Philip Aaberg - Biography
Jazz and blues pianist Philip Aaberg was one of the best known artists on the Windham Hill label and a progenitor of chamber jazz. Although Aaberg is famously reserved about sharing the details of his life, preferring the music to speak for itself, some details are known. Aaberg was born in northern Montana in 1949 and played in dance bands while in high school in Chester, Montana. He studied music at Harvard University on a Leonard Bernstein scholarship and, after graduation, moved to San Francisco, California. He played solo and in small combos in San Francisco blues clubs until joining the Elvin Bishop Group in 1973. He toured with the band for four years and played on the Bishop albums Let It Flow (1974 One Way), Juke Joint Jump (1975 One Way), Struttin' My Stuff (1975 Capricorn), and Hometown Boy Makes Good! (1976 Capricorn). He also co-wrote "Struttin' My Stuff" and “Hey Hey Hey” with Bishop. Aaberg soon became a sought-after session player and appeared on almost 200 albums with artists like Peter Gabriel, John Hiatt, slide guitar player Roy Rogers, and the Doobie Brothers.
In 1985, he signed with Windham Hill Records and released High Plains (1985 Windham Hill), a solo piano suite that brought elements of blues, bluegrass, rock, and new music to his meditative compositions. It was an immediate hit. Aaberg next composed the soundtrack for the Japanese film The Story of Naomi Uemura, directed by Junya Sato. The film was not released in the US but the soundtrack, released in 1986 as The Shape of the Land (1986 Windham Hill) and featuring Michael Hedges and William Ackerman, was a success.
1988’s Out of the Frame (1988 Windham Hill) augmented Aaberg’s minimal keyboards with strings and synthesizer textures. Aaberg jokingly called the following year’s Upright (1989 Windham Hill) his “dance record” as it balanced up-tempo numbers with his usual pensive style. Meridian (1990 Nature Company) balanced piano with natural sounds collected by eco-acoustic producer Bernie Krause. In 1992, Cinema (1992 Windham Hill) presented Aaberg’s interpretations of film themes from Heaven’s Gate, Romeo and Juliet, and The Shape of the Land. In 1999 he composed a score for Fritz Lang’s 1927 silent classic Metropolis, performing it at the theater in Great Falls, Montana. He plans to perform it at other venues in the years to come.
After winning the Montana Governor’s Award for the Arts in 1995, Aaberg went home to Montana to build his own recording studio called The Bin. He launched his record label Sweetgrass Music with the release of 2001’s Field Notes (2001 Sweetgrass), a collection of new meditative piano pieces with the exception of the traditional folk song “Sweet Betsy from Pike.” That same year, he appeared as a guest artist on the Mike Marshall Quintet’s Tasting the Wine Country (2001 Menus and Music), a promotional album made for the wineries in Napa, California.
His next album, Live from Montana (2002 Sweetgrass), won a Grammy nomination for Best New Age Album. Recorded live in Chester in 2002, Live from Montana features Aaberg’s latest permutations of his solo piano pieces. The following year, Aaberg recorded Christmas (2002 Favored Nations) in one take while awaiting the birth of his first son. The album includes expansive improvisations on Christmas hymns and several new improvised compositions. Blue West (2005 Sweetgrass) is Aaberg’s “soul album,” a collection of boogie-woogie, barrelhouse blues, shuffles, and his usual meditative pieces. 'CrossTime (2008 Sweetgrass) explores the music of Ravel, Beiderbecke, Gershwin, Anger, and McCandless with fiddler Darol Anger.
Between albums, Aaberg tours with the bluegrass band New Grange, and duos with fiddler Darol Anger and guitarist Roy Rogers.