John Halsey - Jazz Pianist

New Orleans Jazz

Mainstream Jazz

Standards

Swing

Stride

Ragtime

Educational Workshops

Performed with:

  • Sol Yaged
  • Max Kaminsky
  • Jimmy McPartland
  • Wild Bill Davison
  • Maxine Sullivan
  • Cab Calloway
  • Barbara Lea
  • Woody Allen

Clubs List:

  • Red Blazer Too
  • West End Cafe
  • Eddie Condon's
  • Jimmy Ryan's
  • Michael's Pub
  • The Cajun

Member:

Sol Yaged's Swing All Stars

Canal Street Jazz Band

Williams Reunion Jazz Band

John Halsey grew up in Bridgeport, Connecticut and graduated from Williams College where, according to The New York Times critic John S. Wilson, "he majored in Dixieland jazz." After military service he did graduate work at Columbia University, earning an Ed.D. in Philosophy of Education; but everywhere he went he ended up in a jazz band, and in 1974 became a full-time professional musician.

For the past two decades, John has been actively engaged in the NYC area. In addition to his steady job at The Cajun, he's in great demand as a solo pianist, an accompanist to vocalists, or as leader of his own combo. When not out gigging, John can be found teaching Jazz History at the New School, or coaching piano students and vocalists.

To every engagement he brings the same guiding philosophy:

"The music should reach the people, and it should swing."

(If you scroll down past the address stuff, you'll see a few pics of me in action...)

Here's a sample of my playing--just a bit of Scott Joplin's Maple Leaf Rag:

JOHN HALSEY

101 West 81st Street #721

New York, NY 10024

(212) 873-5831

Send email to John's email

(left) At the Red Blazer Too, 1998