Pianist Rachel Z

Rachel Z, center, with Alison Miller, left, and Miriam Sullivan, right.

December 17, 2000 -- Pianist Rachel Z, born Nicolazzo, grew up in Manhattan, daughter of artistic parents -- her mother was an opera singer, and as a child she made weekly trips to see performances at the Metropolitan Opera. Rachel began to play piano at the age of 7, but her fanciful improvisations of Mozart cadenzas only prompted scorn from her piano teacher. She was 16 when heard the Miles Davis record, Miles Smiles, and it opened a new world to her. She decided to study jazz at Boston's New England Conservatory, and soaked up the music of Bill Evans and Dexter Gordon at New York's Village Vanguard. By the mid 1980s, she had joined the fusion band Steps Ahead -- and soon released her own cd, Trust the Universe. In 1995, Wayne Shorter, whose work with Miles Davis had so influenced her when she was a teenager, asked her to work on his Grammy Award-winning recording, Highlife.

After a brief foray into smooth jazz with her 1998 release Love Is the Power, Rachel Z has returned to a traditional trio setting and the compositions of Wayne Shorter for her new cd, On The Milky Way Express on Tone Center Records. Rachel Z, along with bassist Miriam Sullivan and drummer Alison Miller, performed for us in NPR's Studio 4A. Listen as Weekend Edition Sunday host Liane Hansen speaks with Rachel Z in NPR's Studio 4A.

Rachel Z's website is http://www.rachelz.com

This piece was produced by Ned Wharton.