Jazz clubs across the nation thump
and wail with the
sounds of "straight up" jazz artists, serious about their art and
fluent in their idiom. Night spots across the country abound with
local lounge pianists who
play all the popular favorites, jazz or otherwise. Rarely does an
artist come on the scene, however,
who is both a "legit" jazz musician in every sense of the term and one
who "gets it," when it comes to pleasing an audience with diverse
tastes. James Dering is such an artist.
He has been compared to a rich array of pianists, from Oscar Peterson
and Harry Connick, Jr. to Yanni and Jim Brickman. No wonder,
after studying with Ellis Marsalis, Jr. (father of famed trumpeter
Wynton Marsalis and Connick's former teacher) and after all his years
of playing in the French Quarter, while at the same time playing for
functions and churches where "we don't
necessarily want all those jazzy chords."
"I credit my parents, both music teachers and performers, and my very
musically diverse family, as well as my past teachers, ever pushing me
to expand my
creative limits," says Dering, "for my fluency of styles. I also
credit job experiences: if you want to be true to a pop tune, you can't
play it using the usual jazz sounds any more than you can authentically
recite Shakespeare with a
Texan accent," one which surfaces ever so slightly when he spends time
in his hometown, near Dallas. "One learns this lesson on the job
quickly. Music is a language. My aim in performance is, as
completely as possible, to fully appreciate the many subtle dialects
there are within
it." This keen awareness, consequently put into his playing--
borne of a
phenomenal ear and a patient, self-analyzing nature-- are what
separates James from so many others and what leaves audiences stunned
and satisfied.
He's got the history: years as a regular on the New Orleans scene,
playing solo and with others for the Ritz Carlton Hotel, New Orleans
and countless other venues, including his years at the Mint Julep
Lounge, in the Hyatt Regency Hotel, New Orleans. Dering is a
regularly featured artist at the exclusive Mr. Lester's Steakhouse, in
Cypress Bayou Casino, found in Charenton, Louisiana. He has
played
for governors, celebrities, even the Secretary of the Treasury, and has
studied and played with some of the finest musicians in the
world. A prolific composer, Dering has written pieces for
orchestra, big band, choir, small chamber
ensembles, and solo piano. To hear him improvise is to truly
witness a composer at work.
He's got the skills: soulful swingin' rhythms of the deep South, fused
with the clarity and precision found in the jazz of the midwest, where
he studied for several years, and an impeccable technique betraying his
"classical" roots has this artist raising eyebrows and getting toes
tapping
wherever his travels take him. It is difficult to take in
everything he is, upon listening to just one tune.
He's got the credentials: with a Master's Degree in Jazz Studies and
most of his Doctorate of Arts in Theory and Composition under his belt,
James is the director of the music program at Grayson College, in
Denison, TX. Professor Dering takes his mixture of book smarts
and street smarts to every
gig, but that's all-- not a sheet of music in sight.
Have skills, will travel! Dering adds class and authenticity to a
venue: a well-traveled, seasoned artist, with a sound as diverse as his
background.
