Peter Madsen

Pianist - Composer - Educator

Peter Madsen was born in Racine, Wisconsin where he began his classical piano studies at the age of eight and double bass at the age of ten. At thirteen he became interested in jazz on both instruments and started to play professionally three years later. In 1978 he graduated Summa Cum Laude from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire with a degree in Music Education, after which he moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota to concentrate on developing his jazz piano skills through intensive practice and a bursting schedule of gigs, composing and teaching. In 1980 Peter moved to New York City. He got one of his many breaks when Stan Getz hired him to tour Europe and the U.S. in 1987.
Since then Madsen has played with an array of great jazz musicians, performing extensively in Europe and Japan and recording almost 100 CD'S with traditionalists like Benny Golson and Stanley Turrentine, modernists such as Joe Lovano and Kenny Garrett as well as funk masters like Fred Wesley and Maceo Parker. Peter has written over 300 compositions of which more than 80 have been recorded.
A partial list of his working associates include: Stan Getz, Stanley Turrentine, Dewey Redman, Benny Golson, George Coleman, Oscar Brown Jr., Arthur Blythe, Don Cherry, James Spaulding, Kenny Garrett, Joe Lovano, Sonny Fortune, Dave Liebman, Eddie Henderson, Ravi Coltrane, Warne Marsh, Greg Osby, Carlos Ward, Thomas Chapin, Ralph Moore, Rick Margitza, Vincent Herring, Dick Oatts, Paul McCandless, Pee Wee Ellis, Steve Slagle, Lew Tabakin, Marty Ehrlich, Tony Malaby, Richie Cole, Maceo Parker, Ronnie Cuber, Steve Wilson, Chris Potter, Craig Handy, Seamus Blake, Tom Harrell, Bill Frisell, Mick Goodrick, David Tronzo, Joshua Breakstone, John Clark, Randy Brecker, Steven Bernstein, Marcus Belgrave, Paul Smoker, Fred Wesley, Frank Lacy, Conrad Herwig, Dave Taylor, Robin Eubanks, Bobby Byrd, Joe Locke, Ray Drummond, Rufus Reid, Cecil McBee, Anthony Cox, Ira Coleman, Phil Bowler, Mario Pavone, Peter Herbert, Scott Colley, Ben Riley, Billy Hart, Frank Gant, Jeff Watts, Teri Lynn Carrington, Mel Lewis, Smitty Smith, Victor Lewis, Ronnie Burrage, Carl Allen, Victor Jones, Gerald Cleaver, Mike Clark, Yoron Israel, Bill Stewart, Eliot Zigmund, Michael Sarin, Jeff Williams, Bob Moses, Matt Wilson, Toninho Horta, The Mingus Big Band, the Village Vanguard Orchestra, Fred Ho..s Afro-Asian Music Ensemble and many others.
In 1993 Peter released his fist CD as a leader for Minor Music, an independent label from Germany. Entitled Snuggling Snake's it features ten of his compositions, played by Anthony Cox, Lewis Nash, Chris Potter, Toninho Horta and Rudi Berger. He is also a member of the cooperative trio Three of a Kind that has toured extensively with the great Fred Wesley. With Dwayne Dolphin on bass, and Bruce Cox on drums they released their first CD in 1994 entitled Three of a Kind, their second in 1995 with special guest Stanley Turrentine entitled Three of a Kind Meets Mr. T and their third with special guest Benny Golson in 1997 entitled Drip Some Grease, all released on Minor Music. A CD Peter recorded with bassist Mario Pavone and drummer Matt Wilson called Nu Trio - Remembering Thomas was chosen as the best traditional jazz CD in 2000 by the Association of Independent Recording Artists.
In 2003 Peter released his first solo piano CD entitled Sphere Essence - Another Side of Monk and in 2006 a second called Prevue of Tomorrow. Both were chosen on many top ten jazz cd lists after receiving rave reviews. Both are available on the Playscape Recordings label. Peter is now living part-time in New York and part-time in Vorarlberg, Austria. He continues to perform worldwide as well as teaching master classes, workshops and private students.

