David Chesky

David Chesky functions as pianist, composer, and label proprietor, presenting refined performances that fuse jazz, European classical traditions, and the rhythms of Afro-Cuban, Brazilian, and wider Latin sources. Already a skilled artist in his twenties when he launched his first big band during the opening years of the 1980s, he later built a strong reputation for composing and arranging, issuing many recordings that range from solo piano projects such as The Fantasies in 1996, through expansive orchestral works including the 2007 Grammy-nominated Urban Concertos with the Symphony Orchestra of Norrlands Opera, to intimate small-group efforts like 2018’s Trio in the New Harmonic: Aural Paintings. With Songs for a Broken World in 2021 he broadened his approach to include larger orchestral and choral forces. His wide-ranging interests also shape his direction of the independent Chesky Records, which he established jointly with brother Norman Chesky; the siblings have overseen releases by Ron Carter, Joe Henderson, Paquito D'Rivera, Larry Coryell, Macy Gray, Babatunde Olatunji, and additional artists.

Chesky entered the world in Miami in 1956, began piano studies at five, and soon cultivated passions for jazz and classical repertoire. Early listening to pianist Oscar Peterson and the Buddy Rich Big Band was matched by formative exposure to Latin music, Brazilian bossa nova, and Broadway songs. Still a teenager in the mid-1970s, he relocated to New York City to advance his career, studying privately with classical composer David Del Tredici and pianist John Lewis of the Modern Jazz Quartet. In 1978 he assembled a fusion-oriented big band whose members included saxophonist Michael Brecker, trumpeter Randy Brecker, and keyboardist Bob James; the ensemble debuted on Columbia with the 1980 album Rush Hour.

During the same era Chesky turned to classical composition, with performances by the London Symphony Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and further ensembles. By 1987 he and his brother had launched the audiophile-oriented Chesky Records, which concentrated on jazz, European classical, and Latin music. Often serving as producer, David Chesky guided the label’s output of recordings by Phil Woods, Lee Konitz, Clark Terry, Paquito D'Rivera, McCoy Tyner, Tom Harrell, John Pizzarelli, and Fred Hersch. The catalog also emphasized vocal jazz and traditional pop through titles by Peggy Lee, LaVerne Butler, Christy Baron, and Rebecca Pidgeon, while Brazilian artists such as Ana Caram, Badi Assad, Leny Andrade, and Luiz Bonfá likewise appeared.

As a solo artist on his own imprint, Chesky began with Club de Sol in 1989 and The New York Chorinhos in 1990, the latter a collection of piano-and-guitar duets with Brazilian guitarist Romero Lubambo. He rejoined Lubambo for The Tangos and Dances in 1992, then continued with varied projects including the solo-piano set The Fantasies in 1996, 3 Psalms for String Orchestra in 1997, and Snowbears of Lake Louise in 1998.

Further releases appeared throughout the 2000s, among them The Agnostic, realized with conductor Stephanie Gregory and the Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra & Chorus. Urban Concertos, recorded in 2007 with the Symphony Orchestra of Norrlands, received a Grammy nomination for Best Classical Contemporary Composition. A related direction surfaced again with 2011’s David Chesky: Urbanicity; Concerto for Electric Guitar and Orchestra; The New York Variations. Jazz in the New Harmonic followed in 2013, featuring Chesky at the head of a quintet with Jeremy Pelt, Javon Jackson, Billy Drummond, and Peter Washington; the sequel Jazz in the New Harmonic: Primal Scream appeared in 2015. That year he returned to classical music with Joy & Sorrow, performed by the Chelsea Symphony, and in 2016 demonstrated large-ensemble writing once more on Orchestra of the 21st Century: The Venetian Concertos. A smaller configuration drawn from the earlier jazz ensemble, again with Drummond and Washington, issued Trio in the New Harmonic: Aural Paintings in 2018; España, a concerto for two guitars and orchestra, arrived the next year. In 2021 Chesky presented another expansive production, Songs for a Broken World, which incorporated contributions from Ute Lemper, Milan Milisavljević, J'Nai Bridges, and additional performers.