Jason Moran

by Heather Phares
Brooklyn resident Jason Moran brings a distinctly artistic touch to his jazz compositions and piano playing. The impressionistic approach of visual and musical artists like Jean-Michel Basquiat and Maurice Ravel inspire Moran's playing and writing style, on both his own compositions and his work with jazz contemporaries like Cassandra Wilson, Steve Coleman, Greg Osby, and Stefan Harris. Moran's debut album Soundtrack to Human Motion appeared in 1999; Facing Left followed a year later. In 2001 he released Black Stars, which featured his trio, comprised also of bassist Tarus Mateen and drummer Nasheet Waits, joined by saxophone legend Sam Rivers. A year later he took a much different approach on Modernistic, offering an album of solo piano recordings. Since that time, Moran released the live album The Bandwagon in 2003 and Artist In Residence in 2006.