Dena DeRose Trio with special guest Donald Bailey
Dena DeRose, piano/vocals; Donald Bailey, harmonica/drums; Peter Barshay, bass; Akira Tana, drums

Saturday, August 2 | 8 pm | Campbell Recital Hall
Tickets: $40 general | $20 students

Online:
By phone: 650.725.ARTS (2787); In Person: Stanford Ticket Office
For more information, go to our Ticketing Information Page

Program Notes

“Dena DeRose sings jazz as if she had been at it her whole life long, and then some. She interprets standards in a deliciously laconic, no-nonsense manner, accompanying herself on piano with hard swinging grace.” – The New York Times

Dena DeRose needs no introduction to Stanford Jazz Festival regulars. Her unmistakable vocal style and inventive piano playing have drawn excited crowds to Stanford for years. Trained as a pianist from a young age, DeRose saw her early career threatened when wrist surgery forced her to put aside her main instrument. Fortunately, one night she took a friend’s dare and sang onstage at a club. By the time her piano chops recovered, it was clear that her vocal talents gave her a unique perspective on the piano and vice versa. Dena’s energetic, swinging, piano is the perfect accompaniment to her nuanced vocal phrasing, and the interplay of her talents imbues her interpretations of standards, original tunes, and little-known gems with personality and sophistication. She can craft a song into a story with humor, joy, drama, and blues.

Dena DeRose web site

Q&A with Dena DeRose

What is the first recording you remember hearing as a child?
The first recording I remember as a child is a John Denver 8-track that my parents used to have in our Chevy station wagon.

What’s the strangest experience you’ve ever had on the bandstand?
The strangest experience I ever had on the bandstand was when I was playing in an all-female rock band called ‘The Look’ with drummer and leader of the all-female big band, ‘DIVA’. We were playing in a rat hole of a club in upstate NY and some older woman, who was dancing and VERY drunk, fell into my stack of keyboards, knocking all 3 of them into my lap... not one hit the floor (thankfully)!!! in the end, everyone was fine and laughing their heads off!! she said “it’ll be a story you can tell 20 years from now and still get a laugh (and, it’s true...it’s more than 20 years later and at least I still laugh at it).

If you could play with any other musician, living or dead (with whom you have not played), who would it be and why?
The musician I would most want to play with, in duo piano, is Mary Lou Williams. actually, I wouldn’t have minded the chance for her to accompany my singing, either...but when I first heard the recording of her with Cecil Taylor, I feel in love with her playing... and I always thought to myself that I would’ve loved to be in Cecil’s place. her creativity, musicality, energy, sense of time, sense of harmony, and her love for music has always been very inspiring to me.

Who is your greatest musical influence?
My biggest musical influence has to be Shirley Horn when a friend of mine introduced me to her records, then getting to see her live, meet her and talk with her many times before she passed. She made me see that singing and playing can be its own unique form of expression that is different than just singing, or just playing the piano. a hybrid, you could say.

What’s your favorite jazz venue?
My favorite jazz venue has to be the ‘Red Sea Jazz Festival’ in Elat, Israel. When I performed there a few years ago, it was the big festival that I played where the people reacted as if they were at a rock concert. There were about 10,000 people in the audience and huge screens everywhere where I saw myself and the band playing...then, they’d show the audience and the whole place had such an amazing energy!! Really wonderful!

If you were to describe your music as a color, what color would it be and why?
My original music has many colors. Sometimes I think it has a violet color, or a deep, dark red color, or sometimes it’s bright yellow or orange. I think it depends on the harmonic or melodic structure. different chord qualities, for me, have different colors to them as does ‘keys’ of melodies.