Peter Hand

Guitarist, composer and arranger Peter Hand leads his own big band, ten-piece band and smaller groups, and his music encompasses a wide variety of original compositions, new interpretations of jazz classics and Latin & Brazilian jazz.

He has recorded three highly acclaimed big band albums on Savant Records and worked with many top artists and bands as a leader, arranger/composer and sideman, including Carmen Lundy, Jon Lucien, George Coleman, Lee Konitz, Houston Person, Claudio Roditi, Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, Chicago Jazz Orchestra, Kansas Jazz Orchestra and the Charleston Jazz Orchestra.

A New York City native, Peter took classical piano lessons before switching to guitar in his early teens. Growing up in New York in the mid-1960s, he was fortunate to hear music in many genres, from venues in Greenwich Village to Broadway to Carnegie Hall. After first becoming aware of blues artists Buddy Guy, Little Walter, Howlin’ Wolf and Muddy Waters, he become especially enamored of the blues guitar sounds of B.B. King and Albert King, teaching himself to play much of their music and striving to develop his own ideas.

While a pre-med student at Binghamton University, NY, Peter led his own blues band, and in his third year decided to leave school and pursue music (with no regrets about leaving pre-med). He worked with his own groups and others in New York, including with Jerome Arnold (bassist with Howlin' Wolf and Paul Butterfield). His interests expanded to the great soul music artists of the day, one of many being James Brown, then at the peak of his musical career. In addition to Brown’s rhythm section innovations, Peter was inspired by Brown’s soulful ballads, creative horn arrangements, and the recordings Brown and other artists made with big bands and string orchestras.    

Wanting to learn much more about music, he took courses in classical counterpoint and harmony at City College of New York, plus orchestration and music notation at Manhattan School of Music. As he became more involved in jazz, Peter decided to study at Berklee College of Music in Boston.  

At Berklee, he soon became immersed in the music of Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, John Coltrane, Duke Ellington, Billy Strayhorn, Oliver Nelson, Miles Davis, Gil Evans, Charles Mingus, Wes Montgomery and Antonio Carlos Jobim, among many others. A guitar major at first, his interest in arranging blossomed and he studied big band arranging and composing with Herb Pomeroy, Larry Monroe and Ted Pease, plus classical composition with John Bavicchi, Jeronimas Kacinskas and others, earning a Bachelor of Music degree in composition in 1977.   

After graduating, Peter put together a nine-piece rehearsal band in Boston before moving to St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, where he lived for over two years. He gained valuable experience playing in jazz and Caribbean bands, and worked with saxophonists Frank Vicari and Eddie Shu, vocalist Jon Lucien, and guitarist Attila Zoller. During this time, Peter developed a strong interest in Latin and Brazilian music which has influenced many of his compositions.  

Upon returning to New York in the early 1980s, he led his own small band and nonet, and became active as a sideman and arranger. He worked with and wrote for the George Coleman Octet, Lee Konitz Nonet, Carmen Lundy, Mike Abene and Victor Lewis, among many others, while continuing to work on his original music.

From 1991 to 1996, Peter was a member of the BMI Advanced Jazz Composers Workshop in New York City, directed by Manny Albam, Bob Brookmeyer and Jim McNeely, which met weekly and presented annual big band concerts of new music. Peter credits the workshop for opening up new ideas for extended jazz composition.   

In 2002, after moving to Westchester from NYC, Peter conceived and co-founded the Westchester Jazz Orchestra (WJO), a non-profit big band and educational organization featuring noted jazz musicians in Westchester County, New York. He served as artistic director, composer-in-residence, arranger and guitarist during the orchestra’s first season (2003-04) and presented a series of theme concerts with special guests. The Orchestra also conducted educational workshops for high school big bands and smaller jazz ensembles.     

Peter launched his own big band in 2005 and his album, The Peter Hand Big Band Featuring Houston Person – The Wizard of Jazz: A Tribute To Harold Arlen, was released on Savant Records in 2009. It showcased tenor saxophonist Houston Person performing Peter’s new arrangements of Arlen songs, with a band that included saxophonists Don Braden and Ralph Lalama, trumpeters Cecil Bridgewater and Valery Ponomarev, trombonist John Mosca, pianist Richard Wyands, bassist Harvie S and drummer Steve Johns. The album received excellent reviews and reached #19 on the nationwide JazzWeek Top 50 radio chart, also making the Top 10 in several cities. 

His second recording, The Peter Hand Big Band - Out Of Hand, (Savant Records, 2014) featured Peter’s original compositions and arrangements, this time with Houston Person as a guest on three selections. Out Of Hand received extensive radio airplay, climbing to #4 on the JazzWeek Top 50 chart, and many stellar reviews, including a Downbeat Editors’ Picks and a five-star review in Jazz Journal (UK).

In 2017, Peter was invited to Binghamton University, NY (where he’d first led his own groups), for three days of concerts and workshops with the Binghamton University Big Band and Jazz Faculty Sextet. Peter extended the invitation to saxophonist Don Braden, and with Mike Carbone, Director of Jazz Studies, they performed their original arrangements with the big band to a sold-out audience at the 1,200 seat Osterhout Theater.   

Hand Painted Dream, the third album by the Peter Hand Big Band on Savant Records, was released in September, 2019 to excellent reviews and international radio airplay. This album includes Peter’s arrangements of music by Charlie Parker, Tadd Dameron, Randy Weston and John Coltrane, plus his original compositions. It also features Downbeat "rising star" Camille Thurman as a guest vocalist and saxophonist, and the Secret String Quartet led by violinist Jennifer Choi joins the big band for the title track jazz composition, ”Hand Painted Dream”.

Peter Hand is passionate about composing and arranging, and writes in a variety of styles. He has written over 250 original compositions and many more arrangements, scored for jazz combo, nonet & ten-piece band, big band, string quartet, woodwind quintet, brass choir and symphony orchestra. 

In addition to his own recordings, Peter’s arrangements have been performed by many bands and orchestras. In 2008, he was commissioned to write new arrangements of music by Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn for Houston Person’s guest appearance with Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. Dave Bass, pianist and recording artist for Whaling City Sound, commissioned him to write a big band feature of Dave’s Latin jazz composition, “The Sixties”. Peter’s arrangements were also performed by the Munich Modern Jazz Orchestra after they heard his album Out Of Hand. In addition, his music has been performed by many large jazz ensembles, including the Charleston Jazz Orchestra, Chicago Jazz Orchestra, Kansas City Jazz Orchestra and Central New York Jazz Orchestra.