Joe Vincent Tranchina

Joe Vincent Tranchina, voted Hudson Valley 2010 Jazz Musician of the  Year in Times Herald-Record’s annual "Best Of" readers poll; recognized  for 20 years with the annual ASCAP Plus (Jazz Category) award for  “creative contributions to American music” and performances of his  original jazz compositions; an Honorable Mention (2nd place) winner of  the Women’s Choir Composition Competition, NY Sings: A Composer’s  Symposium; and, twice consecutively, honored by the Lehman Center for  the Performing Arts “Best of the Bronx” series with concert  presentations of his original work, is an established pianist, composer,  arranger, and accompanist.

Joe has performed in most of the major jazz and club venues  throughout New York City and the surrounding area, including Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola (Jazz at Lincoln Center), Birdland, the Oak Room, the  Blue Note, the Iridium, the Zinc Bar, the 55 Bar, the Lenox Lounge,  Shanghai Jazz and Trumpets. He has also performed in the concert venues  of Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center, Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie  Hall, Flushing Town Hall and Jazz Mobile, among others, and has toured  abroad in Germany, Switzerland, Greece, and Japan.

His media appearances include WKCR Radio’s “Som do Brasil” hosted by Jassvan DeLima, WBAI Radio’s “Stolen Moments,” host by Mahmoud Ibrahim;  television appearances include FOX News Network’s “Fox and Friends” and  the cable access programs of tenor legend Harold Ousley and the colorful  drummer Bernice “Boom Boom” Brooks.

The composer, and occasional lyricist, of over 1,000 compositions,  Tranchina’s work ranges from straight-ahead, fusion, and Brazilian jazz  to new age, world beat, pop and classical. The breadth speaks to his  incredible versatility as a musician. He composed the original scores  for Barbara Reiter’s documentary Significance, an interesting look at  the International Declaration of Human Rights, and Ryoya Terao’s  documentary Go Achilles, the PBS aired program concerning the annual  marathon for the disabled held in NYC. Apart from writing lyrics for his  own compositions, Joe has contributed English lyrics to the  compositions of celebrated German composer/big band leader Conny  Scheffel.

In addition to his extensive experience as an accompanist for  instrumentalists and vocalists, including his wife, Gabriele Tranchina, Joe has frequently accompanied master classes for vocal legends Mark  Murphy and Sheila Jordan. He worked for several years as a studio  pianist at South Park Recording Studio recording tracks for jingles,  educational disks, and dance schools.

On the music educational front, Joe has authored two books on music  theory: The Mixed Modal Approach to Contemporary Improvisation: A  Handbook for All Instruments (Studio P/R) and Linear and Structural  Improvisation in Conjunction with the Overtone Series (Charles Colin).  He currently retains the rights to both books.

Joe began his musical studies at the age of nine on accordion; his  parents asked him to choose between joining the Boy Scouts and lessons  peddled door to door by the local music school. His future held few  campfires, but many musical merit badges. At the age of 16, Joe had an  epiphany experience, “discovering” Jazz while scanning the radio dial.  He was immediately mesmerized by Ella Fitzgerald’s swinging voice,  followed directly after by John Coltrane’s tenor saxophone cosmic  explorations. The dial remained there. Joe’s life was changed. When a  family piano was purchased for the education of a younger sibling, the  teenager transferred his musical knowledge to the instrument, at first,  without much formal instruction.

Later, Tranchina, obtained a Bachelor of Arts in Music Performance  from Hofstra University, where he studied variously piano, composition  and voice. After graduating, he continued his musical studies with famed  teacher NBC Studio and jazz pianist Sanford Gold and jazz piano legends  Sir Roland Hanna and Harold Mabern; the two taught master classes  through Jazz Interactions, an organization sponsoring professional  workshops. Tranchina also benefited from ASCAP film and theater scoring  workshops with Paul Chihara.

Joe’s musical expressions have clearly been steeped in the vocabulary  of bebop, but he remains a daring and sensitive melodist; he is a  capable leader as well as a dependable sideman.