeck's style ranges from refined to bombastic, reflecting his mother's attempts at classical training and his improvisational skills...

, Christian McBride

Christian McBride

Christian McBride is an American jazz bassist. His father, Lee Smith, and his great uncle, Howard Cooper, are well known Philadelphia bassists who served as McBride's early mentors...

, Kurt Rosenwinkel

Kurt Rosenwinkel

Kurt Rosenwinkel is an American jazz guitarist and keyboardist who came to prominence in the 1990s.-Biography:He attended the Berklee School of Music for two and a half years before leaving in his junior year to tour with Gary Burton, the dean of the school at the time...

, Julian Lage

Julian Lage

Julian Lage is an American jazz guitarist and composer.A former child prodigy, Lage began performing in public at the age of six. His talent led him to be the subject of the 1997 Academy Award nominated documentary Jules at Eight. At age 13 Lage performed at the 2000 Grammy Awards...

, Becca Stevens

Becca Stevens

Becca Stevens is an American jazz, pop, and folk singer, and guitarist. She has collaborated with pianists Brad Mehldau and Taylor Eigsti. Stevens leads the Becca Stevens Quartet, with Liam Robinson on accordion and keyboards, Chris Tordini on bass, and Jordan Perlson on drums and percussion...

, James Moody

James Moody (saxophonist)

James Moody was an American jazz saxophone and flute player. He was best known for his hit "Moody's Mood for Love," an improvisation based on "I'm in the Mood for Love"; in performance, he often improvised vocals for the tune.-Biography:James Moody was born in Savannah, Georgia...

, Nicholas Payton

Nicholas Payton

Nicholas Payton is a jazz trumpet player from New Orleans, Louisiana.-Biography:The son of bassist and sousaphonist Walter Payton, he took up the trumpet at the age of four and by the time he was nine he was playing in the Young Tuxedo Brass Band alongside his father...

, Reuben Rogers

Reuben Rogers

Reuben Renwick Rogers is a American jazz bassist, composer and educator.-Biography:Born November 15, 1974, and raised in the Virgin Islands, Rogers was exposed to varieties of music that included Calypso, Reggae, Gospel and Jazz. In his formative years, Rogers received encouragement from his...

, Eric Harland

Eric Harland

Eric Harland is an American jazz drummer.Besides leading his own group Harland has performed with many renowned artists, including Wynton Marsalis, McCoy Tyner, Joe Henderson, Joshua Redman, Ravi Coltrane, Kenny Garrett, Dave Holland, Charles Lloyd, Michael Brecker, Terence Blanchard, Walter Smith...

, Chris Potter

Chris Potter

Christopher or Chris Potter may refer to:*Chris Potter *Christopher Potter *Chris Potter *Chris Potter *Christopher Potter, English academic and clergyman*Chris Potter , Dean of St Asaph...

, Dave Douglas

Dave Douglas (trumpeter)

Dave Douglas is an American jazz trumpeter and composer whose music derives from many non-jazz musical styles, including classical music, folk music from European countries and Klezmer. He has been a member of the experimental big band Orange Then Blue...

, Esperanza Spalding

Esperanza Spalding

Esperanza Spalding is an American multi-instrumentalist best known as a jazz bassist and singer, who draws upon many genres in her own compositions...

, Ambrose Akinmusire

Ambrose Akinmusire

Ambrose Akinmusire is a jazz trumpeter.In 2007 Akinmusire was the winner of the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition, and the Carmine Caruso International Jazz Trumpet Solo Competition, two of the most prestigious jazz competitions in the world.-Biography:By the time the lone standard...

, Hank Jones

Hank Jones

Henry "Hank" Jones was an American jazz pianist, bandleader, arranger, and composer. Critics and musicians described Jones as eloquent, lyrical, and impeccable. In 1989, The National Endowment for the Arts honored him with the NEA Jazz Masters Award...

, John Clayton

John Clayton (bassist)

John Travis Clayton Jr. is an American jazz and classical double bassist.-Music:John Travis Clayton Jr. began seriously undertaking the study of double bass at age 16, studying with bass legend Ray Brown...

, Frederica Von Stade

Frederica von Stade

Frederica von Stade is an American mezzo-soprano. Born in Somerville, New Jersey, she acquired the nickname "Flicka" in her childhood. Von Stade attended the Mannes College of Music in New York City. She made her debut with the Metropolitan Opera in 1970 and in 1971 appeared as Cherubino in The...

, Christian Scott

Christian Scott

Christian Scott, born March 31, 1983, in New Orleans, Louisiana, is the 2010 Edison Award winner for Best International Jazz Artist and a Grammy Award-nominated jazz trumpeter, composer and producer. He has been heralded by JazzTimes magazine as "the Architect of a new commercially viable fusion"...

, Larry Grenadier

Larry Grenadier

Larry Grenadier is an American jazz double bassist.His father, Albert, was a trumpet player, and his two brothers, Phil and Steve, would eventually play trumpet and guitar respectively. Grenadier too began on trumpet when he was 10 years old. His father taught him to read music and gave him his...

, Joshua Redman

Joshua Redman

Joshua Redman is an American jazz saxophonist and composer who records for Nonesuch Records. He won the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Saxophone Competition in 1991.-Biography:...

