1938-
Denny Zeitlin
1938-
Denny Zeitlin
Denny Zeitlin is an American jazz pianist, composer, and clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco. He has recorded more than 100 compositions including the soundtrack for the 1978 science-fiction horror film Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Zeitlin was born on April 10, 1938, in Chicago, Illinois. He began playing piano at the age of two and started composing before elementary school. His mother was a speech pathologist and his first piano teacher, and his father was a radiologist who played piano by ear. Denny began formal study in classical music at the age of six but switched his focus to jazz in the eighth grade. Zeitlin started performing professionally in high school. He attended the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign and began playing with Ira Sullivan, Johnny Griffin, Wes Montgomery, Joe Farrell, Wilbur Ware, Bob Cranshaw, and more. Some of his mentors included pianists Billy Taylor and George Russell. Bill Evans, an early supporter of Zeitlin’’s work and often his composition "Quiet Now", even made it the title track of his 1970 album.
In 1963 Zeitlin was signed by Columbia Records while studying medicine at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. In college and medical school, he combined jazz with the formal study of music theory and composition with Alexander Tcherepnin, Robert Muczynski, and George Russell. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Illinois in 1960 and received his M.D. from Johns Hopkins in 1964. He debuted as the featured pianist on the Jeremy Steig album Flute Fever. Zeitlin released four Trio albums with Columbia Records from 1964-1967. During this time he received praise from jazz critic Leonard Feather who called Zeitlin "the most versatile young pianist to come to prominence in the early 1960s".He moved to San Francisco in 1964 to intern at the University of California, San Francisco, followed by a psychiatric residency. In 1968, he began teaching as a clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco.
DennyZeitlinOlder
Between 1968 and 1978, Zeitlin started experimenting with electronic keyboards, synthesizers, and sound-altering devices, working in multiple musical genres. This experimentation is evident in his 1969 work as the composer and performer for the "Jazzy Spies" sequences on the first season of Sesame Street. In 1973, he released Expansion, which DownBeat magazine awarded its highest rating. In 1978 Zeitlin wrote the score for the 1978 remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, New Yorker film critic Pauline Kael called the score "generally dazzling" and a large contributor to the humor and terror of the film. During this period Zeitlin went back to focusing on acoustic music and continued to play concerts internationally, going on to record 22 albums including his solo work Soundings, the duo album Time Remembers One Time Once, and Denny Zeitlin Trio in Concert, which critic Doug Ramsey said: "catches Dr. Zeitlin, at age 70, in his musical prime and his trio afire".
Recent recordings include two critically acclaimed albums for MaxJazz, in 2004 he released "Slickrock,", and "Solo Voyage" followed in 2005, featuring solo acoustic piano and piano with synthesizer orchestration. In 2009 he released 2 albums spanning 45 years of recording: a 3 CD box set, "Denny Zeitlin — The Columbia Studio Trio Sessions," and "Denny Zeitlin Trio In Concert, Featuring Buster Williams & Matt Wilson". Zeitlin released 3 subsequent critically acclaimed solo CDs from 2010-2012 including the concert albums "Precipice" and "Labyrinth," and the studio album "Wherever You Are — Midnight Moods For Solo Piano." Zeitlin has continued to tour including trio jazz festivals at Litchfield, Chicago, Monterey, San Francisco, and South Florida; and jazz club appearances at Chicago's Jazz Showcase, Boston’s Sculler's, New York City's Iridium and Dizzy's Club Coca Cola, Oakland's Yoshi's, and Los Angeles' Jazz Bakery. In 2013 Zeitlin celebrated his 50th anniversary in recording with the release of his 1963 debut recording as featured pianist on Jeremy Steig's "Flute Fever" and the critically acclaimed "Both/And: Solo Electro-Acoustic Adventures" album.
Zeitlin currently lives in Marin County, California, where he has a private practice. His lecture demonstrating the connection between music and psychology, "Unlocking the Creative Impulse: The Psychology of Improvisation" has been presented across the U.S. and in Europe. He is an avid mountain biker and wine aficionado has been married to actress Josephine Shady since 1969, and recorded his 2020 album, Live at Mezzrow, at age 82.
