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Roberta Piket - Domestic Harmony: Piket Plays Mintz


GA Russell

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Pianist Roberta Piket
Showcases the Composing Talents of
Husband & Collaborator Billy Mintz on
"Domestic Harmony: Piket Plays Mintz,"
Set for December 6 Release
By Thirteenth Note Records
        
Piket's Third Solo Piano Album
Features 10 Compositions by the Acclaimed Drummer
In an Intimate Performance Originally Meant
Only for Mintz's Ears
 
Appearing at Mezzrow, NYC, Thursday, January 16
Playing Billy Mintz Tunes with Several Duos
Including Virginia Mayhew, Mike Fahn, & Mintz
 
 
       
October 21, 2019
 
Pianist Roberta Piket presents a truly intimate musical offering with the December 6 release of Domestic Harmony: Piket Plays Mintz on her own Thirteenth Note Records. A solo piano performance (her third, following 2012's Solo and 2015's Solo Volume 2), the album assays ten intriguing compositions by Billy Mintz, the highly regarded drummer who regularly collaborates with Piket -- and who is also her husband.
 
The intimacy on display throughout Domestic Harmony is authentic: it was intended for an audience of one. Piket originally conceived the album a few years ago as a birthday surprise for Mintz. (She allows that it was "a milestone year" for the intensely private Mintz but declines to say which.) She arranged to record it while he was on tour, completed the editing later, and successfully surprised and delighted him when the big day came.
 
"It was just something I was doing for Billy, and not for anybody else," says Piket. "It was only later that I started to think about putting it out."  
 
It's a beautiful glimpse of art at its most direct. Every nuance of Piket's lustrous touch, chord voicings, and improvisational energy -- and, on "Destiny," her tender, haunting vocal -- radiates with warmth and fondness for its recipient.
 
Of course, the recipient in question also played no small part in the creation of this music. "[Billy] has a very personal voice," says Piket. "He has a natural talent for looking at the big picture and going beyond just his instrument.... He writes in a very simple, direct way that's incredibly appealing." He has been honored before by musicians performing his compositions, including saxophonist Adam Kolker, pianist Russ Lossing, and Piket herself, who has previously recorded a few of the tunes on Domestic Harmony.
 
Roberta Piket  
The context, however, transforms Piket's interpretations of them into something more personal and frank. If "Destiny," with Piket's vocal, is pointed in its expression, her thoughtful piano playing on "Ghost Sanctuary," "Flight," and "Your Touch" is no less so without it. As well, it's difficult to imagine a more perfect balance of affection with the inherent playfulness in "Shmear" and "Cannonball," both of which (uncoincidentally) feature some of the pianist's most assured and inventive improvisational work. Her unique birthday gift for her husband is now their shared gift to the world.
 
Roberta Piket was born in New York City on August 9, 1965 to a father who was a classical composer father and a mother who was a traditional pop singer. Needless to say, it was a musical household, made more so when at 14 young Roberta stumbled across a secondhand copy of Walter Bishop Jr.'s Speak Low at a synagogue bazaar. It began her journey into jazz piano.
 
Completing a joint double-degree program at New England Conservatory (in piano) and nearby Tufts University (in computer science), Piket first spent an unfulfilling year in software engineering before deciding that music was her true calling. She returned to New York in 1989 and began building a career and a reputation as a pianist. Within a few years she had established relationships with Marian McPartland (appearing on her National Public Radio program Piano Jazz) and Lionel Hampton (who provided her with her first professional recording session on his 1995 For the Love of Music).
 
Piket has since established herself as an adventurous and versatile pianist, ready and able to try anything. Her albums (of which Domestic Harmony is the 13th) and performance projects have ranged from straight ahead to free jazz, from solo piano to big band, from chamber jazz ensemble with string quartet to the electric Alternating Current, and any number of other adventures as both leader and sidewoman. In addition, she maintains a working trio with Mintz, in which she has also begun to feature herself more prominently as a vocalist.
 
In the 2018 Down Beat Critics' Poll, Piket was voted Rising Star in the Organist category and placed 16th in Rising Star Piano, while in the publication's 2018 Readers' Poll she placed 8th in the Jazz Artist category, 7th in Piano, and 5th in Organ.
 
Billy Mintz Roberta Piket
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Billy Mintz and Roberta Piket 
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Piket will be performing Billy Mintz's music with several duos -- including saxophonist Virginia Mayhew, valve trombonist Mike Fahn, and Mintz himself -- at Mezzrow, NYC, on Thursday 1/16/20.
 
Other upcoming shows: the Roberta Piket Sextet celebrates the music of Marian McPartland, with special guest Karrin Allyson, at Flushing Town Hall, Friday 12/6; a set of duos with Virginia Mayhew at Maureen's Jazz Cellar, Nyack, NY, Sunday 12/15; the Roberta Piket Organ Trio plays the music of Billy Mintz (featuring tenor saxophonists Tony Malaby and John Gross with Mintz on drums) at Quinn's, Beacon, NY, Monday 5/4/20.
 
In addition, Piket will be a sidewoman on piano and organ with the Billy Mintz Band (also including Rich Perry on tenor saxophone, Adam Kolker on saxophones and woodwinds, Curtis Folkes on trombone, and Hilliard Greene on bass) at Balboa, Brooklyn, Wednesday 12/18; Quinn's, Beacon, NY Monday 12/23; iBeam, Brooklyn, Friday 12/27; and Smalls, NYC, Saturday 12/28.  
 
