Johnny O’Neal Trio

After 45-plus years as a professional pianist, vocalist and entertainer, Johnny O’Neal has earned the title of “master” with fellow musicians and audiences around the world. Highlights of his awe-inspiring career include stints with Ray Brown, Milt Jackson and Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, as well as a Carnegie Hall debut in 1985 on solo piano opening for Oscar Peterson and induction into the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame in 1998. While playing with Blakey, he accompanied some of the great jazz divas, including Sarah Vaughan and Carmen McRae. O’Neal has also been tapped for appearances by Dizzy Gillespie, Joe Pass, Nancy Wilson, Anita O’Day, Lionel Hampton, Kenny Burrell, Sonny Stitt, Benny Golson, Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis and Clark Terry, among others. 

The Detroit native considers himself a piano player first, but was encouraged to sing more in his sets by blues great Joe Williams. He recalls Williams advising him, “If you’ve got it, flaunt it!” Astonishingly, he is largely self-taught, and no two sets are ever alike. His playing evokes the influences imbued in him by his idols Oscar Peterson and Art Tatum, with a nod to bebop master Barry Harris (who first heard O’Neal play as a teenager in Detroit). He has reshaped these elements into his own very swinging and melodic approach.

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