Grammy award winning bassist John Patitucci leads a master class with students of Barry Lieberman.

ARTIST BIO

John Patitucci, bass

John Patitucci has been at the forefront of the jazz world for the last 25 years and active in all styles of music.  He is a three-time Grammy award winner, has been nominated more than 14 times and has played on many other Grammy award-winning recordings.  His latest CD, Remembrance, features saxophonist Joe Lovano and drummer Brian Blade.  Both Remembrance and his 2007 release, Line by Line, were Grammy nominated in the Best Instrumental Jazz Album category. 

In 2005, as a member of The Wayne Shorter Quartet, Patitucci won a Grammy for Best Instrumental Jazz Album.  He also was nominated for a Grammy in 2004 for Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying a Vocal, and in 2003 for Best Instrumental Composition for a work entitled Communion, featuring Branford Marsalis, Brad Mehldau, and violist Lawrence Dutton of the Emerson String Quartet.  

Patitucci has won many magazine polls and awards as a double bassist and bass guitarist, most recently as a member of the Wayne Shorter Quartet, which won the 2003 Downbeat critics’ poll for Best Acoustic Jazz Group and Best Jazz Recording.  He has performed and/or recorded with jazz giants such as Dizzy Gillespie, Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, Stan Getz, Freddie Hubbard, Roy Haynes, Wynton Marsalis, Michael Brecker, Kenny Garrett, Victor Feldman, Nancy Wilson and countless others. 

Patitucci has been active as a composer with thirteen solo recordings of his own.  He has also been commissioned to write for various chamber music groups.  British composer Mark Anthony Turnage recently wrote a bass concerto for him (A Prayer Out of Stillness), which had its premiere performances in 2007 with the Swedish Chamber Orchestra, the Estonian National Symphony and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and in 2008 with the Trondheim Symphony of Norway and the St. Louis Symphony.  The Scottish Chamber Orchestra performance was featured on a live broadcast by the BBC throughout Europe. 

Mr. Patitucci has been involved in education for many years, writing books, making instructional videos and giving master classes around the world.  His latest instructional book is entitled “60 Melodic Etudes” and is published by Carl Fischer Music.  He was formerly the Artistic Director of The Bass Collective, a specialized school in New York.  In 2002, he began teaching at City College after Ron Carter, the legendary jazz bassist, retired.  This year, while enjoying his position as tenured Professor of Music at City College, John continues to be very active playing, recording, composing and concertizing.