Alicia Keys On Piano Jazz

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In this session from 2003, Alica Keys plays "Fallin'" and joins host Marian McPartland in a performance of "Good Morning Heartache."

Yu Tsai

In this session from 2003, Alica Keys plays "Fallin'" and joins host Marian McPartland in a performance of "Good Morning Heartache."

Yu Tsai

Since her debut album in 2001, singer, pianist and songwriter Alicia Keys has won five Grammy awards. One critic has called her "the new Roberta Flack with a hip-hop edge." Her music is contemporary but firmly grounded in the traditions of soul, R&B, jazz and the blues.

Keys was born in Harlem and began piano lessons at age 7. She continued the lessons into her teens, studying classical composers such as Beethoven and Chopin, as well as jazz greats like Fats Waller, Miles Davis and Marian McPartland. She also listened to recordings of popular artists, including Roberta Flack, Donny Hathaway, Tupac Shakur, Mary J. Blige and Biggie Smalls. She graduated high school at 16 and was accepted to Columbia University, but bypassed college for a contract with Columbia Records. She later left Columbia to follow Clive Davis to J Records. New York performances, as well as appearances on MTV, BET and The Oprah Winfrey Show, created a genuine buzz over Keys' music even before her first album, Songs in A Minor, was released. It made its debut at No. 1 in June 2001, and went on to sell 12 million copies worldwide.

Alicia Keys continues to perform, compose and record. She has won an MTV Video Music Award, two Billboard Awards, two American Music Awards, two NAACP Image Awards, and five Grammys: Best New Artist, Song of the Year, Best R&B Vocal Performance, Best R&B Song and Best R&B Album. Billboard named her the top R&B artist of the past decade, and in 2010, VH1 included Keys on its list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.

On this episode of Piano Jazz, Alicia Keys performs a set of classic soul, a Fats Waller tune and couple of her original compositions with host Marian McPartland.

Originally recorded Sept. 11, 2003. Originally broadcast April 13, 2004.