Nancy Walker

Pianist and composer Nancy Walker has a solid background as a pianist and keyboard player for a variety of international recording and concert acts, both in and outside the jazz idiom. Winner of the 2008 National Jazz Awards Keyboardist Of The Year Award and the Montréal International Jazz Festival’s prestigious Grand Prix de Jazz, Nancy has also studied in New York City with renowned piano master Fred Hersch.Nancy has several discs as leader to her credit. Invitation, released in 1997. was voted one of the year’s best by Jazz Canadiana reviewers. Toronto Star critic Geoff Chapman named Luminosity (2000) one of the top jazz recordings of that year. Levitation, Nancy’s third recording (2003), was “a fine example of the modern jazz musician’s art” according to the Globe & Mail’s Mark Miller. When She Dreams, was released in 2004 on Canada’s premier jazz label, Justin Time Records, and shot to the number one position on Canadian campus radio jazz charts.In 2005, Nancy and her quartet (featuring saxophonist Kirk MacDonald, bassist Kieran Overs and drummer Barry Romberg) toured the Canadian Jazz Festivals. That same year Nancy was nominated in four categories at Canada’s National Jazz Awards. In 2006, Nancy’s recording Rainy Days and Mondays (Somerset/Universal) was nominated for a JUNO award in the “Instrumental Album Of The Year” category. She was also among the Keyboardist Of The Year nominees at the 2006 and 2007 National Jazz Awards.Her latest recording Need Another is a trio date with Kieran Overs and drummer Ethan Ardelli“She’s a commanding presence at the piano. Her solos are strong and personal, and she’s a wonderful accompanist.” Ted O’Reilly, The Whole Note Magazine“Harmonically she’s influenced by the usual suspects—Evans, Hancock, Jarrett, etc.—but her delicate touch and denser harmonic constructs brings to mind British pianist John Taylor as well…Walker’s music is easy on the ears, but don’t mistake that for lacking in interest or challenge, because she masks an advanced harmonic concept within an accessible veneer.” John Kelman, All About Jazz