 
Photography: John Abbott (Piket), Jason Kahn (Piket & Mintz) 
 
 
 
 
Domestic Harmony: Piket Plays Mintz 
Domestic Harmony: Piket Plays Mintz
 
 
 
 
 
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  • 5 months later...
Stay safe and healthy
c1fc163b-a883-4ff9-af31-c6eabf527524.jpg
 
Dear friends,
I hope that you are all safe and healthy. In times like this, sending out promotional emails seems a trivial pursuit. But I did want to reach out to let you know that Billy and I are okay. We've been practicing for an upcoming trio recording. Of course, we don't know when that will happen now, but every day we practice the music and take walks in the (appropriately) sparsely populated streets of our suburban Teaneck neighborhood.
 
I also want to tell you about an opportunity to get some music and help a great cause. If you purchase anything from the 13th Note Records web site through the month of April, we will donate the total proceeds to either Doctors Without Borders or the Jazz Foundation of America. This includes my new solo CD of Billy's compositions, Domestic Harmony, as well as any older CDs that are still in stock or available for download.
 
We won't even subtract the shipping charges or taxes before sending in the money. We will donate those charges out of pocket.
 
This offer applies to downloads as well as CDs.
 
 
Please stay safe and healthy during these difficult times.
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If you are experiencing financial hardship as a 1099 worker, I'm sure you've received information about applying for unemployment. What you may not know is that you can also apply for an Economic Injury Disaster Loan offered by the SBA.
 
1099 workers and sole proprietors can apply;
 
It takes 5 minutes to apply if you have the info gathered.
Biz name / start date / contact info / gross revenues and COGs (cost of goods sold) from 2/1/19 through 1/31/20
 
You can use this to pay your vendors, suppliers, etc.or as working capital to run your business. You can use it for rent or mortgage payments or to pay off other debt.
Payments are deferred for one year from the origination date. You have 30 years to pay it back so the payments will be manageable.
 
There's also a box to check if you'd like to be considered for an advance of up to $10,000. Check this box. If you decide not to take the loan, you don't have to pay back the advance.
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"Domestic Harmony is a strikingly sensitive tribute from one brilliant artist to another."
-Donald Elfman, NYC Jazz Record
 
My first solo piano CD since 2015, my new recording features the music of my husband, composer and drummer Billy Mintz.
Idy's Dance: A Jazz "Music Video" - Roberta Piket Piano Trio
 
Here's a video we did back in 2011 that still makes me smile. I hope it brightens your day.
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Domestic Harmony: Piket Plays Mintz
 
Check out the Video EPK for Domestic Harmony
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Find me on social media and share jazz with your friends:
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  • 3 months later...
CTCT-20190808_144346_0
 
Dear friends,
 
The Downbeat Readers Poll is now open and I’m on the ballot in two 
categories: Organ (18) and Piano (16)
 
If you feel I am deserving, I hope you will consider voting for me. It’s a small niche so, unlike in some elections, in this one every vote really counts.
 
While you don’t have to be a paid subscriber to vote, you at least have to subscribe to Downbeat's free newsletter which you can do quickly and easily. You don’t have to vote in every category but I recommend checking out the following artists who are nominated in the poll this year: 
 
Tenor Saxophone: Virginia Mayhew, Tony Malaby
Baritone Saxophone: Lauren Sevian
Flute: Jamie Baum, Andrea Brachfeld
Guitar: Vic Juris (the great guitarist we lost at the end of 2019)
Miscellaneous Instrument: Scott Robinson (bass saxophone)
Female Vocalist: Dena DeRose
 
 
The link below will take you directly to the poll:
 
 
As always, thank you for your support! I hope you are staying safe and healthy, and those around you are wearing masks!
 
Sincerely,
Roberta
 
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Get Some Good Music and Help Two Great Causes
 
Thirteenth Note records is continuing our donation campaign. Get some good music and help a great cause. If you purchase anything from the 13th Note Records web site in the month of July or August, we will donate the total proceeds to either Doctors Without Borders or the Jazz Foundation of America. We have CDs featuring great side musicians like Billy Mintz, Cameron Brown, Joe La Barbera, Tony Malaby, Steve Wilson, Karrin Allison and more. So please check out the site.
 
We won't even subtract the shipping charges or taxes before sending in the money. We will donate those charges out of pocket.
 
This offer applies to downloads as well as CDs.
 
 
Please stay safe and healthy.
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Cover.jpg
 
Mr. Mintz is an underrated composer, and these performances convey a warmth that goes beyond the collegiality of most jazz.”
Martin Johnson, Wall Street Journal
 
My first solo piano CD since 2015, my new recording features the music of my husband, composer and drummer Billy Mintz.
Idy's Dance: A Jazz "Music Video" - Roberta Piket Piano Trio
 
Here's a video we did back in 2011 that still makes me smile. I hope it brightens your day.
S.gif
Domestic Harmony: Piket Plays Mintz
 
Check out the Video EPK for Domestic Harmony
S.gif
 
Find me on social media and share jazz with your friends:
 
Thirteenth Note Records | 751 Palisades Ave. #62, Teaneck, NJ 07666
 
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