Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Neil Cowley was born on November 5, 1972 in London, England. He began as a classical pianist and performed a Shostakovich piano concerto at the age of 10 at Queen Elizabeth Hall.

In his late teens Cowley moved into being a keyboardist for soul and funk acts Mission Impossible, the Brand New Heavies, Gabrielle and Zero 7. He also appeared as a co-composer and session musician with the jazz-rock group Samuel Purdey. An early album was Foxbury Rules, released under the pseudonym Diamond Wookie.

By 2002 Neil formed the duo Fragile State with Ben Mynott and after it disbanded, it became the Neil Cowley Trio. In 2006, he released an album called Soundcastles under the name Pretz.

Two years later the Neil Cowley Trio recorded cover versions of the Beatles’ Revolution 1 and Revolution 9 for Mojo magazine. In 2012, he appeared as the session pianist on Adele’s album 21. 2013 saw him as Musician in Residence for Derry, when it was designated the inaugural UK City of Culture.

His sophomore album Spacebound Apes was released by Neil Cowley Trio and in 2018 he announced that the trio was on hiatus and he was working on a new electronic focused project.

Contemporary pianist and composer Neil Cowley, who won the 2007 BBC Jazz Award for best album for Displaced, continues to work on his craft and new projects.

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