1. For two and a half years, Bill Cunliffe taught music at Central State University in Wilberforce, Ohio.
22 Facts About Bill Cunliffe
1. 2.
Bill Cunliffe then toured as pianist and arranger with the Buddy Rich Big Band.
3.
Bill Cunliffe returned to Southern Ohio for a few years, where he was the "house pianist" at the Greenwich Tavern in Cincinnati, playing with Woody Shaw, Joe Henderson, Freddie Hubbard, Benny Golson and James Moody.
4.
Bill Cunliffe worked occasionally with Buell Neidlinger's group "Thelonious," and in 1990 joined the Clayton Hamilton Jazz Orchestra, and the Clayton Brothers Quartet, recording a number of albums with them.
5.
Bill Cunliffe worked in duo with jazz flutist Holly Hofmann, touring and recording on the Capri and Azica labels with her, notably, the session "Live at Birdland," with the great bassist Ray Brown.
6.
Bill Cunliffe has been a member of LaBarbera's quintet featuring saxophonist Bob Sheppard and trumpeter Clay Jenkins virtually since its formation in the early 1990s.
7.
In 2003, Bill Cunliffe recorded his Latin octet Imaginacion, on Torii, which reached No 2 in nationwide radio jazz charts.
8.
Bill Cunliffe is a Baldwin Pianos artist, and was Marian McPartland's guest on her famed Piano Jazz radio show in 1998.
9.
Bill Cunliffe led the Resonance Jazz Orchestra at the Playboy Jazz Festival in Hollywood, California, in June 2011.
10.
Bill Cunliffe accompanied pianist Marian Petrescu in selections from the Resonance Jazz Orchestra Plays Tribute to Oscar Peterson CD.
11.
Bill Cunliffe then published Jazz Inventions for Keyboard, short pieces in the style of the Chopin Preludes and Bach Inventions, with an accompanying audio CD.
12.
Bill Cunliffe has composed numerous works for big band, orchestra, chamber groups, and choir, and has been performed by many orchestras, including the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra, the Illinois Philharmonic, the Reading Symphony, the Rio Hondo Symphony Orchestra, the Manhattan School of Music Symphony, the Temple University and Cal State Fullerton Symphonies, and the Henry Mancini Institute Orchestra.
13.
Bill Cunliffe has written for television, and for film, including the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar-produced film, On the Shoulders of Giants.
14.
Bill Cunliffe composed a tuba concerto in 2011 for Los Angeles studio and orchestral tubist Jim Self.
15.
Bill Cunliffe recorded a piano and tuba version of the piece; the two versions are coupled on the Metre Records release.
16.
Bill Cunliffe is Professor of Music at California State University Fullerton, where he was honored as "Distinguished Faculty Member" in 2010.
17.
Bill Cunliffe has conducted numerous workshops and clinics as well.
18.
Bill Cunliffe is composer-in-residence at All Saints Episcopal Church, in Pasadena, California.
19.
Bill Cunliffe composes and performs with his trio, big band, and Latin jazz group Imaginacion.
20.
Bill Cunliffe won the 2010 Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Arrangement of Oscar Peterson's "West Side Story Medley".
21.
Bill Cunliffe received stipends from the National Endowment for the Arts.
22.
Bill Cunliffe won a grant from the New Zealand School of Music and the Rodger Fox Big Band of New Zealand released an album of Cunliffe's jazz orchestra compositions.