Marc Sabatella is a jazz pianist based in Denver, Colorado. Whether playing with his award-winning band, in solo performance, or in partnership with other musicians, Marc emphasizes textural variety, energetic yet intelligent improvisation, and a creative sense of groove. The result is an intensely personal music that has proven to have unusually broad appeal. Marc has developed a strong reputation both within the jazz community and among musicians and audiences that would not otherwise claim an interest in jazz.
Marc's playing encompasses the entire tradition of modern jazz piano, with influences including Oscar Peterson, Bill Evans, Thelonious Monk, Herbie Hancock, Keith Jarrett, and Don Pullen. Marc is also influenced by the musical and compositional ideas of visionaries like Charles Mingus, John Coltrane, and Ornette Coleman. Marc incorporates elements of bebop, modalism, and free improvisation into his compositions and his playing, yet his music is always branded with his own instantly recognizable sound.
Marc received his MM in Composition with Jazz Emphasis from the Lamont School of Music at the University of Denver, where he studied with Dave Hanson and Eric Gunnison. He has also studied with Bill Kennedy at Florida State University, Susan Muscarella at UC Berkeley, and Art Lande, Jerry Granelli, and Cecil Taylor at the Naropa Institute. He currently teaches Jazz Theory and Aural Skills at the University of Denver, Jazz & Applied Piano at Regis University, and leads ensembles from time to time for the Colorado Conservatory for the Jazz Arts.
Marc has been playing professionally for almost twenty years, and his career includes performances with jazz greats Delfeayo Marsalis, Bobby Shew, John Fedchock, Allan Harris, Greg Abate, Red Holloway, Pete Christlieb, Marcus Printup, Wessell Anderson, Javon Jackson, Chico Freeman, Mel Martin, Sunny Wilkinson, Keith Oxman, Fred Hess, Ron Miles, Hugh Ragin, Art Lande, Phil Urso, Red Rodney, and Ira Sullivan. On the Colorado jazz scene, Marc has appeared at most of the major clubs, including Dazzle, Vartan Jazz, Sambuca Jazz Cafe, and Trios. For six years he was the house pianist at Denver's famed El Chapultepec, and he led the band the last two of those years. Marc has been featured in concerts produced by Creative Music Works and Destination Freedom: Black Radio Days, he has performed with the Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Ensemble, and his bands have played live on KUVO 89.3 FM. Marc has worked with most of the top musicians in the Denver area, and he has recorded with Hugh Ragin and Fred Hess.
The Marc Sabatella Trio won the 1996 Cognac-Hennessy Best Of Colorado Jazz Search, and Marc placed in the top 20 in the 1999 Thelonious Monk International Jazz Piano Competition. Marc's debut recording The Spanish Inquisition was released in 1997 by the record label Golden Horn Productions. Since then, he has released three more recordings as a leader. His latest recording is Determination, a hard driving quartet session.
Marc has been active on the Internet music scene for many years. Marc was the founder of the newsgroup rec.music.makers.jazz, and he is the producer of a compilation recording entitled An Internet Jazz Sampler, which comprises a dozen performances by various Internet musicians, including himself. Marc is also the author of the popular online text A Jazz Improvisation Primer, a freely browsable introduction to jazz improvisation that has been read by thousands of appreciative musicians and listeners since it became available in 1992. This work is used as part of the course material at several major colleges and schools, including the University of Wisconsin, and is now published by ADG Productions as a textbook entitled A Whole Approach To Jazz Improvisation. Marc is also the author of The Harmonic Language Of Jazz Standards.