DESCRIPTION:
Greg Jasperse & Peter Eldridge

For our third Steinway Session, we asked the incredible Greg Jasperse, jazz voice instructor and director of Gold Company at WMU. Since he is a gifted pianist in his own right, we thought he may accompany himself... but when he told us his good friend Peter Eldridge was in town and they wanted to do a tune together... how could we say no!!! This unique arrangement features some lush playing of the piano by Peter accompanying Greg as he leads us through a beautiful and longing rendition of a great standard.

Peter Eldridge

For more than twenty years, Peter Eldridge has remained at the forefront of the jazz/singer-songwriter scene as a performer, composer, arranger, and educator. Eldridge is a founding member of internationally acclaimed jazz vocal group, New York Voices, which has performed in some of the world’s most preeminent venues including Carnegie Hall,Avery Fisher Hall, and the Kennedy Center, and has been involved in two Grammy-award winning projects with Paquito D’Rivera and the Count Basie Orchestra. He is also a member of vocal group, Moss, alongside Luciana Souza, Kate McGarry, Theo Bleckmann, and Lauren Kinhan. In addition, Peter has released four solo albums —Stranger in Town, Fool No More, Decorum, and Mad Heaven with his fifth, Disappearing Day, to be released in July of 2016 on Sunnyside Records. As a solo artist, Eldridge continues to perform with his own band domestically and internationally. Two of his most current projects include Foolish Hearts — a duo setting featuring bassist Matt Aronoff, as well as his first full fledged musical, co-written with Chicago playwright Cheri Coons about the life, loves, and art of Austrian painter, Gustav Klimt. As an educator, Peter enjoyed eighteen years as head of Manhattan School of Music’s jazz voice department and is now in his third year on the voice faculty at Berklee College of Music. Notable collaborations include Bobby McFerrin, Fred Hersch, Becca Stevens, George Benson,Kenny Werner, David Byrne, Jonatha Brooke, Kurt Elling, Jon Hendricks, and Mark Murphy. (Peter is an artist-in-residence at Western Michigan University and a guest educator with Greg Jasperse in WMU's renown vocal jazz program)

Greg Jasperse
Following eight years as a professional musician in Los Angeles, Greg Jasperse is returning to Kalamazoo as an assistant professor of vocal jazz and the new director of Gold Company and GC II at Western Michigan University. A world-renowned composer and arranger, he is sought after internationally as a clinician, adjudicator, and guest conductor. His conducting credits include all-state jazz choirs in New York, California, Oklahoma, Indiana, Arizona, Missouri, Colorado, New Hampshire, Illinois, and Iowa, as well as the British Columbia Honors Jazz Choir.

Jasperse’s voice can be heard on numerous movie soundtracks including Epic; Oz, The Great and Powerful; The Campaign; Star Trek and Star Trek 2; National Treasure 2; SALT; The Last Airbender; and Real Steel, as well as the Red Hot Chili Pepper’s song “Monarchy of Roses” and Muse’s album The 2nd Law. Most recently he had the pleasure of singing at the 85th Annual Oscars with Adele on her song “Skyfall.” Jasperse also recently arranged, produced and music-directed “A Gallagher Family Christmas” for William H. Macy and the cast of Showtime’s “Shameless.”

Jasperse is a member of two professional vocal groups – Sixth Wave and Vertical Voices. He has also performed with a variety of artists, including Rosemary Clooney, Joe Williams, Dianne Reeves, Kirk Whalum, Jennifer Holiday, Jon Secada, and Gloria Estefan. He spends his summers teaching at several music camps including the New York Voices Vocal Jazz Camp, the University of North Texas Vocal Jazz Camp, and Showchoir Camps of America.

Jasperse has released two solo piano CDs – Tournesol, a collection of contemporary jazz originals, and Crossings, a collection of improvised hymn meditations.

Jasperse is a graduate of University of Miami and Western Michigan University.