Denny Zeitlin
| Denny Zeitlin | |
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| Background information | |
| Born | April 10, 1938 |
| Origin | Chicago, Illinois, U.S. |
| Genres | Jazz |
| Occupation(s) | Musician, composer, clinical professor of psychiatry |
| Instruments | Piano, synthesizer |
| Years active | 1952–present |
| Labels | Columbia/CBS Records |
| Associated acts | Denny Zeitlin Trio |
| Website | www |
Denny Zeitlin (born 10 April 1938, in Chicago, Illinois) is an American jazz pianist, composer, and a clinical professor of psychiatry at University of California, San Francisco. Since 1963, he has recorded more than 35 albums, including more than 100 original compositions, and was a first-place winner in the Down Beat International Jazz Critics' Poll in 1965 and 1974. In 2014, JazzTimes contributor Andrew Gilbert wrote that "by any measure, Zeitlin's creative output over the past 50 years places him at jazz's creative zenith."
Zeitlin grew up in the Chicago suburb of Highland Park. He began improvising on the piano at the age of two and was composing before elementary school. His father was a radiologist who played piano by ear. His mother was a speech pathologist and his first piano teacher. He began formal study in classical music at the age of six, switching to jazz in the eighth grade. In high school, he played professionally in and around Chicago, and by college at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, was playing with Ira Sullivan, Johnny Griffin, Wes Montgomery, Joe Farrell, Wilbur Ware, and Bob Cranshaw, among others. Mentors included pianist Billy Taylor and George Russell, while pianist Bill Evans, an early supporter, frequently recorded Zeitlin's composition "Quiet Now" and made it the title track of a 1970 album.
Signed by Columbia Records's John Hammond, Zeitlin began his recording career in 1963 while studying medicine at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, debuting as the featured pianist on the Jeremy Steig album Flute Fever, which also featured Ben Riley and Ben Tucker. Four Denny Zeitlin Trio albums for Columbia followed in the period through 1967. Trio members included Charlie Haden and Jerry Granelli. Zeitlin moved to San Francisco in 1964 to intern at the University of California, San Francisco, followed by a psychiatric residency.
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