William Charlap

BILL CHARLAP 2024 ARTIST BIO

The Grammy Award-winning Bill Charlap Trio, with bassist Peter Washington and drummer Kenny Washington is recognized as one of the leading ensembles in jazz today. The trio tours the globe, with regular New York City engagements, and has earned Grammy nominations for their recordings Uptown Downtown (Impulse!/Verve), Somewhere: The Songs of Leonard Bernstein and The Bill Charlap Trio: Live at the Village Vanguard (Blue Note). Their 2016 album, Notes from New York (Impulse!/Verve), earned a five-star review in Downbeat, which hailed it as “a master class in class.” The trio's latest recording, And Then Again (Blue Note Records) was recorded live at the Village Vanguard in New York City on September 9, 2023. The album documents the trio’s evolution on a set of songbook classics and pieces by major jazz composers, including the title track, composed by NEA Jazz Master Kenny Barron.

Charlap has performed with many of the leading artists of jazz history, from Phil Woods, Benny Carter, Gerry Mulligan and Wynton Marsalis to Tony Bennett, Dee Dee Bridgewater and more. Acclaimed for his interpretations of the American popular songbook, his albums feature the music of Hoagy Carmichael, Leonard Bernstein, George Gershwin, Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, Richard Rodgers and Duke Ellington.

From 2005-2023, Charlap was Artistic Director of the Jazz in July Festival at NYC’s 92Y. He has produced concerts for Jazz at Lincoln Center, the New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC), Chicago Symphony Center and the Hollywood Bowl. He is the current Director of Jazz Studies at William Paterson University in Wayne, New Jersey, which was founded in 1973, and is one of the longest-running and most respected jazz programs in the world.

Born in New York City, Charlap began playing the piano at age three. His father was Broadway composer Moose Charlap, whose credits include Peter Pan, and his mother is Grammy-nominated singer Sandy Stewart, who toured with Benny Goodman.
Charlap’s collaboration with Tony Bennett, The Silver Lining: The Songs of Jerome Kern, (RPM/Columbia), won the 2016 Grammy Award for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album. It features Charlap and Bennett together and in collaboration with The Bill Charlap Trio and in duo piano performances with his wife, renowned jazz pianist and composer Renee Rosnes. Charlap and Rosnes frequently collaborate in duo piano concerts. Their highly acclaimed album Double Portrait is also on the Blue Note label.

Professional Interests

Jazz Studies, American Popular Song, Jazz Piano, Performance