DENNY ZEITLIN TRIO featuring Buster Williams and Matt Wilson
Saturday, January 19, 2008 - 8:00 PM

Rose & Alfred Miniaci Performing Arts Center
3100 Ray Ferrero, Jr Blvd
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33314
(Map and Directions)

Tickets: 877.311.SHOW (Toll-free) or purchase HERE 

Denny Zeitlin was born in Chicago in 1938. Fortuitously, both of his parents were involved in medicine and music. He began playing the piano at age two; studied classical music throughout his elementary school years; and fell in love with jazz in high school, which coincided with his primary interest in composition and improvisation, which he pursued at the University of Illinois where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa. He received a medical degree from Johns Hopkins University and then specialized in psychiatry, which he continues to practice in San Francisco while holding a clinical academic appointment at the University of California.

 His first series of records were received with critical acclaim and received international exposure. He withdrew from public appearance for several years in order to develop a pioneering integration of jazz, electronics, classical, and rock. This music emerged in the early 1970s with recordings culminating in the 1978 electronic-acoustic symphonic score written for the Hollywood film Invasion of the Body Snatchers, not exactly West Side Story, but notable nonetheless. After a musical hiatus, he turned his focus to acoustic music in a multitude of settings, while resuming composing, recording, and international touring.

He has recorded over two dozen critically acclaimed albums; twice won first place in the DownBeat International Jazz Critics Poll; has written original music for television and film; and has made numerous appearances on network TV, including the venerable late-night classic on NBC, The Tonight Show, and CBS’s acclaimed mainstay, Sunday Morning.

Dr Zeitlin's lecture-demonstration "Unlocking the Creative Impulse: The Psychology of Improvisation" has been presented across the US and in Europe. As a performer, he has toured the globe appearing at colleges, jazz clubs, and major festivals with jazz greats Joe Henderson, Herbie Hancock, Pat Metheny, Tony Williams, Bobby Hutcherson, John Patitucci, Marian McPartland, Charlie Haden, and many others.

Denny Zeitlin, in his second appearance in South Florida – he was first here at the final Hollywood Jazz Festival in 2005 - brings his stellar trio featuring veteran bassist Buster Williams, a consummate technician with perfect intonation and a gift for playing immaculate lines, which he has done for decades with a who’s who in jazz; and perhaps the most creative drummer in modern music, Matt Wilson, voted Rising Star in the 53^rd Annual Downbeat Critics Poll. If any musician can be considered whimsical, outrageous and enormously talented, it is Matt.