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Jim McNeely

Jim McNeely was born in Chicago into a musical family. His mother sang in the church choir. His father played piano by ear (only in the key of Gb). His sister and brother both took piano lessons; his brother still plays bass in and around the Chicago area. Jim started piano lessons at the age of six. When he was eight he started lessons with Bruno Michelotti, who taught him basic music theory as well as the piano. This was the beginning of Jim’s life-long love of theory and, subsequently, composition and arranging.

He began to get interested in jazz around the age of 12. He went to Notre Dame High School for Boys (now Notre Dame College Prep) partially because they had a big band, the Melodons, under the direction of Rev. George Wiskirchen. Besides playing piano in the band he started writing big band arrangements, at the age of 16. Jim then went to the University of Illinois, again largely on the strength of their big band, led by John Garvey. There was a vibrant jazz scene there at the time: a fusion of school musicians like Ron Dewar (saxophone), Ron Elliston (piano), Charlie Braugham (drums) and Howie Smith (saxophone), along with musicians from the local scene like Ron and Cecil Bridgewater, Tony Zamora, Donald Smith and Maurice McKinley (most of whom were also involved with the university). He studied theory and composition with Ed London and Morgan Powell.

Jim occasionally wrote for the U. of I. Big Band, as well as music for chamber groups, and musical shows. He also played in a number of small jazz groups during his time there (1967-75). In addition he gained experience playing gigs with Country and Western, R & B, and various wedding bands.

In 1975 he received his degree and moved to New York City, to pursue a career as a jazz pianist. In 1978 he joined the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra and spent six years with that band and its successor, Mel Lewis and the Jazz Orchestra. In 1981 he began a four-year tenure with the Stan Getz Quartet, and 1990 saw him begin a five-year run with the Phil Woods Quintet. Jim contributed many compositions to both Stan and Phil’s bands, culminating in The Phil Woods Quintet Plays the Music of Jim McNeely (1995, TCoB). Those years also saw perform with countless other musicians on the New York scene, in formations ranging from duo to sextet.

The focus of Jim’s career began to change, from pianist to composer, in 1979, when Thad Jones left the Jones/Lewis Orchestra and Mel Lewis brought in Bob Brookmeyer as musical director. Bob encouraged Jim to compose for Mel’s band. The first attempt was a disaster. But Bob heard a few things worthwhile, and said, “Write another one.” Which he did. It was a little better. The third one (Blue Note) was even better, and Mel recorded it.

In 1983 Brookmeyer brought Jim, along with Mel Lewis, to Cologne, Germany as a soloist his project with the WDR Big Band. He started to write for the WDR band, and thus began an 11-year relationship with them. He credits his time with the WDR band as being his real jazz composer’s workshop. It also led to subsequent work with UMO (Helsinki), The Stockholm Jazz Orchestra, The Metropole Orchestra (The Netherlands) and The Danish Radio Big Band, where he was chief conductor from 1998-2003. Meanwhile in the U.S. he wrote many arrangements for the Carnegie Hall Big Band. And in 1995 he re-joined The Vanguard Jazz Orchestra (formerly Jones/Lewis), writing two CD’s for them in 1997 (Lickety Split) and 2005 (Up From the Skies).

Along with his writing for big band, Jim has written music for his ten-piece band (Group Therapy, 2001), and numerous orchestral compositions and arrangements, notably for The Metropole Orchestra and The Frankfurt Radio Symphony.

He was chief conductor of the Frankfurt Radio Big Band (from 2010-2022), becoming composer-in-residence in 2022. He is still composer-in-residence with the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra. He has recently seen the release of two CD’s featuring his writing: Rituals, with the Frankfurt Radio Big Band and Chris Potter; and Threnody, with the Jazz Orchestra of the Concertgebouw. His work has earned him ten Grammy nominations, and he was awarded a Grammy for his work with the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra on Monday Night Live at the Village Vanguard.

Teaching has also been an important element of Jim’s work. He is professor emeritus in jazz composition at Manhattan School of Music. He has held positions at William Paterson University and New York University. He was also involved with the BMI Jazz Composers Workshop for 24 years, including 16 years as musical director. He has appeared at numerous college jazz festivals in the U.S. as performer and clinician. He has also done clinics and major residencies at dozens of institutions in the U.S., Canada, Europe, Chile, Japan, China, Australia, New Zealand, and Egypt.

