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Jason Moran

Jason Moran is a pianist, composer, bandleader, and educator whose work joins the Bandwagon trio with multidisciplinary concert projects.

PianoComposerBandleaderEducator13 current shows

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Photo source · Photo: Hreinn Gudlaugsson, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Career Overview

About Jason Moran

Blue Note traces Moran's development from Houston and Manhattan School of Music to Greg Osby's band, where his recording career began. The label documents a leader catalog that moves among trio, solo-piano, expanded-ensemble, and commissioned multimedia settings.[1]

The Bandwagon with Tarus Mateen and Nasheet Waits became Moran's central working trio, while projects devoted to Thelonious Monk and Fats Waller connected archival research, dance, visual material, and new arrangements. His gallery biography extends that practice into collaborations with visual artists and museums.[1][2]

Ensembles and Career Threads

Bands & Projects

Leader, pianist, and composer

The Bandwagon

Moran's trio with Tarus Mateen and Nasheet Waits is documented from Facing Left through its Village Vanguard recording and the tenth-anniversary album TEN.[1]

Creator, pianist, and bandleader

In My Mind: Monk at Town Hall, 1959

Debuted 2007

This commissioned multimedia program revisited Thelonious Monk's Town Hall concert through new performance, historical audio, and visual research rather than a note-for-note reconstruction.[1]

Creator, arranger, and pianist

Fats Waller Dance Party

The stage project developed with Meshell Ndegeocello recast Fats Waller material as a dance-centered ensemble program and led to the album All Rise.[1]

Selected, Not Exhaustive

Recordings to Know

1999 · Blue Note Records

Soundtrack to Human Motion

Leader, pianist, and composer

Moran's first Blue Note leader album features Greg Osby, Stefon Harris, Lonnie Plaxico, and Eric Harland in an expanded small-group setting.[1]

Release details

2001 · Blue Note Records

Black Stars

Leader and pianist

The recording expands the Bandwagon with Sam Rivers on saxophone, flute, and piano, placing the trio beside an older improvising voice.[1]

Release details

2014 · Blue Note Records

All Rise: A Joyful Elegy for Fats Waller

Leader, pianist, and arranger

This studio document of the Fats Waller Dance Party features Meshell Ndegeocello and arrangements shaped for a modern dance-floor setting.[1]

Release details

Artist-Authorized Destinations

Start Listening

Official Bandcamp

Hear Moran's artist-controlled releases, archival projects, and recent collaborations.

Blue Note catalog

Browse label-authorized streams and release pages from Moran's Blue Note leader catalog.

Connections below come from shared current Jazz DateBook bills or normalized documented performance roles—not subjective similarity.

Walter Smith IIITenor saxophone · Composer12 shared current shows

Bill StewartDrums · Composer12 shared current shows

Matt BrewerDouble bass · Electric bass12 shared current shows

Matthew StevensGuitar · Composer12 shared current shows

Adrean FarrugiaPiano · ComposerShared documented roles: Pianist · Composer · Bandleader

Amina FigarovaPiano · ComposerShared documented roles: Pianist · Composer · Bandleader

Sources

Career copy is original synthesis from the artist, label, and project sources below. Current dates come from Jazz DateBook event inventory.

[1] Label biography and leader catalog
Blue Note Records
[2] Visual-art and multidisciplinary project biography
Luhring Augustine
[3] Official independent release catalog
Jason Moran