Jazz Music Pianist Mike Longo, Dizzy Gillespie Alumnus, Celebrates Oscar Peterson on New Jazz Trio CD

Jazz music pianist, Mike Longo - http://www.MikeLongoJazz.com - composer, arranger, bandleader, educator, and illustrious alumnus of the Dizzy Gillespie bands, released a new live jazz music recording by his jazz trio in which he pays tribute to his teacher and mentor Oscar Peterson. The new live jazz music recording entitled The Mike Longo Trio Live Celebrates Oscar Peterson - http://www.jazzbeat.com - released on Mike Longo’s Consolidated Artists Productions label was recorded live at the Dizzy Gillespie Auditorium in the New York City Baha’i Center. Mike Longo is accompanied by long time associates - the onetime Dizzy Gillespie bassist Paul West and former Oscar Peterson drummer Ray Mosca. The new jazz music CD features Mike Longo in interpreting a set of tunes that the prolific Oscar Peterson had recorded over the years. Six songs were composed by jazz artists: Duke Ellington’s “Love You Madly,” Thad Jones’s “A Child Is Born,” Fats Waller’s “Honeysuckle Rose,” Nat Adderley’s “Work Song,” Thelonious Monk’s “52nd Street Theme,” and Clifford Brown’s “Daahoud.” The remainder come from the Great American Songbook: “Sweet Georgia Brown,” “Always,” “Fascinatin’ Rhythm,” “Love for Sale,” “Yesterdays,” “Tenderly,” and “I Remember You.”

Jazz music artist Mike Longo - http://www.MikeLongoJazz.com - experienced the unique privilege of studying privately for six intense months in 1961 in Toronto, with his idol Oscar Peterson. Peterson provided Mike with the essential wisdom that has been the cornerstone of Mike’s approach ever since – the importance of “not playing like anyone but yourself.” Mike Longo said, “Oscar Peterson told me that people who are trying to play like Art Tatum are making a big mistake in that they are trying to be Art Tatum instead of trying to be as good as Art Tatum, and added ‘So don’t make the mistake of trying to play like me, Mike.’"

Born in Cincinnati in 1939, Mike Longo earned a bachelor’s degree in classical piano at Western Kentucky University. Hired at the Metropole Café in New York as one of the club’s house pianists, he performed with such jazz music legends as Coleman Hawkins, Gene Krupa, Henry “Red” Allen, and many others. Dizzy Gillespie first heard the young jazz pianist at the Metropole and hired him in 1966 – leading to a 27 year association including serving as Dizzy Gillespie’s pianist, music director, composer and arranger from 1966 to 1973. In addition to recording nine albums with Dizzy Gillespie, Longo has recorded with Astrud Gilberto, Lee Konitz, Buddy Rich, James Moody and others for jazz album releases the Mainstream, Groove Merchant, and Pablo labels. Longo has recorded more than two dozen albums as a leader. For more than 20 years, Longo has presented jazz concerts featuring influential jazz artists and his own trio and big band, The New York State of The Art Jazz Ensemble, every Tuesday evening at the Dizzy Gillespie Auditorium of the New York City Baha’i Center. Mike Longo is an active teacher whose instructional books and videos are essential jazz education resources.

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