Pianist JOEL FUTTERMAN is recognized internationally as one of the foremost pioneers in the musical genre of free jazz and collective improvisation. A native of Chicago, Illinois, Futterman resides now in Virginia Beach, Virginia. He began studying classical piano at an early age and grew up playing bebop in Chicago’s after hour jazz clubs as a teenager. Joel quickly migrated to freer and less structured forms of musical expression. He owes a musical debt to such early piano innovators as Cecil Taylor, Thelonious Monk, and Andrew Hill. However, he stamps his own unique personality to his music by combining adventurous voicings, impassioned energy, and spectacular technique. His masterful technique is the product of a practice regiment of 8-10 hours a day on the piano. But for Joel, technique is invisible. It is only the means for total expression unencumbered by physical limitations.

Describing his approach to improvising, Futterman has said he anticipates only one or two phrases ahead of what is