, and Gretchen Parlato

Gretchen Parlato

Gretchen Parlato is an American jazz singer. She has performed and recorded with musicians such as Lionel Loueke, Wayne Shorter and Kenny Barron....

, among others.

Eigsti graduated from Woodside Priory School

Woodside Priory School

The Woodside Priory School, sometimes known as The Priory, is an independent, coeducational, Roman Catholic, college preparatory, day and boarding school in the Benedictine tradition located in Portola Valley, California in the United States...

 as a salutatorian

Salutatorian

Salutatorian is an academic title given, in the United States and Canada, to the second highest graduate of the entire graduating class of a specific discipline. Only the valedictorian is ranked higher. This honor is traditionally based on grade point average and number of credits taken, but...

 in 2001. He went on to study at the University of Southern California

University of Southern California

The University of Southern California is a private, not-for-profit, nonsectarian, research university located in Los Angeles, California, United States. USC was founded in 1880, making it California's oldest private research university...

's Thornton School of Music

USC Thornton School of Music

The University of Southern California Thornton School of Music, founded in 1884 and dedicated in 1999, is one of the premier music schools in the United States...

, but left the school early to begin his professional career. In June 2010 Eigsti was invited back to give the Commencement speech

Commencement speech

A commencement speech or commencement address is a speech given to graduating students, generally at a university, although the term is also used for secondary education institutions. The "commencement" is a ceremony in which degrees or diplomas are conferred upon graduating students...

 at Woodside Priory School

Woodside Priory School

The Woodside Priory School, sometimes known as The Priory, is an independent, coeducational, Roman Catholic, college preparatory, day and boarding school in the Benedictine tradition located in Portola Valley, California in the United States...

.

After a few independent releases and an album called Taylor's Dream for DIW Records

DIW Records

DIW Records is a Japanese record label. It is a subsidiary label of Disc Union and specializes in jazz and avant garde music. Kazunori Sugiyama was an executive producer for the label before starting Tzadik Records with John Zorn.-Discography:...

, his national début came in 2003 with Resonance on Bop City Records. He released Lucky to Be Me on Concord Records in 2006. Lucky to Be Me features Christian McBride

Christian McBride

Christian McBride is an American jazz bassist. His father, Lee Smith, and his great uncle, Howard Cooper, are well known Philadelphia bassists who served as McBride's early mentors...

, Julian Lage

Julian Lage

Julian Lage is an American jazz guitarist and composer.A former child prodigy, Lage began performing in public at the age of six. His talent led him to be the subject of the 1997 Academy Award nominated documentary Jules at Eight. At age 13 Lage performed at the 2000 Grammy Awards...

, Lewis Nash

Lewis Nash

Lewis Nash is an American jazz drummer. According to Modern Drummer magazine, Nash has one of the longest discographies in jazz. and has played on over 400 records by musicians, earning him the honor of being named Jazz's Most Valuable Player by the magazine in it's May, 2009 issue...

, James Genus

James Genus

James Genus is an American jazz bassist. He plays both electric bass guitar and upright bass and currently plays in the Saturday Night Live Band. Genus has performed as a session musician and sideman throughout his career, with an impressive list of artists with whom he has worked.Genus was born...

, and Billy Kilson

Billy Kilson

William Earl "Billy" Kilson is an American jazz drummer.Kilson was born in Washington, D.C.. He started on trumpet at ten, switched to trombone at 11, then to drums at 16. He studied at the Berklee College of Music from 1980 to 1985 and took private lessons from Alan Dawson during 1982-89...

, among others. Eigsti has since released Let it Come to You in 2007, also featuring Joshua Redman

Joshua Redman

Joshua Redman is an American jazz saxophonist and composer who records for Nonesuch Records. He won the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Saxophone Competition in 1991.-Biography:...

. Eigsti's latest Concord album, Daylight at Midnight was released on September 21, 2010.

Eigsti has long transcended the notoriety of the child prodigy

Child prodigy

A child prodigy is someone who, at an early age, masters one or more skills far beyond his or her level of maturity. One criterion for classifying prodigies is: a prodigy is a child, typically younger than 18 years old, who is performing at the level of a highly trained adult in a very demanding...

 label, recently nominated for two Grammy Awards - one for Best Instrumental Composition for his song Argument and for "Best Jazz Solo Performance" on Freedom Jazz Dance.

Eigsti currently lives in New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

, but is frequently abroad touring.

As Leader

• Tay's Groove (1999)
• Taylor's Dream (2001)
• Live at Filoli (2001)
• Resonance (2003)
• Lucky To Be Me (2006)
• Let It Come To You (2008)
• Daylight At Midnight (2010)

As Sideman

• Radiant Blue (2006)
• The Timeless Now (2007)
• Sounding Point
  Sounding Point
  Sounding Point is the debut album by jazz guitarist Julian Lage. It was released in March 2009 on EmArcy Records. It premiered at number 13 on the Billboard Top Contemporary Jazz Albums chart and was nominated for the 2010 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Jazz Album...
  
  (2009)
• Voyager: Live By Night (2010)
• The Lost and Found (2011)
• Weightless (2011)

External links

• Taylor Eigsti
• Taylor Eigsti and the Prodigy Thing
• [ All Music]