Bernie Senensky

Bernie Senensky has earned the reputation of being one of Canada's premier jazz artists. His playing has been featured internationally in many jazz festivals, clubs, concerts & recordings, and he is recognized and respected as one of the foremost jazz pianists anywhere.
He was the ONLY Canadian guest on "Oscar Peterson Presents", a CTV National TV series. He has also been a guest on Marian McPartland's renowned public radio show "PIANO JAZZ". In addition, Senensky has been featured on CBC radio and TV, and many of his concerts have been recorded by CBC (Jazz Beat), JAZZFM91.1 (The Jazz Scene, Sound Of Toronto Jazz), Global-TV (Sounds Impressive) & Cool TV.
He was featured on the BRAVO TV production “In The Key Of EH!-Canadian Jazz Piano” along with Renee Rosnes, D.D.Jackson and Paul Bley.
He was twice voted "Best Acoustic Pianist" in the Jazz Report Awards, and he won the SOCAN award for "Best Jazz Composition" for his “BLUES FOR CLIFFORD”.
He has quietly compiled a track record of 12 albums as a leader (three of which have received Juno nominations), and a long list of performances alongside jazz's biggest names, including: Art Blakey, Dizzy Gillespie, Joe Williams, Zoot Sims, Chet Baker, Art Pepper, George Coleman, Randy Brecker, Pepper Adams, Phil Woods, Donald Byrd, Sonny Stitt, Ernestine Anderson and Elvin Jones (who called Bernie "one of the finest pianists I have worked with in my career"). Clarinetist Buddy DeFranco described him as "The best of the best", while Bill Evans once said: "I could just sit and listen to him play all day!"
He has recorded with Pharoh Sanders, Rashied Ali, Moe Koffman, Dizzy Gillespie, Eugene Amaro, Salome Bey, Herbie Spanier, Peter Appleyard, Tisziji Munoz, Gary Bartz, Akira Tana, Harvie Swartz, Ray Drummond, Marvin 'Smitty' Smith, Bobby Watson, Marty Morell, Fred Stone, Nick Brignola, Kenny Wheeler, Craig Handy, Don Pate, Ted Moses, Ed Bickert, Claude Ranger, Michel Donato, Dave Leibman, Bob Moses, Cecil McBee, Terry Clarke, Bob Mover, Sam Noto, Neil Swainson, Pat LaBarbera, Jerry Fuller, Guillerme Franco, Keiran Overs, Barry Elmes, John Macleod, Don Alias, Eddie Henderson, Eric Alexander, Joe Farnsworth, Harry Allen, Randy Sanke, Dennis Irwin & Chris Potter.
Senensky's compositions have been recorded by Buddy DeFranco, Red Rodney, Lynn McDonald, Moe Koffman, Ed Bickert, Eugene Amaro, Don Thompson, Becca Duran, Arlene Smith, Georgia Ambros, Pat Bianchi, Dick Berk & Oliver Jones.
------------------ "QUOTABLE QUOTES"------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------ --------------------------------- "At the keys, Senensky is fully in control, smooth and straight".- DOWN BEAT. "What a player!" -VICTORIA TIMES-COLONIST. "First-Class latter-day bop pianism." - HAMPSTEAD & HIGHGATE EXPRESS. "He hasn't stopped growing." - JAZZ REPORT MAGAZINE. "Wholly dazzling improvisations that covered the waterfront of style and technique." - TORONTO GLOBE & MAIL. "Senensky gives your listening sensations a refreshingly vigorous workout." - CADENCE MAG. "One of our most consistently enterprising jazz performers. " - OTTAWA CITIZEN. "There is some marvelous piano playing here." - TORONTO GLOBE & MAIL. "His piano playing is precise and imaginative. It is good to know that this type of quality jazz is Canadian-made and played so successfully." - VOX MAG. "A solid keyboard style and a sharp bandleader's sensibility." -CADENCE MAG. "Senensky's music lopes, leaps like a powerful tiger."- WINNIPEG FREE PRESS. "This is trio performance at it's best." - PHIL BOWLER/JAZZ REPORT. "Senensky's album is a joy throughout." - JAZZ FORUM MAGAZINE. "Senensky consistently comes up with creative solos. An interpreter of the highest order.” - CADENCE MAG. "It is always a great privilege to have our festival associated with artists of your stature." - BORIS BROTT. "Senensky showed himself to be a pianist of seemingly limitless ideas and one who will play no idea before it's time."- KITCHENER WATERLOO RECORD. "The title track (Re:Action) is a reminder that Senensky is one of the nation's more convincing "FREE" players when the mood takes him." - WINNIPEG SUN. "Senensky plays exciting piano."- TORONTO STAR. "He is his own man when his lyrical talents take over."- OTTAWA CITIZEN. "The piano solos were outstanding."-CODA MAG. "Jazz piano is alive and well in Canada." - CONTEMPORY KEYBOARD MAGAZINE. "Canadians take such pride in him." - BUFFALO JAZZ REPORT. "Senensky is a fellow who plays with authority." - TORONTO GLOBE & MAIL. "Senensky once again displays his exemplary sense of compositional structure as he goes about building, chorus after chorus, a solo that's inspired." - THE JAZZ REPORT. "Totally game and ready to blow, Bernie Senensky is, hands down, one of my favorite jazz piano players and preferred accompanist. Classically disciplined and jazz liberated, Bernie's awesome piano virtuosity places him at the pinnacle of jazz greatness." - TISZIJI MUNOZ. "You have one of the best jazz piano players anywhere...right here in your midst...Bernie Senensky. " - DONALD HARRISON. “Senensky is poetic, romantic, and florid.”- MONTREAL GAZETTE. “Senensky’s playing is often brilliant, featuring explosive bursts of technical wizardry.” - THE JAZZ REPORT. “Senensky’s latest recording, RHAPSODY, runs the gamut from dynamic dazzle to defined delicacy, and does so with both integrity and spontaneity.” - KITCHENER WATERLOO RECORD. “-RHAPSODY- captures the pianist in restlessly good form.” - MARK MILLER/GLOBE & MAIL. “It’s nine tracks (“Rhapsody) bristle with sparkling ideas and execution.”- GEOFF CHAPMAN/TORONTO STAR. “THE CHALET SESSIONS on Unity/Page , I have to admit, is one of the tastiest trio recordings I have heard in a long time. It exemplifies Bernie’s talent both as pianist and composer .” - DAVE MILBOURNE/THE TORONTO VOICE. “Senensky’s gifts include the ability to weave subtly intricate filigree-like solos that can be breath-taking......whoever he plays with, wherever he lives, Bernie Senensky is a genuine Canadian treasure!” - ALEX BARRIS.