George Maurer

From Minnewiki

Page contents

1 History
2 Bands
3 Discography
4 Audio
5 Related Web sites

History

George Maurer credits his parents’ act of rescuing an old upright piano from a barn as his earliest intimate experience with a piano.

The instrument had been misused to seduce chickens and cows. Thus the attraction.

That piano is now being restored by George Maurer, “Minnesota’s premiere jazz pianist” (KARE-11 TV, Minneapolis). “Maurer has a feel for his instrument that makes for an immediate emotional response...” (Minneapolis Star Tribune). He makes his music close to his heart, and his fans have been making it a part of their lives ever since his solo debut, Behind the Pine Curtain (Pine Curtain Records) in 1986.

George Maurer has performed nationwide as a solo performer- from the Ordway Theater in St. Paul, MN, to performances in Washington, D.C. for members of Congress, the United Nations, and the White House. He’s compiled a discography of 15 innovative solo piano and jazz albums, and his gentle humor and storytelling abilities, woven with original music, have garnered him several nominations for “Jazz Entertainer of the Year” nationwide on college campuses.

When George isn’t performing solo, he arranges for and music directs the George Maurer Jazz Group, a “rambunctious” (The City Pages/Minneapolis), irreverent gathering of nine jazz musicians, “one of Central Minnesota’s sparkling contributions to the arts.” (Dale Connelly/Jim Ed Poole/ MPR’s The Morning Program).

These “genre-bending eclectites” (Jazz 88 FM), are known for their "irreverent style and sly musical humor" (the Dakota Bar & Grill, Minneapolis). They hail from various locales from the outer backwashes of Central Minnesota, and their musical style is touted as “jazz beyond suburbia…..then way out.” (Leigh Kamman, The Jazz Image, MPR). They bend tradition whenever they can, even as live performers, and are featured regularly on Minneapolis’ KARE-11 TV’s Saturday Morning Program, and MPR’s Morning Program. See www.gmjazz.com.

Maurer is also a gifted composer and arranger for theater, rock groups, jazz ensembles, and film. His recent arrangements include string quartet work for the rock group Roger, members of G.B. Leighton, and Bobby Vee.

Maurer participated in the 2002 Twin Cities’ Wesley Balk Summer Institute, and has spent numerous summers and falls music directing and arranging for theaters around the Upper Midwest, as well as music directing and scoring for several Rough Cuts (Nautilus) showcases. In the Twin Cities, he has scored original music for Ms. Julie (10,000 Things), So This Duck Walks Into A Psychiatrist’s Office (Rough Cuts, Nautilus) and has scored and produced or performed for audio-books by noted Minnesota authors, including Jon Hassler (Staggerford, Rookery Blues) and Doug Wood (Old Turtle). Most recently he has been commissioned by the St Paul City Ballet to score a 30-minute jazz work for their 2006 season.

Maurer also is a skilled rock and roll pianist, and has performed with Eric Clapton at the House of Blues, Los Angeles; with Dick Clark, Bobby Vee, the Chiffons, the Crystals, Fabian, and Buddy Holly’s original band The Crickets, and with numerous other rock and jazz performers. Armed with an uncanny ability to interpret, arrange for, and produce and perform numerous musical styles; from traditional jazz to bebop, classic to modern rock, to country and beyond, Maurer is called upon often to be a hired gun for numerous recording and theatrical ventures.

Recreation-time for Maurer involves performing with the band Collective Unconscious, the Shake A Hamster Band and sailing the partially frozen lakes of Minnesota in a dilapidated, faded orange Hobie Cat.