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Jim McNeely/Frankfurt Radio Big Band: Rituals

by Jack Bowers
October 23, 2022

The first thirty-three minutes or so of Rituals, the latest album by the excellent Frankfurt Radio (hr) Big Band, is an homage to Igor Stravinsky's symphonic suite The Rite of Spring, which premiered in Paris in 1913, reimagined “in the Stravinsky spirit" by the group's director, Jim McNeely, in a big-band framework and featuring the acclaimed American tenor saxophonist Chris Potter. The first three movements are designated “Adoration," the next two “Sacrifice," and McNeely has added a sixth, “Rituals Rebirth," ...

Album Review

Jim McNeely Frankfurt Radio Big Band feat. Chris Potter: Rituals

Read "Rituals" reviewed by Angelo Leonardi

by Angelo Leonardi
April 25, 2022

Commissionata dall'Alte Oper Frankfurt a Jim McNeely nell'ambito del festival dedicato a Stravinsky del 2013, quest'originale esecuzione de “Le Sacre du Printemps" è stata registrata due anni dopo in studio e viene pubblicata solo ora. Assieme all'arrangiatore di Chicago, i protagonisti sono Chris Potter al sax tenore e soprano, e la Frankfurt Radio Big Band. La presenza di una figura solista chiarisce da subito che non si tratta di una rivisitazione de “La sagra della primavera" ma ...

Album Review

Jim McNeely: Barefoot Dances and Other Visions

Read "Barefoot Dances and Other Visions" reviewed by Jerome Wilson

by Jerome Wilson
November 15, 2018

When today's top composer-arrangers of large ensemble jazz are discussed, Jim McNeely's name sometimes gets overlooked. He deserves the recognition. He's been a long- time associate of the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra and its descendant, the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, and he's also done a lot of work with several European big bands. It could be that simply his large ensemble writing seldom gets recorded. That makes Barefoot Dances special. It's a powerful suite McNeely wrote for the Frankfurt Radio ...

Album Review

Jim McNeely / Frankfurt Radio Big Band: Barefoot Dances and Other Visions

Read "Barefoot Dances and Other Visions" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
April 12, 2018

Barefoot Dances and Other Visions is a contemporary seven-part suite written by composer/arranger Jim McNeely in 2014 for the Frankfurt Radio Big Band, with whom he has worked since 2008. “I tailored my musical visions," he writes, “to fit each player in the ensemble, and placed each soloist in a framework both familiar and challenging." Challenging it is, starting with “Bob's Here," a well-drawn homage to one of McNeely's mentors, the late composer / valve trombonist Bob Brookmeyer, written in ...

New York Beat

Collegiate Jazz at Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola

by Nick Catalano
March 31, 2017

For the better part of a decade I've escorted my jazz class at Pace University on trips to Dizzy's to see the Manhattan School of Music Concert Jazz Band perform. The series was forged by veteran jazz academic Justin DiCioccio whose leadership and programming has prompted a rarely noticed success of Collegiate jazz bands across the country. Since DiCioccio's pioneering efforts schools such as Juilliard, Purchase, and Temple have organized similar groups and also appeared at Dizzy's. ...

Album Review

Vanguard Jazz Orchestra: OverTime: Music of Bob Brookmeyer

Read "OverTime: Music of Bob Brookmeyer" reviewed by Angelo Leonardi

by Angelo Leonardi
August 24, 2015

Questo disco ci è giunto con un po' di ritardo ma va assolutamente segnalato. È infatti uno dei migliori dischi dell'anno nonchè un omaggio al genio orchestrale di Bob Brookmeyer. Forse non tutti sanno che lo storico trombonista, partner negli anni cinquanta di Stan Getz, Gerry Mulligan e Jimmy Giuffre, è stato uno di massimi orchestratori moderni: nel 1966 partecipò alla fondazione della Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Orchestra, scrivendo decine di partiture, e nel 1990 ne divenne il direttore, quando la ...

Album Review

Vanguard Jazz Orchestra: OverTime: Music of Bob Brookmeyer

Read "OverTime: Music of Bob Brookmeyer" reviewed by John Ephland

by John Ephland
October 23, 2014

There's a richness, a depth, a density to his varied charts. And the soloists and ensemble passages inside those charts! Such has always been the case with the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, then, and now. For real, gliding from the spirit of Thad Jones and Mel Lewis, this edition of the VJO now embraces another one of its own: trombonist/composer/arranger/pianist Bob Brookmeyer, with Over Time: Music Of Bob Brookmeyer. And what different sound comes from this grand aggregate of ...

