Mike Greensill Trio
At Bird & Beckett on Friday, November 6th, pianist Mike Greensill is joined in a trio by Brad Buethe on guitar and Carla Kaufman on bass, extending the celebration of his 81st year on the planet!
Sometimes what you want to hear is a great instrumental trio, though Mike has long been known and lauded as a superb accompanist for vocalists. That reputation is well earned and hardly a surprise, given his nearly four-decades-long run in tandem with vocalist Wesla Whitfield. That’s Wesla at right in the photo above, along with just a few of their many, many friends in the business — pianist Larry Dunlap and vocalists Bobbe Norris, Madeline Eastman and Denise Perrier, with drummer Vince Lateano sauntering by bemused in the background.
In the photo at right — Mike flanked by fellow pianists Dick Hindman and Dave McKenna — that’s one of the many teddy bears made by Wesla for Broadway Cares / Equity Fights AIDS.
Mike and Wesla began working together in 1980, married in 1986 and made twenty albums together in the years leading up to Wesla’s passing in 2018 — beginning with “Just for a Thrill,” featuring saxophonist Al Cohn, with Mike playing piano, arranging and producing; Paul Breslin on bass; and Vince Lateano on drums.
Mike and Wesla traveled the world with their music, celebrating the Great American Songbook with unforgettable and sparkling devotion. Mike was the pianist on Sedge Thompson’s KQED West Coast Live radio show for more than a decade until the show went off the air in 2018. Since 2020, he’s been livestreaming “jazz in the afternoon” on Facebook from his home every Thursday at 3pm. For years, he’s celebrated his birthday with an annual concert on Labor Day at Old First Church in San Francisco. And he’s played in every saloon of note in Northern California since he arrived from England via Hong Kong in 1977 at the ripe old age of 31.
Along the way, in his accompanist/arranger/producer role, he’s lent his elegant and witty support to superb singers from Madeline Eastman and Denise Perrier to Rita Moreno and Margaret Whiting, and most lately his newest partner, Gale Terminello.
Mike needs no vocalist to set off what he does at the piano, though it certainly brings out the best in him.
He’s an elegant, spirited and witty pianist & raconteur you’d do well not to miss.
Mike with Orrin Keepnews, photo by Rick Walsh
“Greensill is an accompanist in the great tradition of Jimmy Rowles and Ellis Larkins. It’s worth twice the price of admission just to hear him!”
Terry Teachout – NY Daily News
The San Francisco Chronicle’s Jesse Hamlin calls Greensill,
“The perfect accompanist.”
Phillip Elwood, jazz writer for the San Francisco Examiner states,
“Greensill is a wonderful jazz pianist.”
$20 cover charge; byob
Students $10
For a reservation, call the bookshop at 415-586-3733
Mike at Stars with lyricist Sammy Cahn