Here are some recent reviews of my latest solo piano effort
Prevue of Tomorrow
on Playscape Recordings:

By Francis Davis in the Village Voice:
The trouble with Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man, a new documentary featuring excessively singerly performances by Rufus Wainwright, among others, lies in director Lian Lunson's failure to understand that what the Edge calls Cohen's "Biblical authority" emanates from the honoree's unadorned singing voice and only incidentally from his songs. The same problem vitiates most jazz tributes, because so many pantheon figures were defined by their approach to improvisation, not their tunes. Peter Madsen's Prevue of Tomorrow is an exception and then some. It's a salute to 10 left-of-mainstream pianists, living and dead, who—save Lennie Tristano, represented by his line on the chord changes to "Love Me or Leave Me"—also qualify as overlooked composers: Mal Waldron, Andrew Hill, Hasaan Ibn Ali, Muhal Richard Abrams, Herbie Nichols, Cecil Taylor, Sun Ra, Randy Weston, and Richard Twardzik. No chameleon—and no fool—Madsen knows better than to try to emulate each of these mavericks in turn. The point could be that an idiosyncratic piano style is one thing and a composition by an idiosyncratic piano stylist another—the latter allows for expansion. Madsen acknowledges the echoes of Hasaan's pounce, Nichols's savior faire, Taylor's percussive arias, Tristano's bass clef rumbles, Hill's italicized lyricism, and so on embedded in these pieces—how could he not? But these echoes never obscure his own technical prowess or improvisatory reach. He's the maverick's maverick, and this could well prove the year's most unlikely tour de force.
By Ben Ratliff in the NY Times:
Even as late as 15 years ago, listeners had to individually grope their way toward the more slender, ingrown traditions in jazz since the 1940's, piecing knowledge together from unreliable sources and looking for out-of-print LP's. That age is over, partly because of jazz CD reissues but also because of the Internet, where you can find not only a reliable Charlie Parker discography but also a 45,000-word interview with Anthony Braxton. But here's a much better effect of the information revolution: "Prevue of Tomorrow" (Playscape), an extremely well-played jazz-repertory record of solo piano by Peter Madsen, entirely representative of those who never quite fit in. Here is Andrew Hill's "Subterfuge," Randy Weston's "Blues for Africa," Cecil Taylor's "Rick Kick Shaw," Dick Twardzik's "Girl From Greenland" and Herbie Nichols's "Third World," as well as the brass ring, Hasaan Ibn Ali's "Three-Four vs. Six-Eight Four-Four Ways." Mr. Madsen makes these pieces and others cohere as a solid program, a tradition of outside-jazz thinking unified by unusual structure, meters and harmonic motion. It's the most conscientious job I've ever seen of a jazz musician building an alternative canon in just one record.
By Sam Prestianni in Jazziz:
It may seem odd to title a collection of cover tunes Prevue of Tomorrow. But Peter Madsen’s riveting enterprise is far from a standards affair. In fact, his intention with this project is about as ambitious as it gets: solo piano interpretations of ear-bending, technically intimidating works by the giants of post-modern jazz. We’re talking the avant-garde writ large: from the way-ahead-of-his-time Herbie Nichols, to free-jazz pioneer Cecil Taylor, to otherworldly big-band leader Sun Ra, to visionary AACM founder Muhal Richard Abrams. It’s no accident that Madsen kicks off the album with Mal Waldron’s frighteningly powerful “Boo,” which sets a fitting tone with its colossal crescendos, dissonant chord clusters, and hand-over-hand virtuosity. He takes full advantage of the rhythmic power of Andrew Hill’s awesome “Subterfuge” and Randy Weston’s swaggering “Blues for Africa,” maxes out the lyrical swing of Nichols’ mood-rich “The Third World” and Lennie Tristano’s supercharged “Leave Me,” and rolls and tumbles with masterful precision on Taylor’s “Rick Kick Shaw.” Using a prepared piano technique — plucking the strings inside the instrument — Madsen brings a harpsichord-like luminescence to Abrams’ spacious “The Bird Song” while evoking the colors of a symphony in his nuanced performance of the Ra ballad “A Portrait of the Living Sky.” In all, Madsen presents 10 compelling pieces, deftly personalized with dynamic improvisations that, in a perfect world, would indeed set the bar for the next wave of jazz invention. However, given the unlikelihood of Taylor or Abrams usurping Thelonious Monk’s role as the pianist-composer of esteem anytime soon, this CD is a rare gift.
