Bio - Phil DeGreg

 

Phil DeGreg was a finalist in Jazziz Magazine's 1995 "Keyboardists on Fire" competition and the 1996 Great American Jazz Piano Competition.  Phil's jazz festival appearances include the North Sea, Pori, Monterey, Montreux, Brecon, Wigan, and Elkhart Jazz Festivals. He has also received two National Endowment for the Arts grants for jazz piano research and a Fulbright Fellowship to lecture about jazz in Brazil.

 

Phil began playing the piano in his childhood. His earliest jazz influences were Bud Powell and Bill Evans, but he is accomplished and comfortable in a wide range of jazz styles, ranging from mainstream to bebop to Brazilian jazz.  A native of Cincinnati, Phil completed a degree in psychology from Yale University before becoming a professional musician.  After three years working and studying music in Kansas City, he finished a masters degree at University of North Texas, and subsequently toured the world for a year with Woody Herman's Thundering Herd.  His versatility has led to professional performances with dozens of internationally recognized jazz artists, as well as leading and recording with his own groups.  Phil has performed in clubs and concerts throughout the United States, and in the United Kingdom, France, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Guatemala, Costa Rica, and Brazil.  Phil has released nine recordings as a leader and has been recorded as a sideman on many other jazz projects.  He is also featured with J.J. Johnson on the video "J.J. Johnson Live in Concert."  His most recent recorded project is a piano trio recording “Down the Middle” featuring drummer Joe LaBarbera and bassist Tom Warrington.  For for 16 years he served as the house pianist at Cincinnati's famous Blue Wisp Jazz Club, accompanying visiting artists on weekends.

 

Phil considers music to be a gift and is dedicated to sharing his love of jazz through teaching. He is currently Professor of Jazz Studies at the University of Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music, where he teaches jazz theory, arranging, piano, and ensembles. He has taught for the Jamey Aebersold Summer Jazz Workshops (since 1982), the UK Jazzwise Jazz Camps (since 1996) and has served on the faculty of the Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp, the Miami Valley Summer Jazz Workshops, and the Jim Widner Jazz Camps. He has appeared as a visiting artist/clinician at colleges and high schools throughout the U.S., Europe, Central and South America. Phil has presented lecture/demonstrations to the International Association of Jazz Educators, the National Group Piano Teachers Association, the Ohio Music Educator's Association, the Ohio Music Teachers Association, and the Music Teachers National Association, and has published articles for Jazz Player Magazine. In 1995 he published "Jazz Keyboard Harmony," a chord voicing method written for non-pianists and beginning jazz pianists, which is now used at universities in the U.S. and Europe.