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With over 30 recordings, Joel Futterman has long been
considered one of the most innovative yet enigmatic new music pianists in the world.
However, his penchant for solitude has kept him from the concert stage most of his
life. In 1960, while only 14, he was performing in the after hours jazz clubs in
Chicago behind almost every jazz musician that came through town. Performing seven
nights a week for over a decade with folks like Gene Shaw, Jimmy Garrison, Rahsaan Roland
Kirk, and Ira Sullivan, Joel completely burned himself out. In 1973, he packed up
and moved to Virginia to begin a personal musical odyssey of exploration that continues to
this day. Determined to push the limits of the piano to techniques never heard in jazz, he began a regimen of practicing 8-10 hours a day that continues to the present. During this period, he developed a three-hand technique based on completely autonomous playing between the hands. The power and intensity of his piano performances have been liken to Liszt interpreter, Ervin Nyireghazi, or a young Rachmaninov. Over the past 10 years, he has added the
curved soprano saxophone and Indian flutes to his
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repertory. Since
he will only record on the first take with no multi-tracking, in true Futterman fashion,
he has developed techniques that allow him to perform all three instruments at the same
time....fascinating to hear, and even more fascinating to watch during his rare public
appearances. But never confuse a rarified technique as a substitute for musical
ideas. For Joel, technique is invisible, it is only the means of a total expression
unencumbered by physical limitations.