Very beautiful and emotional piano playing at its best. Tender music for your heart and soul. Full of musical moments of deep romanticism. A few tracks from "New Jazz Piano Adventures" are included on this CD.
New Jazz Piano Adventures
New Jazz Piano Adventures, is an exciting musical journey played with abandon, passion, and fire. The entire CD is non edited improvised solo piano.
Mystic Splendor
Original and evocative piano and keyboard music. Very passionate, deeply felt, highly personal and yet universal in scope. Music meant to melt your ears and sooth your soul.
Christmas Time Is Here
A Beautiful Christmas solo Piano CD that will brighten your holiday spirits. Played on a 7' Steinway grand. Traditional Christmas favorites as well as a few contemporary ones like Charlie Brown' s "Linus and Lucy," and "Christmas Time is Here" are included.
Influences
Dr. John, Bela Bartok, Eldar, Bill Evans, Keith Jarrett, Kenny Werner, Chick Corea, Jeff Lorber, Art Tatum, Bud Powell, Eroll Garner, Scott Joplin, Steve Zegree, Denilo Periz, Fred Hersch, Otis Span, Dehner Franks, Bob Seeley, Bruce Hornsby, Pat Methany, Lyle Mays, Eddie Russ, Claude Debussy, Chopin, J.S. Bach, Beethoven, Scriabin, Alberto Ginastera to name only a few.
Steve August, Jazz Pianist, composer and arranger and author resides from beautiful Northern Michigan and has performed in the area for over 20 years in clubs, resorts and in concerts. He performs often in a solo as well as a group setting. He has performed with many of his own Jazz trios and Jazz quartets and as a sideman in various settings. He recently achieved a Master of Music degree in Jazz studies from Western Michigan University on piano. He performs often on Mackinac Island, Michigan in the summer months forJazz gigs, Weddings and Receptions in this highly romantic setting depicted in the movie "Somewhere in Time." Currently Steve is performing in the Las Vegas, Nevada area venues and casinos, as well as recording his 8th CD. In Las Vegas Steve has performed on piano at the Wynn, The Bellaggio, Mandalay Bay, The Flamingo Resort, and Caesar's Palace, and Lake Las Vegas playing solo piano and in a group context.
In addition to performing Steve is a very active teacher and educator. His studio schedule is full with many aspiring pianists, bassists and those seeking greater musical understanding of the inner workings of music making. Steve started the annual SUMMER JAZZ weekly workshop for Jazz Education. This workshop is open to all levels and all instruments in during the summer months. Watch for details on this workshop.
Steve August originally started his musical career early in his teens playing electric bass in Rock Bands with high school buddies. He played electric bass in power trios influenced by the Cream and Jimi Hendrix and the like as well as the popular music of that era. This led to performing in Jazz trios after discovering Jazz by listening to Oscar Peterson's "Tristeza". He started to study the piano to enhance his bass playing and knowledge of music and quickly fell in the love with the instrument. He attended Berklee College of Music in Boston studying both electric bass and piano early in his career. That led to various working situations on the road with many groups. Soon after that, through an association with the late great Jazz Pianist Eddie Russ, Steve attended Grand Valley State University studying Jazz Piano with him and Classical Piano there too. After graduation from GVSC he played in numerous bands both as a soloist and as a sideman either on piano or electric bass. Later he received a Master of Music degree studying with Steve Zegree at Western Michigan University.
Steve has a very rich eclectic piano style drawing on the deep traditions of Classical music and reaching into the Blues, Ragtime, Boogie Woogie and many Jazz Piano styles. In addition to a demanding performance schedule Steve has a very full teaching studio with many aspiring pianists and other students studying both Classical and Jazz Piano with him. In June of 2002 he started SUMMER JAZZ which is a weeklong Jazz workshop teaching improvisation styles and techniques open to students of all levels. This workshop is offered in the summer months annually. Steve also currently lectures frequently on the topic of Jazz at various Colleges and institutions offering cultural enrichment activities.
Glad to see you made it back to Vagas. It was fun having you home, and hanging out. Thanks for the bass lesson. Have a good one. Call me sometime so we can catch up on things.
Hey Steve, thank you for stopping by my page on MySpace. It was great to hook up with you in Vegas earlier this week and play some tunes. I'm diggin' your vibe; between the two of us, I think we have the Lorber and Culbertson albums covered! You've got strong chops and cool ideas; I look forward to catching you live with your band in the near future. Take care, my friend.
