Josh Nelson
Pianist, composer and recording artist Josh Nelson maintains an active and creative schedule. He has performed and recorded with some of the most respected names in jazz and beyond, including Natalie Cole, Ivan Lins, Anthony Wilson, George Mraz, Jeff Hamilton, Walter Smith III, Dayna Stephens, Eddie Daniels, Gaby Moreno, Sinne Eeg, Richard Galliano, Michael Buble, Benny Golson, Sheila Jordan, Greg Hutchinson, John Clayton, John Pizzarelli, and Lewis Nash.
Josh has performed around the world and contributed to numerous recordings, films and television shows. He made an impressive debut with his first two albums, Anticipation (2004) and Let it Go (2007, Native Language Music), both of which garnered international critical acclaim. Josh’s third album, I Hear a Rhapsody (2009), featured his original compositions, interpretations of standards, and the re-imagining of some popular repertoire. Discoveries (2011), introduced a pairing of classic science fiction film footage with new compositions for a brass and wind ensemble.
Live performances of this music feature a video projection an immersive experience component as well, called The Discovery Project. Exploring Mars (2015) delved into musical themes about the Red Planet, augmented by spectacular NASA/JPL Martian video footage. Dream in the Blue (2016) featured Josh in an intimate duo setting with his longtime collaborator, vocalist Sara Gazarek. The Sky Remains (2017) delved into musical stories and themes originating from his hometown of Los Angeles (this album was featured on NPR’s “Jazz Night in America”). A trio of live albums followed, The Discovery Project Live in Japan (2020) Live at blue whale | Volume 1 (2021), and LA Stories: Live at Sam First (2023).
Over the years Josh earned many awards, scholarships, and accolades including the Louis Armstrong Award and the John Philip Sousa Award. In 2006, Josh was one of the 12 semi-finalists in the prestigious Thelonious Monk International Jazz Piano Competition. Josh toured the world for six beautiful years with the legendary vocalist Natalie Cole. He continues to tour and arrange for artists Kenny Washington, Lorca Hart, Sinne Eeg, Gaby Moreno, Alicia Olatuja, Tom Scott, Miguel Atwood-Ferguson and Christian Howes.
In June of 2023, Josh toured with vocalist/songwriter Rufus Wainwright at Disney Hall and other west coast venues. In September of 2023, Josh was part of Brazilian legend Ivan Lins’ latest album “My Heart Speaks”.
“A first-call accompanist and collaborator for the vocal elite, and a conceptualist who’s crafted smartly arranged musical love letters to everything from steampunk sci-fi to the City of Los Angeles as part of his ongoing Discovery Project, Nelson is a creative force
to be reckoned with. You just don’t really hear much about triangular pursuits in his portfolio. That’s what makes this live date such a find.”
words of acclaim
“Nelson’s triumph is essaying his personal obsessions in ways so musically pleasing that his songs and compositions stand on their own.….Songs and themes are lyrical; the ensembles and the vocals breathe and flow naturally, with canny spacing and thematic development… Nelson has composed a soundtrack for a movie yet to be made, but the music provides more than enough content for private mental projections.”
“Nelson manages to astound with a tectonic grasp of the mechanical in the personification of rovers, knobs of metal and radioactivity, and a dead planet far from here, as well as an impossibly human romanticism despite the barren odds in one accessibly melodic love song. He also concentrates his musical grasp of so many various styles in the 10 original compositions: the classical, the avant-garde, and his vast experience animating a vocalist’s soul while somehow able to animate themes, and ideas, and things far removed from his life.”
“Exploring Mars is fueled by a love of science fiction, intellectual inquisitiveness, and musical inventiveness of the highest order.”
“Nelson’s music creates vivid images… If “La La Land” was a salute to the superficial opulence of Los Angeles, Josh Nelson’s album “The Sky Remains” is the perfect antidote.”
- Thomas Cunniffe, Jazz History Online