By BMG in the Downtown Music Gallery:
This is an outstanding solo piano offering by the extraordinary Peter Madsen, longtime cohort of Mario Pavone. Each of the ten pieces here was written by another master pianist from long history of modern jazz including Sun Ra, (the legendary) Hasaan Ibn Ali, Cecil Taylor, Randy Weston, Lennie Tristano, Mal Waldron, Andrew Hill, Muhal Richard Abrams, Herbie Nichols, and Dick Twardzik. The only one missing is Thelonius Monk one would think, however for Madsen's first solo disc, that's just who he covered. A literal who's who of modern jazz piano, each pianist quite distinctive, as is Peter's approach to each piece. Mal Waldron's "Boo" is a most impressive opening piece, stark and dark and filled with well-placed eruptions. I love that see-sawing undertow of Andrew Hill's "Subterfuge", the left hand providing the slow waves as the right hand weaves those majestic chords hypnotically. Few folks know of the Legendary Hasaan (Ibn Ali), who made one amazing record with Max Roach in the mid-sixties and then disappeared. Hasaan's "Three-Four Vs. Six-Eight Four-Four Ways" is an odd piece that shifts between varied sections in an unpredictable ways, drawn from older and newer styles, from Monk to somewhere out-there. Muhal's "The Bird Song" deals mostly with sounds plucked from inside the piano, spacious and mysterious. I love the way Peter takes Herbie Nichols' "The Third World" and expands it and turns it inside-out with different flourishes. It is rare to hear someone cover a song by Cecil Taylor, one of the most unique and idiosyncratic of all pianists. Madsen takes Cecil's "Rick Kick Shaw" and opens up to a less dense, less dark reading, while still allowing it to be quite intense and almost as explosive. The quietly mesmerizing "A Portrait of the Living Sky" by Sun Ra is an exquisite, contemplative work with somber waves washing over us. Randy Weston's "Blues for Africa" deconstructs the blues and presents the fragments in earthly fashion. Dick Twardzik was a great yet little known pianist from the bebop era who died very young and had just a handful of records. Peter plays Twardzik's obscure "The Girl from Greenland" and swirls lines of notes around the sad and lovely melody. The most influential pianist to emerge and merge the cool and bebop scenes was Lennie Tristano. Madsen erupts on Tristano and Billy Bauer's "Leave Me", with more of those amazing two-handed excursions. This is simply a brilliant overview of modern jazz piano reaching back over the last half century.
A few other quickies:
... a well-kept secret favorite among piano enthusiasts. (Jazz Times 10/96)
... its not too fanciful to think of Ben Webster with the Oscar Peterson Trio in the late 1950..s. (Down Beat 11/95)
... a first rate pianist, Madsen knows the tradition…yet he's no musical mimic. He's got his own sound with plenty of fire and good taste. (Jazz Times 9/94)
... adventurous but not the least bit intimidating. (CMJ-News Music Report 12/93 Snuggling Snakes CD chosen in top ten jazz CD'S of 1993)
... at times leaning towards Bill Evans-like muscular lyricism…informed by bent Monkish wit. (Down Beat 2/94)
... no nonsense economical swing furnished by Madsen..s Garner-ish chords and dancing right hand (Jazz Times 3/96)
... Madsen shows his versatility as a composer on a collection of originals…what makes this CD unique is its wild variety. (5/4 Magazine 10/96 review of the Snuggling Snakes)
...Madsen creates dazzling waves of energy that engulf the listener. Clearly, his presence on the date was an inspiration to all involved. (The Philadelphia Inquirer 10/99)
... Madsen is a technical whiz, with a diverse style that calls on Herbie Hancock, Cecil Taylor, Bill Evans and others. (Jazz Times 5/00)
...the positively hell-raising Peter Madsen. (All music guide 01)
...Pianist Madsen absolutely launches himself into these performances...he just presses the keys down and out comes this forceful slick, whirling music. (Richrad Cochrane 01)
...Every bit the disc's co-star is the pianist, Peter Madsen who plays with the wide-intervalled agility of a Cecil Taylor combined with a melodic soulfulness and a touch of Monkish wit. (AV guide.com 02)
...Monster pianist Peter Madsen.....swinging furiously and supplying vistas of harmonic color. (All music guide 02)
...Madsen played very much like himself, i.e. brilliantly with the kind of harmonic openness only the most knowledgeable players can achieve. (David Adler - New York @ Night 7/02)
...Madsen's pent-up tendencies explode in a rush of zipping, sometimes bluesy and sometimes scalar melodic lines shot through with contrapuntal left-hand work that brings to mind Cecil Taylor filtered through Duke Ellington's sensibilities. (Jazziz -11/02)
... The pianist takes on Thelonious head-on, and the results are neither imitative nor ironic. Madsen brings his own avant-garde side to the familiar repertoire. (Steve Greenlee, Boston Globe 5/03)
... Madsen spreads the canvas with rich textures, bringing the well-known compositions to life through expansive resolution of their complexities. Monk's music has had more exposure since his death than I would imagine he ever dreamed possible; yet Madsen stamps the selections with a unique identity and brings freshness and vitality to the repertoire. Madsen has captured Monk, and in the process confirmed a concrete link to his own musical personality.. (Frank Rublino - All About Jazz 5/03)
... After fully absorbing the song book of Thelonious Monk, pianist Peter Madsen's dream of performing several of these works for a solo workout comes to fruition on this captivating release. Throughout this outing, he captures an aura and reshapes many of these works into what may appear to be a concise history of modern jazz piano...the artist's brainchild imparts an indelible impression. (Glen Astarita - All Music Guide 5/03)
Click here to check out my other website at www.petermadsen.us for more info......