Recording

Martin Wind, Jim McNeely and Ed Neumeister 'Counterpoint' — Playful Dialogue Of Bass Instruments

Source: Scott Thompson Public Relations
August 14, 2023

Some projects can't be planned, they just happen as a lucky coincidence. In the case of Martin Wind's new album Counterpoint it all started with an email he received from a musician in Europe. Wind, who has lived in Teaneck, New Jersey, for 25 years and has made a name for himself as a bassist and composer in New York City, recalls, “He suggested that we record an album together and asked if I could arrange some gigs in New ...
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Recording

Jim McNeely: Barefoot Dances

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
April 23, 2018

Jim McNeely is among the most interesting jazz composer-arrangers and pianists around today. He always thinks big and fresh when it comes to his writing, and he plays a gorgeous, sensitive piano. His latest album, Barefoot Dancers and Other Visions (Planet Arts), is an original seven-part suite that he arranged and conducted in 2014 with the Frankfurt Radio Big Band. The album was only recently released. A veteran of the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra and its successor, Mel Lewis and ...
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Interview

Pianist/Composer/Arranger Jim McNeely Interviewed at AAJ

Source: All About Jazz
May 5, 2008

If you own some of the best records of the Stan Getz quartet or you dig the great jazz orchestras, then there is a good chance that you have heard--or better still--felt Jim McNeely's touch before. Either way, if you want to learn more about some of the jazz giants that McNeely has backed on piano, including Getz, Chet Baker, Ted Curson, Thad Jones, Mel Lewis and Joe Henderson, as well as the jazz composing and arranging process, then you ...
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Award / Grant

Vanguard Jazz Orchestra/Jim McNeely Grammy Nominated

Source: Jim Eigo, Jazz Promo Services
December 26, 2006

December 26, 2006 PLANET ARTS RECORDINGS CONGRATULATES THE VANGUARD JAZZ ORCHESTRA AND JIM MCNEELY FOR THEIR GRAMMY NOMINATIONS

VANGUARD JAZZ ORCHESTRA: Up From The Skies: Music of Jim McNeely Best Large Jazz Ensemble: The Vanguard Jazz Orchestra

Instrumental Arrangement: Jim McNeely - Up From The Skies

4 stars, DownBeat Magazine “It's the latest demonstration that the VJO is the most versatile and sophisticated jazz orchestra going"--Ted Panken, DownBeat ...
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Performance / Tour

The Music Of Jim Mcneely To Be Featured At The Village Vanguard Tonight Thursday, May 12th

Source: All About Jazz
May 12, 2005

May 12, 2005 To: Listings/Critics/Features From: JAZZ PROMO SERVICES Press Contact: JIM EIGO, [email protected] THE MUSIC OF JIM MCNEELY TO BE FEATURED AT THE VILLAGE VANGUARD The music of Jim McNeely, composer-in-residence and pianist with the Vanguard jazz Orchestra (VJO), will take center stage at the famed Village Vanguard on Thursday, May 12, 2005 as the VJO continues their week long tribute to founders Thad Jones and Mel Lewis. The New York Times has called McNeely's music “exhilarating". The National ...
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Performance / Tour

The Music of Jim McNeely to be Featured at the Village Vanguard

Source: All About Jazz
May 11, 2005

The music of Jim McNeely, composer-in-residence and pianist with the Vanguard jazz Orchestra (VJO), will take center stage at the famed Village Vanguard on Thursday, May 12, 2005 as the VJO continues their week long tribute to founders Thad Jones and Mel Lewis.

The New York Times has called McNeely's music “exhilarating". The National Endowment for the Arts and BMI has cited him for his compositional prowess. His compositions explore uncharted musical territory and his innovative style expands the vocabulary ...
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Event

Jazz Pianist Jim McNeely, in Residence at New England Conservatory, Gives Hauben Master Masterclass and Concert with NEC Jazz Orchestra

Source: All About Jazz
December 1, 2004

Jazz pianist Jim McNeely will be in residence at New England Conservatory during the week of December 6, working closely with students in masterclasses, coaching sessions, and performance. On Wednesday, December 8, he will lead a masterclass at 2 p.m. in the Keller Room. On Thursday December 9, he will appear in concert with the NEC Jazz Orchestra at 8 p.m. in NEC's Jordan Hall. Both events are free and open to the public.

McNeely received his first critical praise ...
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Primary Instrument

Composer / conductor

Willing to teach

Advanced only

Credentials/Background

Musical Director: BMI Jazz Composers Workshop (1991-present) Graduate Composition/Arranging: Manhattan School of Music (2008-present) Arranging/Composition: William Paterson University (2002-present) Formerly Artist-in-Residence: NYU (1981-2008)