7-10p | $10
about Becky…
Award-winning composer, pianist and recording artist, Becky Archibald will perform all new music from her soon-to-be-released Monteton Jazz Songbooks, inspired from her residency at the Dordogne Jazz Summer School in France. She will be joined by her talented friends from the Indianapolis jazz community: Jim Farrelly/saxophone, P.J. Yinger/trumpet, Jack Helsley/bass and Gene Markiewicz/drums.
“The need to express the musical fire that burns in the mind of pianist / composer Becky Archibald is relentless … — Chuck Workman, Indianapolis NUVO
Becky Archibald is an award-winning pianist, composer, recording artist, and educator. Spanning solo piano to chamber music to jazz, Becky’s music has taken her far – from Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall (solo debut, 2006) to a California house concert playing Frank Sinatra’s piano, to the Dordogne Jazz Summer School (DJSS) in Monteton, France (composer-in-residence since 2009.)
An Anderson, Indiana native, and a graduate of Anderson University, Becky received her Masters in Piano Performance from California State University at Long Beach. Her life took a new direction when she wrote a piano piece for her mom’s birthday in 1997—her first composition, Searching. Since then, Archibald written over 200 compositions, and has released 5 piano CDs – Searching (1999) The Long Ride Home (2001) The Light at the End of the Blues (2003) The Christmas One (2005) and Mood Swing (2007.) Scott Yanow, L.A. Jazz Scene, describes Mood Swing as “consistently intriguing.” Just Plain Folks, an international organization of independent musicians, selected The Long Ride Home as “Best Solo Instrumental Album” in their 2002 CD awards. And The Christmas One received a “Recording of Exceptional Merit” award in 2006 from Wisconsin Public Radio, WRST-FM. Becky’s music has been placed on cable and network television in the U.S., Canada, Finland, Croatia and Japan, and on radio stations around the country and overseas. “Her music unfolds like I expect a good story to unfold,” says Bob Boilen, creator of NPR’s All Songs Considered.
Another surprising turn in Becky’s career happened a few years ago . . . in France. Through a 2008 Creative Renewal Fellowship from the Arts Council of Indianapolis, Becky fulfilled a dream of immersing herself in jazz studies at the Dordogne Jazz Summer School in Monteton, France, where she wrote and premiered her first chart, “Midnight at Monteton.” Returning home to Indiana with new ideas, chords to explore and memories of the French countryside, Archibald dove into a flurry of writing. Becky is now in the process of recording a jazz CD, and with support from the Indiana Arts Commission, has published three jazz songbooks of her French-inspired music – “Midnight at Monteton”, “Monteton Blues” and “Once is Not Enough.” In France, Archibald has had the opportunity to perform her music with top players from the UK jazz scene, including Quentin Collins, Nic France, Jonathan Bratoeff, Dorian Lockett and Mornington Lockett. Jonathan Bratoeff, jazz guitarist/composer from France, and teacher at DJSS says, “Becky’s tunes have a very melodic, almost natural feel to them, great fun to play as well! She uses all the harmonic and rhythmic palette of a modern composer and you can hear a wide range of influences in her music.”
Becky has many friends to thank for bringing her jazz tunes to life here in Indianapolis: The Farrelly/Markiewicz Quartet (Jim Farrelly, Gene Markiewicz , Sandy Williams, Jesse Wittman) Dean Franke, P.J. Yinger, Ju-Fang Liu, Mark Ortwein, Kenny Phelps, Ty Stover, Jack Helsley, Dave Murray, Steve Dokken, Kevin Kaiser, David Bellman, Rob Dixon, Pharez Whitted, Greg Artry, Brandon Meeks, Tom Petersen, Dave Hampton, Greg Gegogeine, John Newby, and Gordon Brooks, as well as the Anderson University Jazz-tet, led by Mark Murray, and the Anderson University Jazz Ensemble, led by John Huntoon.
Becky received the Outstanding Music Alumni Award from Anderson University in 2009, and began teaching there in 2010 as professor of composition. For more information, please visit www.beckyarchibald.com.